Affiliate network is one of the most effective sales channels for products. Well built affiliate program allows manufacturers to ensure revenue growth, successfully develop new markets and expand their areas of presence. Most manufacturers with federal ambitions have grown through the development of affiliate sales. For example, a company 1C in many ways has become a leader in the field of enterprise automation in small and medium-sized businesses through the creation of an extensive partner ecosystem. What makes an affiliate program successful and attractive to the parties?

• Product in demand on the market.
• Attractive financial terms of cooperation.
• High level of service and flexibility of work.
• Support and training b2b partners.

In addition to these criteria, one important factor is often forgotten, which is often decisive. We are talking about the motivation of employees of partner organizations. This is especially true for markets with a high level of competition, where all manufacturers offer approximately same conditions for your partners.

In our practice, we have often encountered similar situations. For example, in one case we found that a partner's salespeople were more active in offering competitors' products to customers despite less attractive financial terms for the partner. The problem turned out to be that the procedure for ordering the company's products required more effort from sellers than when ordering competitors' products. To solve such problems, it is often used b2b loyalty programs. Similar programs are aimed at sales promotion through a partner channel and allow you to synchronize the interests of the manufacturing company, partner organizations and their employees.

The b2b loyalty program is designed to achieve the following goals:

• Increasing the motivation of employees of partner organizations
• Increasing the share of products sold in the partner's assortment compared to competitors
• Increasing awareness of the company's products among employees of the partner organization
• Reducing the cost of partner network management

Program Features

The main difference between b2b loyalty programs lies in its dual nature. On the one hand, it is aimed directly at partners as legal entities. On the other hand, specific employees of the partner organization interact with it, and they may have different official duties and, accordingly, diverse interests and needs.

Therefore, the b2b loyalty program is built on elements borrowed from various concepts– channel management, personnel motivation system, b2c loyalty program. If at least one of these elements is ignored in the design of the program, the chances are extremely high that the program will not work.

Errors in implementation

Our company is often involved in the audit and optimization of partner loyalty programs. Below are the main issues that we identified in the analysis:

• The program is not supported by the management of partner organizations. The conditions are unattractive, bonuses to employees are considered as a violation of the system of personnel motivation adopted by the partner. This is especially true for partners who simultaneously represent many manufacturers on the market. various categories(for example, distributors of building materials).
• Misunderstanding and / or ignoring the interests of various roles within the partner organization. Company management, salespeople or engineers all have different interests, needs and opportunities to communicate with the manufacturer.
• The complexity of the rules or the inconvenience of using the program. For example, in one case, the program was implemented on a site that was not adapted for viewing through mobile devices. At the same time, the target audience of the program was foremen of service companies who are on site and do not have desktop computers or laptops at hand.
• Lack of understanding of business processes of partners and their rules. It is impossible to take into account the characteristics of each of the partner organizations, but it is extremely useful to understand how their business and key processes are built in order to identify potential bottlenecks in a timely manner. Logistics is often such a bottleneck.
• Choosing the wrong communication channel. A typical example is the use Email for interaction with doctors has an extremely low efficiency. The reason is the low level of automation medical institutions, most doctors work the old fashioned way - they do not use a computer for work purposes and do not have a working e-mail even in commercial clinics.

Basic elements

Not many companies offer B2B loyalty program development services. This is due to the fact that each implementation is a unique project that requires deep immersion in the customer's subject area and its business processes. At the same time, there are basic elements that are inherent in any of the loyalty programs. We use our own methodology in our practice, consisting of four main layers. Let's consider them.

Loyalty Program Scenario

The scenario of the program should be extremely simple and not requiring serious efforts on the part of the partners' employees. At the same time, one of the main tasks of the loyalty program is to increase the attractiveness of the affiliate network. Therefore, the program should not exist independently from the processes of working with partners, but, on the contrary, be closely intertwined with them.

Participant motivation system

The main emphasis in the development of a motivation system should be placed on building trust in the program, since the management of partners, as a rule, has increased requirements for its transparency in terms of interaction with staff. It is also necessary to pay special attention to the development of individual incentive models for the various roles of the partner's employees.

Ways to Involve Participants

The engagement strategy is a critical component of the program. Members have a thousand and one reasons to forget or not use a loyalty program, especially if it does not involve instant returns. Therefore, it is essential to define an engagement and retention strategy before launching a program and adapt it as it is implemented.

