Adopting a Cross-Functional Business Strategy to Power Your Executive Briefings

The Executive Briefing Center has a huge impact on customer experience; the EBC program is of special significance as it traditionally touches an organization’s most high-value clients.

Organizations that lead in CX routinely outperform laggards on the S&P 500 index by about 80 percent. Not only do they retain a higher market share, but they also have customers that are 7x more likely to try other products and services and 15x as likely to spread positive word of mouth about the brand.

There are many things that can and do go wrong within the walls of the executive briefing center. Since they are so vital, it’s important you get things straightened out as soon as possible.

Here are some of the more common mistakes that occur in EBC and strategic meetings programs, and what you can do to fix them:

“The EBC is a central point of inflection where all kinds of external and internal ideas collide. But in order to take advantage of this, there must first be acknowledgement across the organization of the value present here. @TheCXApp”

1. Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

Because there are so many data streams and touchpoints in the sales journey, more people are involved than ever. An average of 6.8 individuals are now involved in B2B buying decisions. That creates a disconnect. Every persona cares about something different.

Today’s customers tend to be more informed and have higher expectations as a result. To meet those needs, you need a fully optimized and synchronized team.

Unsurprisingly, 44 percent of employees want wider adoption of internal communication tools, which would result in greater unity across teams.

The Solution: Establishing a cross-functional approach is paramount; this means ensuring your communications reach all team members. For an EBC program to be successful, it needs a communication hub that is accessible across the entire organization. Ideally, such a system delivers up-to-date information about customers and accounts to everyone involved.

 2. Conversations Are Either Too Technical or Not Applicable

Anyone spending time at or with your company, must be engaged during the course of their entire visit. If you let the customers’ experience lapse or you lose their attention, they will be more inclined to abandon the journey.

The problem is finding a balance: if things get too technical then certain personas may check out. That’s why it’s important to conduct a preliminary analysis to discern customer needs. Post-meeting analysis is also a very important piece of the puzzle, so you can collect and use customer sentiment to not only perform appropriate follow-ups but also to improve future experiences and campaigns.

The Solution: A quick and convenient way to gather this type of information before, during, and after is through the use of surveys and polls. These types of tools should be a part of your greater digital EBC system to ensure that all incoming data and insights are shared across the organization, and remains accessible into the future. Attention is currency, so acquire it and spend it wisely.

3. Program Managers Should be Much More Than Order-Takers

EBC managers need to get more of a say in the entire process, including regular conversations with customers. They should be helping to drive the learning and education aspect of the program. Yet more often than not, managers make the mistake of falling into a single role: that of the order-taker, which entails a hands-off approach.

Why is that such a loss? Because the person overseeing the EBC program is in a unique position to monitor various data points such as industry trends, targeted social listening, and communications with employees from various departments.

The Solution: The EBC is a central point of inflection where all kinds of external and internal ideas collide. But in order to take advantage of this, there must first be acknowledgement across the organization of the value present here - and the value the EBC manager provides.

 4. Failure to Cut Through the Noise

The EBC is the ideal space to make a sale because it is a controlled environment that can help the customer focus. Because of the speed of business in today’s fast-paced, information heavy world, all teams and stakeholders should be leveraging technology to cut through noise, make a connection, and drive your point home.

Essentially, the goal is to create a system that can be used to replicate success. What matters to each particular customer? How does a sales rep keep them on-track? Over time, a digital system will help identify this crucial information and help distribute it to fellow team members as well as the customer themselves.

As a result, everyone will be on the same page and all team members will understand how the onsite experience fits in the grand scheme of the customer journey.

The Solution: Technology can only help to enhance the customer experience but also keep teams on-track, consistent, and leading with an innovative mindset that is now expected in the modern business world.

The best building block for a CX-focused digital system is a mobile platform. Mobile provides a scalable, repeatable system that is always-on and always accessible. Better yet, a mobile platform is the perfect medium for storing customer preferences and history, which provide more insight into the customer’s needs. This can be rolled into the overall experience to provide more personalized support.

5. Not Understanding Where You Fit in

Yet another mistake is not understanding where the program fits in and how it can influence the sales process. This can have a huge impact on the entire organization because the EBC program generally sits at the epicenter of the company.

Meeting professionals are also often responsible for orchestrating events and engaging with both SMEs and executives. By touching a little bit of everything inside the organization they are much more adept at creating customized experiences. They must retain cross-functional knowledge, as well as a feel for the culture of their organization. Understanding how valuable that knowledge is and how it shapes employee and customer experiences is vital to success.

The Solution: The EBC program shouldn’t stand alone within the organization; rather, the digital system that supports the EBC should also work to integrate it with other departments, such as sales and marketing. By using a mobile platform, EBC management can quickly and easily communicate their initiatives, making it easier to get others on-board: such as when they need subject matter experts from across the company to pitch in for a presentation.

You are responsible for bringing subject matter experts, conversations, customers, and the minute details together for a worthwhile and effective on-site experience.

Avoiding These Mistakes is Easier Than You Think

The common denominator is a mobile-friendly system that can facilitate communication throughout your entire organization.

The trick is bringing insights from different departments as well as from in-person experiences with customers over to the digital realm. Once there’s a system in place to provide this kind of continuity, you can really start to deliver value to your EBC guests.