Last fall, I was privileged to join G2’s Executive Advisory Board (EAB) for an offsite strategy session.
In between these annual in-person sessions, we also host virtual meetings to regroup, sharing updates and gleaning the latest and greatest feedback from this stellar group of leaders and experts.
As we continue to navigate a challenging time in tech, three specific takeaways rang through during this latest EAB discussion.
- C-level relationships are key. One way to both reduce churn and acquire new customers is to ensure you’re bringing value to the C-suite – and communicating that value to them in a clear way. Do they or their direct reports see the value from your solution? If not, it is much easier for them to cut you from their budget. There is an opportunity to think about our target audiences and how we deliver and communicate value to them.
- Companies of all sizes are struggling with churn. If you’re a B2B SaaS business struggling with churn, know that you are not alone. Across the board, the industry is faced with tightened budgets and higher expectations for value and ROI. It’s long been established that acquiring a new customer is much more expensive than retaining an existing customer. Customer success has always been crucial, but it’s now time to double down on it in this era of heightened churn amid economic uncertainty.
- AI is driving smart growth. AI continues to be a mainstay topic in all industry conversations, this one included. And while everyone is at different points in their AI journey, we’re starting to see more real use cases and results as businesses move past the early experimentation phase. For example, in our conversations, we discussed how AI can help analyze customer data (traffic, usage patterns, etc.) to predict churn risk and identify opportunities to improve the customer experience where customer success teams can intervene. Additionally, AI can generate insights from customer data and market trends, informing product development, pricing strategies, and competitor analysis to help companies tailor their offerings and messaging for better market positioning.
While we all have our work cut out for ourselves in today’s competitive market, these takeaways make me feel optimistic that G2 is well positioned to capitalize on current trends. In particular, our Market Intelligence solution can serve up data-driven insights that are valuable to B2B SaaS businesses, and our Monty for Sales is already helping companies work smarter with AI to drive sales.
In the year ahead, it will become even more critical for businesses to use data and AI to gain insights into customer behavior and develop customer retention strategies. And the importance of building strong relationships with customers and providing them with value cannot be overstated.
by Rachel Gianfredi