Communication model

The main requirements for communications within the framework of the program are the availability of convenient feedback and an individual style of communication with various types and employee roles. Building sustainable and convenient communication channels with feedback allows you to influence not only the activity of participants, but also significantly reduce the budget for incentives. A typical situation - a company is trying to increase activity in the loyalty program through more attractive financial terms but does not achieve the expected result. During the analysis, it turns out that only about 15% of participants use the program. The rest simply did not learn about new profitable offers. The same participants who took advantage of the new offers actively participated in the program.

The implementation of any program or project can be compared to cooking a meal. It seems that all housewives cook according to the same recipes, but the taste of dishes can be very different. However, below are some tips for developing an affiliate loyalty program that I hope you find helpful.

Pay attention to communication with the leadership of the partner organization

In the absence of support from key people in the partner organization, it is difficult to count on the success of the program. This is a blocking factor that is often mentioned when the loyalty program is already running. Based on the size of the network, as well as the specifics and size of partners, it is necessary to determine the best way to convey information about the planned program and analyze feedback.

Integrate loyalty programs into company business processes

The synergistic effect from the launch of the loyalty program is achieved when it is integrated into the company's business processes, ranging from marketing ending with logistics and customer service. The program should complement and enhance the company's competitive advantage. Integration should cover Information Systems, job descriptions and employee KPIs. It is important to attend to the training of employees interacting with partners in a timely manner.

Motivate the right partner employees

Determine the roles of partner employees who most depend on the sales of your products and the satisfaction of end customers. It can be not only employees who communicate directly with customers. Often bottlenecks occur in supply chains or at the level of purchasing managers.

Develop and test a communication strategy with partners

Focus on improving the quality of communications with the partner's target employees. Determine the appropriate communication style, select relevant channels. It is important that messages within the program help participants achieve the goals of the program, and not just inform. A simple example is that a message about a bonus accrual may contain a short advice from the “Did you know that …” heading, or a link to an article describing a new line of company products with which this employee will work.

Combine various ways motivation

At the stage of analysis of the target audience of the program, it is necessary to identify the key types of partners, as well as the roles that directly or indirectly affect the sales of your products. As a rule, the model of behavior of small partners is more similar to the behavior individuals. In this case, it is advisable to use the motivation system inherent in traditional b2c loyalty programs.

Conclusion

B2B affiliate loyalty programs are not loyalty programs in the classic sense of the term. In addition to material motivation based on the “do A, get B” principle, educational elements can be implemented in them, as well as individual functions of the affiliate network management process that add value to the entire system.

B2B loyalty programs are not as popular as mass market programs. However, experience shows that such initiatives are a useful add-on to affiliate program. They allow you to increase sales through a partner channel due to a targeted impact on all links involved in the sales and service chain.

Many B2B companies still devote the lion's share of their marketing resources to acquiring new customers, not caring about retention. But the situation is changing with changing market conditions.

When the market grows by tens of percent per year, you can not worry much about retaining customers and reducing revenue. In mature and highly competitive markets, it is impossible to be a successful company without a clear customer retention strategy.

In this article, we will share 9 tactics to increase the loyalty of B2B customers and their employees.

Analyze customer feedback

Regular collection and analysis of feedback is the foundation on which a B2B loyalty management strategy is built. It makes no sense to plan customer retention initiatives if the company does not understand what is going wrong, what “bottlenecks” slow down the growth of purchases, what the customer’s employees think about the company.

A B2B client is a two-faced Janus. On the one hand, the organization entity with its own rules, procedures and interests. On the other hand, specific employees whose wishes, interests and goals must be taken into account. Decision makers are the main target for diagnostics by the company. At the same time, do not forget about ordinary employees. The retinue makes the king. According to Google research, in more than 80% of cases, ordinary employees directly influence decision makers.

Feedback from customers is an opportunity to honestly look at your company from the outside and understand what needs to be changed in order to become a more attractive supplier and partner.

Key questions to know the answers to:

• How satisfied are customers with the quality of products and services provided? How is the attitude towards the company changing?
• What needs to be changed in business processes to make it more convenient for customers to work with the company? Which clients are inclined to refuse the services of the company and why?
• What factors influence the decision making process?
• Who makes purchasing decisions in an organization?
• How does the company differ from competitors from the point of view of the client?

