CMO & CCO: Untapped Tech Value

AI is hot. Non-stop for the past 25 years, technology for experience management and marketing have been super hot since CRM arrived on the scene. Especially in hard times like the 2009 global financial crisis and the 2020 global pandemic, demand for tech skyrocketed. I lived in Silicon Valley for the past 3 decades and saw the inside story across a wide variety of applications. We turn to tech for many reasons -- and we expect a LOT from tech.

Why We Expect a Lot from CX/CS/Marketing Tech

Why? Aside from wonderful capabilities, efficiencies, and solutions offered by tech, usually:

• Tech is the first major decision of new leaders in CX, CS, and Marketing.
• It gobbles up most of the budget along with dedicated staffing to run it.
• Reliance on it affects customer experience, reputation, efficiency and effectiveness -- as both strengths and weaknesses.
• Tech providers' Customer Success teams strive to keep us engaged in a variety of meetings, messaging, webinars, etc.
• When executives ask for proof of ROI, there is a risk of losing funding -- or losing a lot more than that.

On the tech provider side, new logos are a constant quest, but SaaS models mean renewals are a top priority. During a multi-year contract, a lot can happen in the client side: shifts in decision-makers and approvers and criteria make it dicey to get renewals. The ever-expanding tech landscape means a wider set of competitors grapple for clients' budgets.

On the consultant side, fast-paced change in tech makes fascinating studies to sell. Overwhelm, frustration, or expansion among tech buyers creates consulting gigs. Tech providers pay to play in a variety of think tank / analyst endeavors. So, there's a lot of money at stake for everyone.

Solving Buyers' Regret in CX/CS/Marketing Tech

This week I was invited to comment about Gartner study findings: 60% of technology buyers involved in renewals regret every purchase. B2B technology buyer negative sentiment:

• Buyer renewal champions are managing a frustrating chain of decisions during renewals and expansions.
• Buyers prefer to have minimal interactions with sales teams.
• Champions seek online resources about increasing user engagement and satisfaction, optimizing tech implementations, pricing, ROI and service.
• Dysfunctional online buyer enablement creates negative sentiment and buying fatigue.

My recommendations for resolving this conundrum differ vastly from all other experts who commented, including Gartner. Everyone wants to revisit the buyer journey, increase empathy, and educate customers better. Here's what I recommended:

1. Time is precious, so the more intuitive and issue-free B2B tech is, the more valued it is. While Customer Success builds-in onboarding, check-ins, etc., users prefer minimal interaction to save time. So, MVP and non-agile product design are at the root of this time-suck.
2. Customer segmentation needs to be revised by natural expectation sets instead of roles and verticals. This is based on a recurring theme across the end-to-end journey. You discover these segmentation criteria by listening/mining what customers are saying. Then, you'll find that instead of numerous role and vertical personas, there are actually 2-4 overall expectations personas. Cater communication and features according to these.
3. Ideal Customer Profile needs to be revised to reflect expectations segments and personas, along with cost to serve. Don't just look at lucrative revenue potential. Pair it with cost to serve, to identify the true sweet spot for your company's growth. Otherwise, biz dev is putting a black eye on your reputation, because you're selling to wrong buyers in the wrong ways. It's causing friction and unnecessary costs.

Nobody else is talking about root cause solutions like this, but you'll find much more like this in my self-paced e-consulting:

Experience management technologies can grow monumental value in unexpected ways. ClearAction's Tech Buyers Guide revolutionizes mindsets, metrics, messaging, motivations, and momentum.

You’ll know how in just 3 hours, in self-paced or live e-consulting.

• For?buyers: expand value of your tech far beyond its functional objectives.
• For?providers: ensure renewals, expansions, and magnetism through usage maturity.
• For?consultants: lift mindsets above tech-specific models to strategic business impact.

Normally, you'd pay one of the big-name consultancies tens of thousands for advice like the 3 points I recommended above. However, this conundrum is too rampant, costly, and vital to experience excellence to have such a costly and time-consuming hurdle, and furthermore, their mindset is plainly not on this path.

In just 3 hours and for less than $100 per hour, you can radically change your outlook on technology -- with much greater value potential from your tech than you've ever imagined. See ClearAction.com/tech to learn more.

This is a glimpse into what you gain from?ClearAction Experience Leadership Mastery.

Experience Leadership?is a phrase coined by author?Lynn Hunsaker. You'll gain far more value in your Touchpoint Management and Experience Management programs AFTER your organization has learned Experience Leadership Mastery.

Experience Leadership Mastery sets you up for success. It's fast: 2 to 10 hours. It's affordable. It minimizes disruption: 90-minute segments or smaller. It shifts you from outdated 2010s mindsets and practices to?urgently needed modernization and much higher trust and value of all kinds.

What You Can Do to Master Experience Leadership:

1. Get a?sounding board?for work you have underway.
2. Request a?rapid action template session?to kickstart progress in any area.

1. Enroll your senior leadership team, board, and council in our 2-hour?C-Suite Guide to CX Growth?session.
2. Set Experience Leadership?as foundation?for all experience managers (customer, employee, partner experience) to learn the full spectrum of vital skills:?Foundational,?Intermediate,?Advanced. (click to see 5-min. demo!)
3. Build "brand integrity influencers" by enrolling your whole department in the?Experience Value Exchange.
4. Join?live sessions?-- just 90 minutes any week(s). You can skip any weeks to rely on the self-paced version. Attend any future session at no charge. Live sessions are scheduled only when 5+ people request the same day/time. (Our webinars are free, but?this is truly high-value?e-consulting: super-rare advice you'll want to return to repeatedly throughout your career.)

Testimonials:

This resource is certainly among the best CX content I’ve ever found. It unites concepts and application. It’s a CXM system connected with business results. Thank you very much for your attention and interaction throughout the process.

I am so grateful for all the learning, and I have already referred my colleagues to ClearAction.

It's a well-structured resource, packed with high quality materials to ensure participants get an in-depth understanding.

I will enroll in all of ClearAction's e-consulting!

Super LIKE! Well-rounded, great way to learn. It has given me a more cemented view in my role. It has amazing practicing techniques. I can't imagine any more useful online resource.

I highly recommend ClearAction! You’ll sharpen your focus and come away with more knowledge and actionable insights and tools you can apply on the job the next day!

I’ve been through 4 modules so far and your materials are really excellent!!! I love it. I just wish I would have used it before.

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