Your Buyers Spoke. We Listened.

Without a doubt, exploratory market research surveys bring understanding around certain aspects of a target market, allowing for improvement in the quality of decisions. Uncovering attitudes, opinions, beliefs and behaviors nets a glimpse into your buyers’ worlds, and the impact of those insights and feedback can be huge. Helping you set your brand apart from the competition was a driving factor behind our recent end-buyer survey project. We surveyed hundreds of CEOs and Business Owners of small, medium and large companies across the U.S. to get a better sense of their business priorities for the next 6-12 months.

What YOUR Customers Are Saying
The top priority for business recovery in 2021 across all survey responders is communication with current customers. These results validate what we are observing in the marketplace and are further substantiated by upward trends in mailings, and increases in the envelope category, personalized packages, and kitting and fulfillment. Ranking second on the list of priorities is new client acquisition. Employee safety rounds off the top three.

• For large companies, their top three (in order) are: communication with current customers, technology and eCommerce initiatives, and employee safety. Of least importance to large companies: executing marketing campaigns, then community support / safety and vaccination sponsorship.
• For small companies, the top three priorities are identical to the overall results: communication with current customers, new client acquisition, and employee safety. Of the least importance to small companies is talent acquisition. Technology and eCommerce initiatives ranked second to last.

Understandably, employee safety was a top-three priority for all respondents, companies big and small. With the year we just had, it makes sense that it is a top priority for businesses out there.

Where End-Buyers Need Support
In ranking where they need the most support in carrying out their short-term objectives, half of all respondents ranked help with customer research as the top need. Safety and awareness for operations and cost-savings within the supply chain tied for second place with 37% of survey-takers ranking each of them as need number two.

• For large companies, help with customer research fell further down to number four in their needs. They see safety and awareness for operations as where they need support the most, followed by ideas for employee engagement, then technology support. Ideas for employee engagement fell to the bottom of the list for smaller companies and streamlining administrative tasks ranked lowest for larger companies. The interest in cost savings is notable and validates the importance of pitching to larger companies a technology solution that streamlines order flow and eliminates touches.
• Smaller companies closely aligned with the majority responses, and ranked needing help with customer research as their top choice, followed by cost savings within the supply chain, and then shifting their third to streamlining administrative tasks.

Rating Employee Engagement
In regards to employee engagement, ranking in order from one to five, the survey showed us employee safety lands in the top spot most often (by a large margin), followed by connecting with remote employees, then health and wellness awareness campaigns. At the bottom of the ranking overall was bringing employees back to the office.

• For large companies, correlating with the masses, 34% ranked employee safety as number one, and connecting with remote employees was voted number one by 31% of responders from that group. 22% of large-company responders chose health and wellness awareness campaigns as the top ranked.
• For smaller companies, connecting with remote employees nabbed number one most often

Vaccine Support
When asked how their company is supporting COVID-19 vaccination efforts, 70% responded that their company is taking action.

• 25% noted their company is encouraging employees to get vaccinated and are offering time off, childcare, flexible schedules or information on where to go.
• 21% answered that their company is supporting COVID-19 vaccination efforts by either following safety guidelines and preventative measures or having employees work remotely.
• 13% of survey-takers said their companies are facilitating a vaccine clinic or sponsoring free vaccinations. Of that grouping a few noted offering free tests and mentioned their support of recovery efforts in the community.

What Does It Mean to Me?
All this data is powerful – but it’s powerless without the right analysis. What’s a survey without translating the findings into actionable items that drive data-backed strategies? The fact that executing marketing campaigns is a low priority yet customer communication is the top priority gives us some valuable insight. What does this mean for you? When prospecting, make sure to use the language of your customers’ priorities:

• Say: “Are you looking to improve your customer communications?”
• Don’t Say: “Are you looking to increase your advertising to customers?”

Editing your pitch in this way shows that you care about what is going on with your customers, and will help you to improve their experience and better serve their needs.

When considering end-buyer top priorities, prepare to discuss ways to execute effective and meaningful communications to current customers.

• Do: Plan demonstrations to present ideas for new client acquisition campaigns.
• Do: Promote ways to support their efforts to ensure employee safety through communications, signage and supplies like partitions and hand-sanitizer stations.
• Do: Update your website and social presence. Find ideas in the Outreach Kit.

Where end-buyers say they need help presents additional opportunities for you.

• Do: Provide innovative solutions that support their safety and awareness needs, cost-saving ideas, plus original and creative options for employee engagement cover what they are asking for.
• Do: Provide communications that are relevant to your customers’ industry. Navitor’s free content page for distributors has over 100 pages of ideas, products, text and imagery you can use as your own with your customers.

Because vaccine support efforts are underway, there are opportunities for you to solve some of your customer’s challenges.

• Do: Outfit sites and help your customers communicate information and guidelines. This will solidify your position as a valuable partner.
• Do: Supply vaccination locations and clinics with unique products. Check out the list of top products and support materials here.

We’re here for you
Tapping into your buyers’ opinions and insights allowed us to spot common trends and gather pertinent data. This data gives us the means to help you deliver the best customer experiences.

To make sure you’re giving your customers what they need and addressing topics important to them, rely on us as your go-to resource for ideas and innovation. Navitor has a ton of options and ideas and offers free content and marketing collateral for distributors like you that you can use as your own.