How B2B companies can achieve disruptive growth through hyper relevance?

In the COVID era of disruptive markets, business leaders across industries are worried & anxious. They are experiencing new levels of concern around survival.

Driving growth is always at the top of everybodys agenda, but the path to success isn’t what it used to be. Customer loyalty, once taken for granted by big brands, has been upended by emerging technologies.

So how can companies stay relevant?

We think companies need to be agile, moving nimbly and continuously to accommodate customers’ ever-changing needs and circumstances. They need to embrace a customer-centric mindset in everything they do. More than relevant, I think they need to be hyper-relevant. And to keep them true to this purpose, organizations need to have a strong personality that underpins their staff behaviors and guides them, as they evolve. But, how do you achieve sustained growth at a time of unprecedented disruption? By becoming a hyper relevant business -one that continuously adapts to the evolving needs of its customers, and market conditions, with speed and at scale.

Todays customers have a lot of options to choose from when it comes to buying the product, service, or experience. They’re shopping around, more than ever before. We think that these customers are more likely to opt for speed and personalized service over a familiar brand.

So what are the keys to sustainable growth in this disruptive era?

Companies are spending more money than ever before in the pursuit of the next big idea, yet are not seeing a return on their investment. This is an idea era for startups & digital organizations who are thriving in this environment. They are hyper responsive to the needs of customers & are constantly offering more compelling, convenient, and highly personalized products and experiences. One research shows that 75% of consumers are willing to engage with digital startups even for their banking and financial service needs. Asset heavy infrastructures are finding it difficult to serve existing customers and attract new ones. Outdated marketing, promotions, and channel strategies, developed to exploit the ability to deliver volume at scale, have become growth barriers.

We think that the companies that are Rocking & Achieving Disruptive growth have developed five sets of capabilities. They are :

1. Ability to target new growth opportunities. 
2. They are built around Customers 
3. They are able to build engagement. 
4. They collaborate and grow with partners. 
5. They have a unique culture. 

So how to target new opportunities?

We need to identify and selecting newvalue and business models. It means putting money based on a better understanding of whether a new idea or opportunity really is worth pursuing. You will need to balance core growth with new ideas to fuel innovation. To fully develop this capability you must ask, “What is it about our company that makes us relevant to customers now?” Then, you must think about your brand’s identity & it's relevance to your customers. Companies should understand the changing digital needs of their customers . They should avoid friction in the customer experience & optimize costs elsewhere.

How to build around your customers?

There is a debate raging whether you should bring flashy or wow products or you should bring products which are cool and practical. Hyper relevant businesses know that these sorts of decisions are not binary. They also know how to meet different and evolving expectations. The “win” lies in finding the right balance in terms of delivering compelling new experiences & maximizing personalization. That's where you can rely in customer analytics and understand the contextual sensitivity of products and services.

How to build engagement?

This is about using all engagement channels to the greatest advantage and changing your companies operating models to test, build, and scale digital experiences that are relevant to customers. You need to be laser focused on outcomes in this area. You can use personalization and agile technology platforms to understand and improve customer experiences.

How to collaborate & grow with partners?

For disruptive growth you need to change your mindset from I to we and start establishing collaborative relationships with great partners. It's like building an ecosystem of growth. You should be able to share and select data purposefully and efficiently both internally and across a broad ecosystem of partnerships to achieve extraordinary outcomes. The key is 'data' and you need to move it fast.

How to create a unique culture?

We think companies should develop a workforce that combines the power of human minds with artificial intelligence. Putting customer first at the centre of your strategy you can skill employees to use AI and other technologies to their advantage. You should provide them tools to enhance customer relationships at scale.

About the author

Shantanu is the founder of an award-winning B2B business growth consulting firm & passionate about helping startups and mid-size companies grow better & faster. He has been empowering CEOs, CMOS and Sales Leaders of B2B companies build high growth firms. As a successful entrepreneur who has successfully built & sold multi-million $ business, he knows what it takes to really differentiate, scale & build a high growth company. Shantanu is also involved in building thriving communities, so in partnership with Dubai Government & leading brands, he has been organizing business growth summits like SME World Summit, Global Innovation Summit, Emirates NBD Global Business series etc. Over the last 6 years, he has brought together over 20,000 entrepreneurs & business leaders to learn the battle-tested strategies of building great businesses. Reach out to him to avail a free business strategy assessment session. Visit www.spigroup.ae to learn more.