June 2019 | ISE Magazine 33

Managing

change to boost

relationships

In turning customers to partners, there are

plenty of new ideas under the sun

By George F. Brown Jr.

34 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Managing change to boost relationships

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to

always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean

Those of us in business markets accept that change is

a constant reality, one that spans people, technology

and just about every dimension of activity. Rela-

tionships are often among the factors that change,

sometimes for the better, sometimes involving a

signiﬁcant disruption to at least one of the ﬁrms

involved. Executives and teams responsible for strategic cus-

tomer relationships in business markets are acutely aware of

the potential for change and must invest signiﬁcant resources

to secure relationships with key business partners.

What has emerged from new research on such relationships

is that additional groups within the supplier organization, in-

volving engineering, service and product development teams,

are increasingly important to the goal of securing such strong

relationships.

It is an omnipresent goal in many organizations to trans-

form traditional supplier-customer relationships into long-

lasting business partnerships. Achieving that transformation is

complex and challenging. Several years ago, I published an

article in Industrial Engineer, “Turn Your Customer Into a Part-

ner,” (https://link.iise.org/IMJan2012Brown) summarizing some

of the dimensions of complexity involved in that transforma-

tion. Figure 1 offers a quick summary, one that most business

executives and members of their teams will recognize as a fact

of life in their world.

It is a major challenge to progress to even the strong pre-

ferred supplier-customer relationship level shown in the ﬁgure,

and in fact only a minority of business relationships progress

beyond the traditional transactional, on-again and off-again

relationships common in business markets.

In the early years of this decade, working with a colleague

and with the assistance of the Strategic Accounts Management

Association (SAMA), we did a fascinating research project de-

signed to understand actions a ﬁrm could take to progress to

higher-level relationships. That research was summarized in

several articles in the SAMA journal Velocity, and the ﬁndings

remain quite valid today, as reinforced by work with numer-

ous business-to-business suppliers and their customers over the

years. The ﬁndings from that research have enabled numer-

ous ﬁrms to identify issues hindering the health of their key

customer relationships and enabled them to implement action

plans designed to drive growth.

But as the quote from Jimmy Dean suggests, change is a

constant reality so it becomes necessary to adjust your sails

from time to time. In the case of managing strategic customer

relationships, that adjustment involves recognizing some new

factors that now enter into the equation and inﬂuence the

ability of a ﬁrm to raise relationships to the preferred supplier

and partner levels. Those changes do not eliminate the need

to focus on the basic competencies identiﬁed in that earlier

research, but – and isn’t it always the case? – add some new

themes that must be addressed. And, again not a surprise, some

of the new themes that have been identiﬁed are close cousins

to those spotlighted earlier.

Perhaps the most important ﬁnding from this new research

– when customers spoke about the quality of support they were

getting from their key suppliers, their reference points within

the supplier organization expanded, going well beyond the

sales and account management teams. They explicitly focused

on linkages to the supplier’s product development, service and

other teams, with an emphasis on the supplier’s engineering

and technical skills.

In the research and articles cited earlier, the key relationship

management competencies were clustered into three catego-

ries: relationship competencies, implementation competen-

cies and innovation competencies. The new themes that have

emerged from research conducted with clients serving strate-

gic accounts in business and government markets fall into all

these clusters. But as noted, what customers are looking for in

each of the three categories has expanded in important new

directions.

New challenges facing

relationship management

In the previous research, we learned that the ﬁrst hurdles that

supplier organizations must address involve showcasing strong

relationship competencies. Without those, skills in other cate-

gories are unlikely to move the needle much, as customers that

are not conﬁdent about the relationship are unlikely to place

much trust in the supplier organization. Showcasing strong

competencies in that category involves developing familiarity

with the customer’s organization, being collaborative, show-

casing knowledge and having a commitment to the customer.

Good advice still!

What has emerged is the new theme of coverage. In numer-

ous interviews with customers about their key suppliers, what

is heard recently about how they evaluate suppliers increas-

ingly involves coverage along multiple dimensions. Several re-

cent quotes from executives in customer organizations suggest

what they are looking for along this theme:

• “We are so different than we were when we ﬁrst began

to work with (supplier). Then, we were basically a U.S.

company. Today, over 70% of our sales are outside the

U.S. They are good in some countries but absent in others.

