The Secret to Maximizing Customer Retention, Revenue, and Wallet Share

Is your customer retention lower than you'd like? Can your sales team cost-effectively drive maximum value from your customer base? Do you have a successful strategy to find and retain more high-value accounts? According to Forrester¹, as budgets unfreeze in 2010, sales and marketing organizations need to shift their focus from traditional marketing tools to newer, more innovative approaches that foster community interaction and improve customer relationships. And eCommerce has a proven track record in helping sellers accomplish that goal.

EBSCO Information Services, a division of EBSCO Industries, Inc., offers an excellent example of how well eCommerce works. Over the past eight years, EBSCO has achieved a 99 percent customer retention rate, expanded its global account footprint by more than 30 percent, and significantly improved sales and marketing efficiency-all as a result of its investment in eCommerce. "Our eCommerce strategy connects us directly to the needs of our customers," says EBSCO marketing director Chip Graham. "We believe this has been key to our continued growth and leadership position in the industry."

Why eCommerce?
Though spending on digital marketing has increased slightly in recent years, most sellers still rely mainly on conventional-and more expensive-methods such as trade shows, PR, direct mail, and print advertising, Forrester says. Yet the changing digital and social nature of buying and selling among today's businesses demands serious budget restructuring. To fuel pipeline growth and gain wallet share, sellers should:

• Spend more on interactive, digital eCommerce techniques, which deliver highly targeted messages and can measure response more directly than traditional methods
• Focus on campaign ROI via leads and customers generated rather than overall cost, which provides a more accurate yardstick to direct future spending
• Grow relationships with existing customers by creating avenues for inbound communication to engage today's more digitally savvy, socially active, and vocal buyers
• Build relationships with multiple buyers rather than just individuals in accounts by using community marketing processes that focus on prospect needs, personalize responses, and engage customers with relevant communication

EBSCO: Exceptional eCommerce Results
As the world's leading information agent, EBSCO provides consulting services and integrated technology solutions that help libraries and research organizations in over 200 countries to access and manage quality content, including print and e-journals, e-packages, e-books, research databases, and more. The company's decision to pursue eCommerce was driven by customer demand for a new means to procure and manage its products. Clients also wanted EBSCO to support multiple spend management platforms, including Ariba.

As part of its eCommerce initiative, the company launched the EBSCO Information Marketplace. This web-based service lets users procure and manage content from thousands of sources and formats through integration to their eProcurement systems or via EBSCO's desktop solution. EBSCO can now easily alter catalogs based on market, geography, and client requirements to provide a customized solution and integration for each customer. As a result, the company has virtually eliminated turnover and expanded support of customers' business commerce initiatives, growing them by 30 percent in the past four years on the Ariba® Network alone. EBSCO customers have increased spend visibility, reduced administrative workload, and realized economies of scale that help them improve service to their clients.

Chip's Tips for eCommerce Success
Below are some insights Chip has gleaned from spearheading EBSCO's eCommerce experience.

1. Adopt eCommerce to improve customer access and retention. "I can't think of one tactic that's been more successful in the corporate market than eCommerce," Chip says. "It has let us get closer to our customers at every level. We're no longer a vendor, but a strategic partner in helping them achieve their objectives. This allows us to identify their needs-sometimes before they recognize them-and meet or exceed their expectations." The company has also used eCommerce to unify clients' organizational implementation and align goals in ways that build long-term relationships and maximize retention.

2. Leverage eCommerce to increase customer stickiness. The user-friendliness of eCommerce offered another huge value, making it simple for EBSCO customers to say yes. "Everything they need is online, right there, which streamlines operations and purchasing," Chip says. "Plus it's easy for our customers to adopt, and usually not a big deployment or installation project that gobbles up their resources." Seamless integration of the EBSCO Information Marketplace into customers' workflow increases that stickiness even more, strengthening customers' familiarity and comfort with the solution and driving up revenues.

3. Use eCommerce to find e-savvy prospects and expand into new markets. "Building an eCommerce presence lets us easily find likeminded prospects who are leveraging electronic networks to do business," Chip explains. "Since they've already adopted this type of distribution channel, they're like prequalified prospects." EBSCO also takes advantage of built-in sales and marketing opportunities offered by companies like Ariba, which streamlines access to high-value customers and decision makers. The company is an Ariba Ready™ Silver member and regularly attends marketing events such as Ariba LIVE™. "The Ariba Network makes it easy to expand our global reach into new geographies and across new channels, allowing us to target more effectively and generally improve revenue," Chip says.

4. Employ eCommerce tools to show value and lower sales and marketing costs. EBSCO has dramatically cut sales and marketing costs through eCommerce automation. And by enabling EBSCO to deliver a highly customized service to customers, eCommerce helps the company demonstrate value. "We become a central part of how our customers do business as opposed to a one-off commodity," Chip notes. "Our sales team no longer has to call on accounts and fill out forms merely for a basic reorder. Instead they can talk about new products, features, or locations, which results in better calls and more revenue." EBSCO also gains efficiencies from automated ordering, processing, and billing. "Our customers get better service, and it's easier to order and pay with an electronic system," Chip says. "This is a win-win all the way around."

5. Take advantage of eCommerce for your green initiatives. By using eCommerce to "go green," EBSCO has been able to reduce paper consumption, eliminating paper catalogs and invoices and minimizing its use of paper order forms. The company also partners with carbonfund.org to measure its carbon footprint.

Put eCommerce to Work for Your Business
You can learn more about why eCommerce should be a core part of your business strategy-and gain deeper insight into EBSCO's strategies for eCommerce success-by watching "The Secrets to Customer Retention and Growing Revenue from Your Customer Base." And whether you're just starting out with eCommerce or well on your way, Ariba offers multiple resources to help you generate better results faster-including Ariba Supplier Consulting, Ariba Network matching services, the Ariba Ready program, and a broad array of other resources and events offered through Ariba Sales Acceleration solutions. To learn more about how you can take advantage of these opportunities to achieve results like EBSCO's, contact Dave Heflin, senior manager of Ariba Supplier Accounts, at dheflin@ariba.com, or send an email to supplierprograms@ariba.com.

^¹ Forrester, "B2B Marketers' 2009 Budget Trends," Laura Ramos, April 2009