Sudden Death: How to Become the Tiebreaker

29 Apr Sudden Death: How to Become the Tiebreaker

How non-traditional strategies can help solve customer problems

Customer requests within B2B markets are becoming increasingly more particular and individualized when it comes to buying.  Customers want to find businesses that offer the best solutions for the most competitive price. Then, upon narrowing down the competition, they often ask each contender for one last extra incentive, or a “final push.”

Some marketers will misunderstand this appeal and will respond by essentially repeating their unique offerings, features or product value. Often, they respond with price concessions.

It turns out, many customers don’t want a repeat of the sales pitch, more features or even lower prices — they want the x-factor. They want to know how your offering will positively impact their business outcomes.

Here at Axiom, we don’t just help our customers understand the x-factor. In fact, sometimes we help them invent it. We do this using market insights, market innovation and market communications.

Consider the following:

1. Investigate and rank the customer’s true priorities. Not all priorities are created equal. What are the tradeoffs impact purchase decisions? How do customers and their management rank these things? Presently, we’re involved in a study to identify how to expand our client’s flat share in a fast growing market that has extremely low switching costs. At Axiom, we use depth interviews and response meter focus groups with purchasing agents and other hard-to-reach specifiers at industry functions and trade shows.

2. Identify the x-factor. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Tiebreaker Selling, they call this term the “justifier.” World-class B2B suppliers such as GE, Ecolab and 3M devote much time and energy to identify, test and create justifiers for their products and services. Often this involves a critical analysis of supply chain issues which has overlaid onto a customer needs map. It may involve integrating solutions with other vendors for a better and more seamless solution to the customer. It always involves tying solutions to key business priorities.

3. Execute and innovate more quickly. X-factors or justifiers often have a shorter-than-expected shelf life because of market forces and competitor actions. (Read HBR’s, What is Strategy Again? to learn key components of an effective strategy to top the competition.) In addition, the best solutions always come from those team members who are closest to the customer. The trick is to share these best practices throughout the enterprise in a meaningful way and to empower team members to explore and test possible solutions. At Axiom, we use VOC and a detailed customer market brief as the basis for this exploration.

For more information, please contact mreiber@axiomcom.com or Rob Beachy at rbeachy@axiomcom.com.