That’s an issue.”

• “In the last few years, we have become a major player in the

internet of things. Any supplier that isn’t similarly focused is

going to have trouble working with us. We not only need

to see that expertise, but to know the people involved and

work regularly with them.”

June 2019 | ISE Magazine 35

• “Once, our business was selling prod-

ucts. Now, we are actually categorized

by the business publications as a service

ﬁrm. We have to have suppliers that

can help us succeed as a service pro-

vider, as well as offering ingredients

we need for our products that are easy

to support as part of our service offer-

ings. We need our suppliers to help us

deliver services, and that starts with

product design and goes through 24/7

technical service support. That’s what

we expect in a key supplier.”

In Figure 1, the importance of success-

ful connections throughout the customer

organization is shown as an important el-

ement of higher level relationships. The

geographic dimension to this is probably

obvious to most executives; if your cus-

tomer is active in China and Brazil, you

had better be able to serve them there.

But the other quotes suggest it goes much further than ge-

ography. A strong supplier must be effective in working across

the customer organization, with the “e” teams, the service

groups, those designing products that can easily be supported,

etc. Customers have made it clear that coverage enters into

their decisions about how much faith they will put into each

supplier relationship. It is a competency that ﬁrms working to

achieve strategic relationships must demonstrate.

For suppliers that have mastered the key relationship com-

petencies, the recommended next area of focus is implementa-

tion. We have learned over and over of relationships shattered

by implementation failures. The core competencies in this re-

gard involve a ﬁrm’s processes, its ability to link effectively to

its customers, whether it is viewed as a best-practice supplier

and the cadence of interactions it has with customers. Again,

these remain valid areas of emphasis, which is not surprising.

Two additional and related themes have emerged in recent

research with customers. One represents a bit of a sea change

from the past: Many customers expect their strongest suppliers

to take ownership of the implementation process.

• “We aren’t looking for them to do a hand off. We expect

them to get it done.”

• “If (the supplier) is making changes in its product or along

some other dimension, we expect them to take responsibil-

ity for the changes we’ll have to make as a result. Not just

tell us about it. Do it.”

Those quotes deﬁne ownership. Earlier, the “boundaries”

of implementation were largely centered in the supplier’s do-

main. As a simple example, customers expect on-time, in-full

deliveries.

But those boundaries have expanded, and customers now

expect implementation involvement and support that extends

into their own domain. In my experience, few suppliers are

skilled in this regard, and the competencies required of a team

handling implementation support are quite different, often re-

quiring high-level engineering and product know-how. It will

take some real work in many ﬁrms to master and showcase this

competency.

The second emerging dimension involving implementation

emphasizes integration. To some degree, this theme is an ex-

plicit recognition of change. Customers emphasize that they

are changing, and their suppliers have to change with them

in a consistent and integrated fashion. Many of the comments

heard from customers focused on the future, the evolution of

their own business environment and the need to evolve with-

out unnecessary delays or lags.

• “The supplier that waits for us to tell them what we need is

behind the curve. They have to be working with us, ahead

of the game, doing what is needed so we stay ahead of the

pack.”

Delivering along this dimension requires strong insights

about technology, the possibilities for innovation, disruptive

change and other such factors going well beyond “being a

good listener and following through on what is heard.” This is

highly demanding, and in truth requires quite an investment

in the relationship to reach the point where the supplier orga-

FIGURE 1

Turning customers into partners

A summary of the steps needed to take business relationships to the next level required

in today’s environment.

