Enterprise/B2B Behaviors

In my previous post I talked about how Enterprise product strategy relates to product-led growth. I want to focus my product experience on the needs of my users. When buyer needs differ from user needs, I want to focus on each separately.

I have noticed some specific situations where Enterprise users and buyers reveal different kinds of needs from what we normally expect from consumers.

Here’s one: Enterprise customers typically buy on long-term contracts (2 or 3 years) which eventually come up for renewal. So the way we think about retention for these customers should be a little different from how we think about a customer on a monthly or annual plan.

The standard signals of engagement are relevant: Enterprise users who use our product frequently, create artifacts, upload data, etc. are probably more likely to retain than those who don’t.

However, the actual decision to retain is likely to be made by somebody who is not a user — a finance executive or a procurement person. The behaviors that influence retention in a consumer mindset *cannot* directly influence the decider to sign your renewal contract — unless we make it!

Ultimately the renewal decision is likely to be made based on how well the users are able to communicate the value they’re getting from your product.

So, you should consider:
a) How can my users understand the value they are getting
b) How can they communicate that value to others in their org
c) How can we communicate the value we are providing to the org directly to the purchasing decider

One way to do A, B and C is with reports! You can produce reports that describe how your product is being used, make one that summarizes activity for the period of time covered by the contract term, and have it estimate the savings or profit or impact in dollars whenever possible.

Two more quick notes about Enterprise customer experience. First, products used by people at work are often being used by people who are in a hurry. Data entry interfaces especially should be optimized for speed.

Many Enterprise and B2B interfaces need to be user tested in scenarios where somebody is using it repeatedly, over and over. Notably, after the second time through it, nobody wants to use a mouse: It should be navigable completely via keyboard.

Finally, I worked on a B2B product that had a “Loading…” screen after login before the main data entry screen. It was a warm and welcoming interstital that displayed a different inspirational message each time you logged in for about three seconds.

I was surprised the first time I saw feedback from a user complaining that they didn’t want their time wasted with these inspirational messages, they just wanted to get the work done. I was a little less surprised after I’d seen it 100 times.

I don’t think we’d ever get that complaint in a workout coaching app, or a grocery list manager. It’s a reminder that B2B users have different needs, and it’s our job to understand them all.