Use discounts

Discounts are the easiest way to encourage customers to make purchases from your company. This approach is best suited for companies where purchases are one-time and not tied to long-term contracts.

Keep in mind that discounts should be aimed at stimulating repeat orders, increasing the volume of purchases, and expanding the items consumed. Otherwise, your discount is an attraction of senseless generosity.

The discount system should clearly fit into your pricing strategy. If you dump, you reduce the margin of sales and the value of your products. Use discounts as a way to encourage and stimulate for something. Do not provide default discounts.

Offer special conditions for the most valuable customers

Differentiating customers by their value is the second most popular and easiest way to increase the loyalty of B2B customers. The company's goal is to focus on the most marginal and promising customers. Such clients are the main driver of the company's growth.

This does not mean that other customers should be treated with disdain. The tiering system allows you to create additional features and services for your most valuable customers without compromising other customers.

Most often, companies implement a system of levels tied to discounts that depend on the volume of products purchased. Such a model, of course, gives its result. But it will be more effective if the company thinks through the non-material aspects of incentives, as well as indirect material motivation.

When developing a tiering system, it is important to pay special attention to what customers need, what needs they have, how you can help the customer employees who interact with you.

Provide personal service

The most valuable customers should receive not only special conditions but also personalized service. Each such client should be assigned an account manager who oversees all relationships and is often a single point of contact.

Dedicated managers are an expensive pleasure, so the company must clearly calculate the economic feasibility of such a step. How much will sales increase? How much would a company like this service cost?

Companies that work with large clients with a complex decision-making model have key account managers on their staff. it required condition for successful business development.

For companies whose clients are representatives of small and medium-sized businesses with low volumes of purchases, the need to provide a personal manager is a matter of economic feasibility and operational efficiency.

Is it possible to do without a dedicated manager by automating business processes? There is a methodology called Account Based Management (ABM), where the main focus is on the personification of customer relationships. This approach characterized by a high level of automation of work with clients.

Activities related to lead generation, demand formation, communications, service are implemented automatically based on a constant feedback analysis. ABM radically changes the sales model and the requirements for the number and competence of managers involved in communication with customers.

When introducing new concepts, it must be borne in mind that even in the case of a high level of automation of client processes, there is still a need for managers. In B2Bx, personal relationships are extremely important, which, fortunately or unfortunately, cannot be automated. Therefore, the question of balance between a personalized approach to sales and automation always remains relevant.

Train and develop clients

The better customer representatives understand your product, the more loyal they are and the more they buy. Often main reason failure of the deal is not competitors, but low awareness and misunderstanding of the proposed solution on the part of the customer. This is especially true when it comes to innovative solutions.

Courses, webinars, e-manuals, research, trainings, useful publications are a tool for educating clients' employees. This is an investment in long-term relationships and their loyalty. In the learning process, the company receives feedback, assess needs, identify problems when interacting with its products and solutions.

Educational activities create added value that keeps existing clients and attract new ones. At the same time, educating customers is not only for high-tech companies. In any field of activity, there is something that is important to tell the client about in order for him to use your products or services more effectively.

Large companies can use training to develop their customers by giving them access to best practices and knowledge. This win-win strategy works great for loyalty. A number of Russian banks successfully use this approach in their activities.

Create additional opportunities

Access to additional features that are not directly part of the delivery or contract is a great way to strengthen relationships with existing B2B customers. Free access to a new product for a period of time, special conditions for receiving the service, personal promotions, access to useful materials and research are examples of such opportunities.

Additional service cements relationships with customers, creating stronger and partnerships. In addition, additional opportunities can and should be a way to expand customer needs and generate demand for the company's products and services.

Create a positive perception of the company

In B2B, the emotional factor plays an important role in decision making. Just irrational preferences are packed into rational justifications. Positive emotions "silence" doubts about the supplier or certain terms of the contract.

The formation of a positive emotional background is not a one-time task, but a purposeful and systematic work. The setting of tasks in this direction should be carried out at the same frequency as the supply planning. Use surprises, hold joint informal events, create occasions to once again please the client's employees and emphasize their value, professionalism and authority.

Active customer experience management (CEM) is one of the biggest trends in B2C. The main goal is to create a positive feeling from interaction with the brand. Perception depends on the quality of products, service and, last but not least, on the emotional background that the company forms around itself.