Traditional

supplier-

customer

relationship

Strong preferred

supplier-

customer

relationship

Strategic

business partner

relationship

Basis of

interactions

Transactions and

defined business

opportunities

(e.g., RFPs)

Proactive

approach to

defined

opportunities

Co-destiny

relationship

Relationship

context and

focus of

interactions

Problem-solving

and smooth

operations

A focus on the

future and the

external

environment

Shared

successes and

“win-win”

outcomes

Touch points

Sales and

purchasing;

groups involved

in transactions

Multiple functional

and geographic

touch points

Frequent and

knowledgeable

organizationwide

linkages

Relationship

management

Account

executives (sales

and purchasing)

Executive

champions

Inherent in

companywide

culture

Traditional

supplier-

customer

relationship

Strong preferred

supplier-

customer

relationship

Strategic

business partner

relationship

Basis of

interactions

Transactions and

defined business

opportunities

(e.g., RFPs)

Proactive

approach to

defined

opportunities

Co-destiny

relationship

Relationship

context and

focus of

interactions

Problem-solving

and smooth

operations

A focus on the

future and the

external

environment

Shared

successes and

“win-win”

outcomes

Touch points

Sales and

purchasing;

groups involved

in transactions

Multiple functional

and geographic

touch points

Frequent and

knowledgeable

organizationwide

linkages

Relationship

management

Account

executives (sales

and purchasing)

Executive

champions

Inherent in

companywide

culture

36 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Managing change to boost relationships

nization knows where its customer is going, let alone gains its

trust to be welcomed as a partner on the journey.

But hard as it might be, the messages from customers clearly

deﬁne the importance and contribution strong integration

competencies can make to a long-term relationship. Involving

the right people in the relationship will be a new challenge,

one critical to success.

Finally, for suppliers that have the potential to reach the lev-

el of a strategic business partner, having developed the needed

relationship competencies and showcased strong implementa-

tion competencies, the focus expands to include innovation

competencies. The basic skills seen as important there haven’t

changed: creativity, energy, breadth and timeliness. Those

were always cited as characteristics of the suppliers viewed as

the best at innovation by their customers. And, in truth, those

competencies always demanded contributions from across

the organization. But, again, an important new theme has

emerged that expands upon those core strengths.

That theme reﬂects a customer need rarely heard in earlier

research: the importance of reﬁnement savvy. The expecta-

6 tips to strengthen customer relationships

1. Understand what your customers value. To ﬁnd out what your customers value, always listen to what they say and how they say

it – and adjust your approach to match their expectations.

2. Show you genuinely care. As a general rule, people want to connect beyond the professional level. That’s why it pays off to be

friendly and personal. Find out what you have in common with customers and engage on that subject; follow up on key details; ask

about their kids or wish them a happy birthday.

3. Adapt to their pace. If a customer picks up the phone and is clearly in a hurry, don’t slow them down with small talk and pleasantries.

But if a customer calls and wants to chat, make sure you don’t rush them off the phone.

4. Let your brand be your guide. Your branding and marketing make a promise about customer experience and your organization as

a whole and it’s essential to deliver on that. If you claim you’re always there for customers but people can’t get beyond your voicemail

when they call you, then you’ve failed to meet your promise.

5. Model the behavior you want to see. The way you treat your employees shows them how they’re supposed to treat your

customers. If you’re always trying to cut costs, your employees may assume they shouldn’t be offering discounts or adding value in

other ways, which can go a long way toward exceeding customer expectations.

6. Remember that relationships are built over time. BDC Client Experience Manager Chris Palin says that while it’s important

to go above and beyond, “You don’t need to hit a home run with every conversation.” He notes that some companies use customer

relationship management software to help manage their relationships over time.

Source: BDC, https://www.bdc.ca

June 2019 | ISE Magazine 37

tions of customers about their suppliers has evolved in a unique

way, as reﬂected in these messages:

• “We used to have model cycles, with all the changes com-

ing when we introduced a new model. Now we evolve and

reﬁne products over their life. Our suppliers need to under-

stand and contribute to today’s business model. It’s every

day, not every three years.”

• “With so much of the value associated with our product

involving software, we can make changes that create value

at any time. Suppliers that help us to identify such opportu-

nities are the ones that we treasure. They are the ones that

work with us to stay fresh in the marketplace, delight our

own customers and capture value in the process. Doing that

goes on day after day.”

