Remember: 2.4x, 2x, and 700%.

During the pandemic, we witnessed an inflection point where customers dictated how they communicated with company sales teams. This forced B2B CMOs to implement an omnichannel communication strategy to reach customers. In the AI era, I believe customer obsession, not shareholder obsession, is the price of admission for firms to achieve shareholder value in a competitive marketplace.

Firms that prioritize the customer’s needs, desires, and satisfaction above the business’ actions and decisions, are customer-obsessed, according to Forrester.

Forward-leaning CMOs who take a customer- obsessed approach will:

🔄 Realign the organization: Product Management, Product Marketing, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success will be aligned around the customer, not the product or sales. This ensures the entire company is unified when meeting customers where they are to understand their motivations and anxieties throughout the customer journey.

🚀 Use AI to drive parallelism throughout the Go-To-Market process: Product Management won’t solely own the discovery process, sharing insights sequentially once the product is available. AI, as a forcing mechanism, will drive parallel discovery processes requiring Product, Product Marketing, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success to uncover customer insights together as one team. It will also empower the team to speak to the customer with one consistent voice.

🧠 Organizational upskilling is not just a choice; it's a necessity: Understanding the progress the customer wants to make means the company must become fluent in the Jobs-To-Be-Done and Customer Experience frameworks. It is a prerequisite for B2B companies to identify customer desires and how customers, not the company define value. Emotional barriers are removed to deliver an excellent customer experience, something algorithms can't feel.

Firms that take a customer-obsessed approach can focus on achieving the following outcomes:

💹 2.4x increase in revenue growth because they've aligned their customer-facing functions.

📈 2x increase in profitability growth because they've removed the barriers associated with B2B group buyer behaviors. Deep insights into why customers hire and fire, their anxieties, and their goals will help CMOs personalize the customer experience.

💰 700% ROI over 12 years, according to Forrester. This will allow firms to increase market share and separate themselves from the competition with a unique B2B customer experience.

The era of feelings and AI is here. The B2B CMO who implements a customer-centric strategy that centers the customer and their feelings while harnessing AI to automate and optimize customer experiences will own the long-term customer relationship.

Are you ready to become a customer-obsessed firm?