In B2B, customer experience management is no less an urgent task. How to evoke positive emotions when communicating with customer employees with your company? How to smooth out the negative moments that may arise during the interaction. Think about the answers to these questions and integrate the solutions found into your daily activities.

Give branded gifts

How to make sure that customer employees do not forget about you? There is an old but perfectly working way - make useful and beautiful branded gifts. Calendar, pens, flash drives, T-shirts and other accessories work for loyalty no worse than discounts.

Such customer rewards cannot be classified as a bribe. If you like them, they will remind employees of your company for a long time.

Tell the success story of your clients

How to praise a client so that it does not look like flattery? Tell his success story! Share information on your website and in the media, talk about case studies at conferences, publish joint research, and interview key customer representatives. Include such content in your content plan.

Such initiatives strengthen relationships with clients and create new opportunities for joint PR activities. The success story works great for building relationships with decision makers and experts. The case should emphasize the merits of specific employees on the part of the client. Career and professional growth of the customer's employees loyal to you strengthens the position of the company, creates opportunities for expanding cooperation.

The company is a major supplier of printing equipment, with subdivisions in Russia and Ukraine. The loyalty program, in addition to the discounts that the company provided to its customers, consisted in the fact that once a year it gathered 150-200 customers in the pretentious Crimean boarding house.

Guests were offered entertainment: sometimes it was a theme party, sometimes the company held a printing ball. Flight and accommodation in a boarding house were paid by the company. Film and pop stars were invited to the events. The budget of such holidays ranged from 100 to 200 thousand dollars. All printers went there, as it was fun and interesting, and most importantly, it was free.

Despite this, the program did not work, as clients also attended a similar program of the direct competitor of this printing company, which was held in a nearby boarding house with a small time gap. As a result, customers, having visited the events of both suppliers, went to the third and bought from him, as he offered them the best conditions.

Positive experience of the company's loyalty program from the b2b segment

The British printing company Haymarket produced weekly magazine for printers, which was called Print Week, but in addition to this magazine, she made a huge number of so-called brand extensions - various additions to this magazine: the magazine's website, free catalog all printing companies UK and so on.

The company also hosted an annual Print Week Awards ceremony for the best printing companies, to which it invited all of its printing clients. Ceremonies were held in Great Britain, Russia, Ukraine, India, UAE.

The budget was impressive - 250 thousand pounds. At the same time, Haymarket itself spent approximately 20-30 thousand pounds on the event. The rest was collected by attracting sponsors - these were also companies from the industry aimed at an audience of printers: suppliers of equipment, consumables, paper, each of which paid 10-15 thousand pounds for the right to become a sponsor of the event.

Annually 1200-1500 printers gathered at this event. The event was held at a high professional level, the dress code worked - for men the visit was allowed only in tuxedos. And it has worked for Haymarket for many years. Such events are beneficial both for the organizer and for clients and sponsors.

How can loyalty programs be formed in b2b

Since customers in b2b want to feel not just a privilege, but also significant benefit, both bonuses and discounts are important here. Therefore, it is possible to provide for simple discount programs and discount cards (with a fixed or cumulative discount, when the discount increases in proportion to the order quantity).

It can also be incentive programs when customers accumulate special points that can no longer be exchanged for the products that the client orders from you at the moment, but in the future can be exchanged for other goods or services. These are the so-called coalition programs, which provide an opportunity to cooperate with other companies, for example, banks, and give the client more value.

Cash back program - when your customer accumulates points and receives an additional discount or voucher for the next purchases.

In b2b, the information support program works quite strongly - this is access to exclusive information or services that you can provide to your customers.

When sales are conducted not only on their own, but also with the help of distribution networks, partners can be helped to advertising campaign locally or organize joint marketing, such as joint participation in an exhibition.

Dealer staff can be trained. Club programs, as the Haymarket example shows, work great in b2b. One of the reasons is that in the b2b segment, companies operate in certain niches where people need to feel like they are part of something great. And if the client is a member of your club, then he receives privileges in the form of assistance in various directions.

For example, we often different countries business breakfasts for our clients. And recently we launched an educational project - a series of free online webinars for clients that cover only hardcore business development topics, and we regularly invite the best practitioners from the CIS to them, thus offering additional expertise to our clients.

Club evenings, business dinners will allow your customers to feel your care for them, to feel that you are giving them something more than just a product or service, that members of this club occupy a more sustainable competitive position than just market participants.