In describing this important area of contribution, customers

also frequently cited how much they love positive surprises.

One executive told of the difference among his ﬁrm’s suppliers

with the statement “When (another ﬁrm) calls, it’s usually bad

news and causes some sleepless nights. But when (preferred

supplier) calls, I get excited because it’s usually to tell me of an

idea we can implement to grow the business we share. I love

those calls.”

That same executive went on to say that the best positive

surprises involve reﬁnement opportunities rather than cold-

start new launches.

Every case study we heard from customers that involved a

success story related to reﬁnement was centered on the relation-

ship between the engineering teams in the two organizations.

One such case history included a customer quote that best sum-

marizes the challenge: “If those people didn’t know each other

and interact all the time, (this achievement) would never have

occurred and we would have missed a golden opportunity.”

Taking action

There are two important steps business-to-business executives

and their organizations can take to build upon the new insights

that have emerged, enabling them to elevate key customer re-

lationships. The ﬁrst such action requires expanding the dash-

board that speciﬁes the performance metrics to be measured

relating to each of the themes identiﬁed earlier, along with

explicit and largely quantitative goals for each of those metrics.

Too many signiﬁcant business relationships operate without

an explicit statement of important performance goals. A key ele-

ment of managing change involves new metrics and measure-

ments and making sure the right people and groups are aware of

and care about them. The metrics and targets are almost certain

to be unique to each strategic customer and the core elements

of knowledge about that relationship are critical ingredients in

thinking about how to deﬁne and quantify them.

Having worked with many ﬁrms on incorporating these

new insights into their plans, it is clear that even deﬁning the

metrics associated with these new themes can be a challenge.

But as we have heard so often, “If it isn’t measured, it doesn’t

matter.” And, as noted earlier, the groups that will have pri-

mary accountability for achieving targets will often be differ-

ent than those on which the earlier spotlight was focused.

The second key action step recognizes that in the best-in-

class business relationships, there is a constant focus on the

future. Therefore, a second priority in creating foundations

for long-term strategic relationships is deﬁning the future-

oriented topics on which the two ﬁrms should collaborate and

thinking about which people should be involved in that col-

laboration. That future focus is a necessity in thinking through

how a supplier can contribute along the dimensions of integra-

tion, ownership and reﬁnement savvy.

All of those contributions have a future dimension to them,

one that will deﬁne the areas in which the supplier organiza-

tion, across many of its units, will have to deliver contributions

to its strategic customers. Again, experience suggests that these

themes are more challenging and impact more broadly on the

supplier organization than do some of the long recognized

core competencies. But the winds have shifted a bit, and the

sails need to be adjusted in response.

Strong business relationships can yield rewards for both

ﬁrms involved, a reality long recognized by most business

leaders. Proactive steps are required, however, to ensure re-

lationships remain strong despite the inevitable changes that

will take place in both organizations and in the business envi-

ronment. New competencies will become important to even

a supplier’s strongest customers, and new groups within the

supplier’s organization will have to step up to showcase them.

Changing customer needs must be understood and acted

upon by any supplier that has a goal of building and sustain-

ing strong higher-level relationships with its key customers. 

George F. Brown Jr. consults on growth strategy and change man-

agement through B-to-B Advisors. Throughout his career, he has

worked with industrial ﬁrms and government agencies on strategy

and change management. He is co-author of CoDestiny: Over-

come Your Growth Challenges by Helping Your Custom-

ers Overcome Theirs (Greenleaf Book Group Press of Austin,

Texas) and has published frequently on topics relating to strategy in

business markets. He is a member of the board of directors of Charles

River Analytics of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a ﬁrm specializing

in advanced technology and research and development. Earlier in

his career, he co-founded and served as the CEO of Blue Canyon

Partners Inc. from 1998 to 2013. Previously, he was senior execu-

tive ofﬁcer responsible for the ICF Kaiser Consulting Group and

of DRI/McGraw-Hill, two large consulting and information ﬁrms,

and served as the Theodore Roosevelt Professor of Economics at the

U.S. Naval War College. Brown has a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from

Carnegie-Mellon University.