Steve Paul, Vice President of Sales and Commercial Operations at Breg is the featured guest on episode 191. Breg is a manufacturer of sports rehabilitation products and solutions. Steve is responsible for a global team that drives customer acquisition and retention. My conversation with Steve is focused on a business challenge that all businesses face – winning and keeping customers for long-term sustainable value. We all want to win and retain customers. On this episode, Steve explains how the customer segmentation and customer mapping process have enabled Breg to increase from 50% to 70% of customers being on a retained solution program.
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Strategizing Around the Business Challenge
Steve has been in this role at Breg for five years and has noticed how the markets shift, and the customer landscape continually evolves. He says everyone calls on the same customers within the industry and offers what looks like similar offerings. Breg wanted to figure out how to differentiate between the traditional brand proposition and value-added solutions.
Their approach started with looking at their existing customer base and competitive capture. They now look at business solutions that are tailored to customer needs. Breg segments based on revenue tied to a solution. Steve says some customers purchase products a la carte and others make purchases through a reciprocal business relationship. Tune in to learn about Breg’s customer workflow and how it helps them to understand customer challenges and drive long-term, sustainable customer value.
Learn about Breg's customer workflow and how it helps them to understand customer challenges and drive long-term, sustainable #customervalue. @sbengine @bernieborges #ModernCRMClick To Tweet
Customer Mapping to Win and Keep Customers
Breg’s customer mapping begins with segmentation. Steve notes that there’s a difference between the a la carte purchases and purchases made through a platform. Next, detailed segmentation allows an understanding of your position in the account, their willingness to collaborate with you, and willingness to build on the relationship.
In mid-2015, Breg began using customer mapping. At the time, about 50% of customers mapped to one of their two customer solutions. One solution is focused on helping their customer drive revenue, and the other is focused on helping their customer cut costs out of the system. Today, more than 70% of their total business is mapped to a solution. Mapping customers to your most valuable solution offerings is a valuable exercise to develop sustained long-term value in customer relationships.
Breg encourages everyone to work together internally as “one team.” They connect the marketing team with the sales team to get things done. Steve says the collaborative nature and the teamwork are visible in the business results.
Steve Paul says, 'The collaborative nature of joining #marketing with the #sales team is visible in business results.' @sbengine @bernieborgesClick To TweetIdentifying resources for customer relationship building and driving revenue growth is essential. Resources in this context are headcount and budget. If you don’t know the size of the opportunity along with the competitive landscape in each opportunity, you can’t confidently predict what resources are needed to achieve your customer growth and retention goals. Listen to our conversation to find out what drivers determine how Breg allocates their commercial resources.
Once you know what you need to do, Steve says to lean into it, and get it done! You shouldn’t hesitate to make the moves. Steve notes that not all customers are created equal, and you have to build a strategy to maximize customer relationships. On episode 191, you’ll learn how Breg segments customers and strategizes to build customer relationships for long-term sustainable value.
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Featured On This Episode:
- Steve Paul on LinkedIn
- Breg on LinkedIn
- Breg’s website
- Register for Sales Team Alpine Resort (STAR) – the most important sales leadership think tank ever.
- Download Social Business Journal Vol. 10, The 5 Most Influential Topics for B2B Marketing
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This podcast originally appeared on Social Business Engine.