Here are the most successful loyalty programs found in b2b.

Marketing reimbursement

The manufacturer of water treatment systems, BWT, offered its distributors to share the costs of promotion. Dealer launching outdoor advertising or publications in the media, provided the company with an advertising layout. If only BWT products were mentioned in the layout, the company paid half of the costs, and if products from other manufacturers appeared there, then its share in the costs decreased as a percentage depending on the number of manufacturers mentioned in the advertisement.

Special conditions for large clients

Loyalty program for corporate clients under this name, he developed the Yutinet.ru online store. It is built in such a way that customers can not only use the usual discounts, but also buy goods that are not in the catalog by ordering them through a personal manager. They also get access to a free cloud service - with its help system administrators, employees of ACS services and accountants of client companies can keep records of the material assets owned by the enterprise.

Bonuses for the company and its employees

IT company TechAccess offered customers to accumulate bonuses for contracts. These bonuses can be spent both on entertainment and on useful services for business. Members bonus program can choose between a Mediterranean cruise, a stay in a five-star hotel, a visit to Formula 1, and the opportunity to take part in various conferences and trainings.

Etihad Airways launches Etihad SuperSeller program to boost employee loyalty travel agencies: selling business or first class tickets, the agent receives bonuses in the form of miles, which he can exchange for free tickets for himself or spend on gifts from program partners, of which there are about 200.

Additional services

The Allbiz company has developed a special loyalty program for its dealers and called it “Hunting for Allbiz”. The best dealers now have the opportunity to receive free Additional services, which were paid for end users. For example, a teaser advertising package on trading platform, or additional tools to raise the product in the rating of the product catalog. Thus, dealers got the opportunity to earn extra money on this. The benefit was both for the client - he received more services for the same money - and for the dealer.

“Are you doing well? Have a good time"

Before launching the program, Cordiant marketers did a lot of work - they found out what they are interested in the target audience companies. First, the clients found out how they are interested in spending their free time (go in for sports, gardening, tourism, cars, etc.). Then we chose the most popular categories and created a “hobby shop”. It is located on the website of the company itself. In this store, members of the program can spend the earned points on their favorite activity.

Also, points can be obtained for participation in distance learning programs.

Charity

The well-known manufacturer of calculators and printers "Citizen Systems Europe" has developed a loyalty program for its partners and called it "Citizen Consul Club".

Useful Services

"OfficeMax" - one of the major US suppliers of office supplies, has launched a loyalty program "MaxPerks" (English perks - privileges, allowances, benefits). Its action is aimed at representatives of small businesses, principals of schools, colleges and teachers.

Content of the program: When purchasing goods in the OfficeMax online store, the program participant receives back part of the money spent on his account in the same store in the form of dollars. The money you earn can only be spent there. In addition, members can earn a dollar for every OfficeMax cartridge they recycle. Thus, a program participant can earn up to $100 per month.

Incentive programs in B2B are nothing new. Dialogue between partners in the format “from you - purchase, from us - a bonus” has been going on for a long time. However, in an environment where competing brands produce goods with similar parameters, it is necessary to restructure communication, supplementing it with new knowledge and values. So what is modern program loyalty in the B2B segment?

Building a loyal audience is key task facing current B2B marketers. It is an extensive loyal audience that allows you to increase your customer base through recommendations and, as a result, create new sales opportunities.

However, the B2B sector is now more concerned with sales volume than with retaining existing customers and encouraging them to repeat purchases and expand partnerships. This problem concerns the majority of players in the entire sector, whose specialists already have a vital need to shift their attention from the product and internal business processes to customers and interact more effectively with them.

Undoubtedly, one of the most important tools here is a competent loyalty program, which clearly articulates the objectives, defines the target groups and ways of dialogue with them, and provides for the possibility of providing relevant, personalized proposals.

It should be noted that in Russia the segment of loyalty programs in B2B sales is not yet widely developed, but it is here that the need for it is especially acute, since attracting new business partners requires significantly more investment than building customer loyalty in the traditional sales segment. And here the losses are especially noticeable. In the face of intense competition in the industry, when many companies produce products with similar parameters, it is especially important to deepen the dialogue with retailers, intermediaries, wholesale buyers, expanding their knowledge about the brand, its values, product benefits and catalog novelties.

