As we continue to receive positive feedback from readers across the globe about our, ‘Agents of Change’ content series – a platform for business leaders and pioneers to talk with us about driving sustainable success in a changed world – we will highlight individual conversations here to make them easy to bookmark, view and share.
Mark Larwood is Head of Strategic Customer Marketing at O2 and, as such, leads the Key Accounts Marketing Program, which encompasses advocacy programs including Executive Engagement, O2’s Advisory and Innovation Boards and all other customer engagement activity designed to help O2 build reputation and relationships with its customers.
While the challenges of the pandemic could have placed significant limitations on the success of this engagement program, Mark explains to Agent3 Chief Revenue Officer, Paul Mackender, how, in fact, the situation became the springboard for O2 to successfully scale its award winning executive engagement strategy.
By building on the strong foundations of considered customer content and strategies already in place, when the pandemic first hit, O2 was in a strong position to embrace the opportunity by responding well to customers, providing support, and communicating with authenticity. In the longer term, O2 was then able to position itself as a thought leader and engage with its customers more closely, and on a more frequent basis.
In this interview, Mark explains more about how this worked, as well as covering:
- How O2 was well positioned to be a catalyst for conversations around the real, and practical challenges businesses were facing at the height of the pandemic
- How the creation of a peer-to-peer networking environment prior to the pandemic became a strong opportunity for O2, and source of business support for customers
- The importance of engaging with customers more meaningfully on, for example, societal values, or issues that don’t always drive towards a lead, to build relationships
- The tiered model of engagement O2 operates to ensure customers are getting the right content and the right level of support at the right time.
- The importance of agility and flexibility in ensuring the success of any engagement program, rather than adopting a prescriptive program of events
- The importance of sales and marketing alignment in supporting, and sponsoring, any executive engagement program
Thank you, Mark, for a most insightful conversation. Click here to find out more!