If you look at it, interaction with customers in B2B has a lot in common with how a brand interacts with a buyer in the B2C segment. There is a buyer, there is a product, there is a need for the buyer to get in touch with the brand more often and distinguish a certain company from competitors due to a deeper immersion in its values, more voluminous knowledge about its advantages and novelties. And if in the B2C segment the loss of one or two customers does not affect effective work company, then in B2B it can have quite serious consequences.

Goals of loyalty programs and their evolution

To begin with, sales promotion programs have been around for a long time, and they have some elements of what can be called a “loyalty program”. And their “maximum” tasks are similar: attracting new customers and creating conditions for retaining existing partners. However, in a finer setting, the goals of an incentive program and B2B loyalty programs have fundamental differences and undergo fundamental changes over time.

Historically, most B2B incentive programs have been launched as short-term, and aimed at achieving certain KPIs, such as sales of specific SKUs, assortment optimization, shelf space competition, or improved presentation of a particular product. And when partners act in accordance with the requirements of the program, they receive a certain set of bonuses. The program has its own limited duration, at the end of which an analysis of its effectiveness is carried out.

The main disadvantage of this approach is the impossibility of continuous analysis of the effectiveness of the business partnership, since the joint program has a limited validity period (year, quarter, etc.), and is not related to subsequent and previous activities. The process is often not automated, and manually extracted data reflects only the actions of business partners within fairly limited tasks. Under such conditions, marketers are constantly faced with the impossibility of a deeper analysis of the effectiveness of the interaction. And, as a result, they cannot expand it.

Moreover, such an approach has often become (and becomes) the cause of abuse and tricks, for example, in order to receive bonuses, a retailer purchases products with a margin, after which they do not purchase at all for a long time. Agree, in such a scenario it is absolutely impossible to carry out a clear, systematic work, planning financial flows, the load on logistics areas and other segments of the company's activities.

Due to the same fragmentation, companies cannot assess how one campaign affects another, and which particular techniques affect partners more effectively. The analysis is based on the results of a specific campaign, and does not consider the entire system of promotional activity. In addition to this, manufacturing companies are increasingly saying that they would like to include new options for partner activity in the interaction program, but their desires are not reflected in traditional mechanics.

The main disadvantage of existing sales promotion programs is that they do not in any way affect the deepening of knowledge of intermediaries and buyers about the values ​​of a particular brand, its innovations and production features. We can say that customers deal exclusively with the final product. And the risk that a competitor will start producing the same product and provide no less favorable conditions is quite high.

Raising product awareness has become a new trend in loyalty programs for the B2B sector. Immersion in product features leads to increased sales, as customers not only become more knowledgeable about product features, but gradually take on the role of so-called “advocates” for a particular brand. This, in turn, sets the manufacturer apart from the competition and gives it a strong advantage.

The desire to expand the scope of partnerships and deepen customer awareness of the final product has led to the emergence of two new elements in modern B2B loyalty programs:

• Continuity and transparency

Partners need to understand exactly what they need to do to stay active in the program and how they can maximize their benefits over an extended period of time.

• Increasing the number of touchpoints

The manufacturer and retailer can be useful to each other not only in the context of SKUs and bonuses received. Thus, the brand can receive information about end consumers, and the retailer, in turn, can quickly receive data about its offers, new products, catalog updates, and use them to optimize the assortment. Both are possible due to the creation of a special communication environment, the center of which is in activities that, in a certain sense, lie “above trade”.

And the main question: how to get the supplier to actively participate in the life of such a platform?

How to implement it? – case

An American multinational company with more than 90,000 employees worldwide was looking for a new way to interact directly with retailers and wholesalers. Knowing that partners are actively purchasing similar products from other manufacturers, the company wanted to increase buyer engagement, as well as increase brand awareness and customer loyalty.

The task was not easy - to find new format dialogue with intermediaries and wholesale buyers in the form of providing them with understandable and interesting content. The company launched a new website and wanted to make sure that partners visit its pages more often and regularly take part in activities that help increase brand awareness and a clear understanding of its values ​​and advantages against competitors.

It was not easy to find a reliable solution provider whose loyalty and engagement program will help automate marketing activities and build an effective and, most importantly, original concept.

You received the first order from a new client, and now the question arises, how to keep it? How to make cooperation long-term and mutually beneficial? I won't cover popular legitimate loyalty methods like discounts and bonuses, or dubious ways like personal gifts and kickbacks. Let's try to figure out how to achieve loyalty by the correct organization of relations.

1. Look for interested people. First of all, you should understand one very simple thing - in b2b there is no company loyal to you - there are always only people loyal to you - employees of the client's company. And this is very important, because all your discounts and gifts may miss the mark. You communicate with the management, while the employee of the customer is dissatisfied with your employees. You communicate with the customer's employees, while the management does not understand why so much money is being spent on your company. Both can cause relationship problems.

2. Keep your promises. Probably the most important thing in a relationship with a client is to regularly keep your own promises. Actually the employee who calls those. support, no matter what the incident resolution time is recorded in the SLA. Of course, he needs an answer: “Already!”, But he is internally ready for: “In 2 hours.” Do not try to embellish your actions under pressure from the client - do not promise to fix everything in 30 minutes, then in another 30 minutes, etc. - the client will remember that you are not able to fulfill your own promises. And by the way, SLA is also a document with your promises.

More importantly, honesty project work. If something needs to be done today, is it necessary to do it today, or at least warn the client about the client that, for objective reasons, this can only be done tomorrow? Is tomorrow a realistic deadline for you?

3. Guarantee quality and stability. With long-term cooperation, the client expects the same high level of quality at all stages of work. If your best specialist worked with him today, then tomorrow he expects your service to be no worse. Moreover, a high level of quality is in your interest. Making sure that regardless of the degree of control, you do your job well, the client will end up being less demanding of your work.

4. Establish relationships. Do you know who your customer is? The key person in your relationship with the company with the customer is the person who is personally interested in what you do - this can be your account manager, company director, head of IT service, etc. Take a closer look at those with whom you and your employees communicate most often. What do you know about these people? Chat with them informally. Yes Yes! Ask about the weather, children, etc. tell a suitable anecdote ... Find them on facebook, vkontakte or classmates. Are they not there? Send them an invitation. Happy holidays. New Year- a great occasion to write a personal greeting, but a birthday is even better - that's why you need a social network.

5. Exceed expectations. Compliance is necessary, but not sufficient. Be proactive. If you know what could be causing the potential problem, fix the problem. Take preventive measures. You see an effective solution that will reduce costs and relieve the client's headache - offer it. Some of this may be a good PR move for you, some of it is a great reason to re-sell. However, do not get carried away with this - remember, first of all, stability and keeping promises.

Loyalty test

• Who uses your product/service at the customer?
• What is the benefit of your activities at all levels of the customer company?
• Does the management of the customer's company know about you and what problem you are solving?
• Why is it beneficial for an IT manager to work with you?
• Why is an account manager comfortable working with you?
• What employee problem are you solving?

Large companies have several more popular ways to increase customer loyalty: invitations to conferences as speakers, invitations to foreign conferences as speakers and participants, publication of interviews and success stories in the press, etc. You may not be hosting an overseas conference, but inviting a client to speak at your event or write an article about yours successful project you may well.

Comments (7)

Rubinshtein Kirill , 14 September 2010, 18:12

Perhaps the most important thing from the note is that loyalty is not with companies, but with specific people. It is important to correctly understand who makes the decision to work with you + those people whose opinion he listens to. It is on them that all efforts should be directed (in terms of increasing loyalty). About quality and stability, perhaps, I will say a little differently. It is important for the client to know that there is a person in the IT company who is on your side - the PM of the project. And the customer must understand that this person controls the situation and informs about all possible problems in advance. Those. if a fakap is planned, report it not after the fact, but in advance. And, of course, the deadline named for the second time must be adhered to. And in general avoid frequent fakap :). Just making a delay is not always scary if you knew about it in advance, warned the client and were able to fix it on the second promise to do everything right on time. Constant delays are, of course, a very big evil. It's about random. And never exceed your expectations! They quickly get used to the good, and if at some time it is no longer possible to exceed expectations, it will be perceived as a fail. Although you worked quite well for yourself within the framework of the contract (legally, everything will be fine, but the sediment will remain). Sometimes, when the customer has deadlines and you need to do something faster than agreed, you can push yourself. At the same time, clearly inform the client that for this we will put a lot of effort, but since we love you, we will do it. But this does not apply to the term "exceed expectations". And, most importantly, communication, communication and more communication. If all your communication with the client comes down to business formalized correspondence within the framework of the project, and only engineers who have left to fix the problem meet with him, then everything is bad.