They say the customer is always right. But when you handle high-stakes business deals and B2B partnerships like we do, sometimes it’s your job to show the customer what’s missing. A traditional, transactional customer service approach is not enough. B2B requires proactive success management, handled by industry experts.
The business partner or client needs us to be their compass. They need us to point them in the right direction, act on their behalf and step in when we see an opportunity.
As Head of Global B2B Success Management at Wix Channels, my team and I make difficult but necessary analysis and recommendations for our valued business partners. Our global strategic channel partnerships include multiple, tailored funnels that require sophisticated, dynamic GTM strategies and execution. We make sure ROI is the guide every time, and the top priority.
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Establishing the approach
To become the compass, first we need to know who we’re traveling with. Then we can take them where they want to go. It’s crucial to understand the partner’s business inside-out in order to point them in the direction of success. We challenge ourselves to know the business even better than the partner knows it themselves.
We study everything: Their core offering, business model, audience, customer journey, go-to market strategy, sales and marketing strategy, workflow, plans for the future—I mean everything.
I believe this is mandatory before being able to start working with any business. At Wix, we have our own expertise—whether in SMBs, AI design, web design or B2B—but in order to know where to focus it, we need to understand who we’re working with.
Our business partners are pros at what they do. We learn from them. And we do everything, and I mean everything, to help them succeed. When it comes to success management, I believe in stopping at nothing. We don’t just go the extra mile; we go the extra 62 miles. I see success managers as an extension of the business partner, sharing accountability for results. As such, we must always be proactive and push things forward.
Understanding our value
In order to best lead our business partners, we need to know ourselves. That means understanding the value of the partnership our company offers, as well as the value of our team’s own skills and expertise.
As a company, we understand our UVP and why the business partner has chosen us in the first place. I often say Wix is the best website builder platform in the universe (and I’m not the only one who thinks so). We’ve been in the industry for nearly 20 years and our understanding of the SMB audience is unmatched. We know what SMBs need to start a business online and grow. And we’ve been leaders in AI since before it was trendy. Wix’s product innovation and grasp of the SMB journey only expands with time.
As a B2B success team, we offer hands-on B2B guidance from learned experience. We come from well-rounded backgrounds and encompass a combination of hard and soft skills that deliver. Experience in business, marketing, data analysis, tech, design, UI/UX and project management are all represented on the team, along with the proper interpersonal skills needed to collaborate with our business partners.
We know that a website is essential for any modern business and business type. That’s why we offer a full range of digital solutions to complement and serve SMBs throughout their business journey. Our channel partners know that offering our best-in-class platform is the best way to empower SMB customers, while strengthening the business as a whole. It’s our job to make sure, with every move and a bit of analysis, that success is maximized.
Becoming the compass
With the right research and preparation, we can understand our desired destination and start mapping out how to reach it. Building funnels with the business partner means combining platforms in a strategic and careful way, taking into account our business similarities and differences in order to complement each other and create added value.
My job is to keep the common goal in mind and make sure everyone is aligned and focused. From Product to Solutions Engineers to BA, Marketing and beyond, it’s the role of the proactive success manager to keep things flowing together in the right direction.
At Wix Channels, we offer what we’ve coined as the full funnel partnership strategy. We leverage cross-team expertise to develop tailored platform integrations and analyze flows holistically for continuous optimization. The investigations, analysis and suggestions my team provides to our business partners can take hours of additional work. Nobody asks us to do it. But we do it on a weekly basis. It's our own initiative, and we live for it.
Here are a couple of examples of how we’ve guided the way for our business partners:
One of our business partners was offering Wix to a merchant customer base. While sales were steady, we noticed the offer wasn’t tailored to the audience. There were Wix capabilities merchants were missing out on to further boost their businesses. So we took the initiative to provide education on Wix’s eCommerce solutions designed specifically for merchants, like custom checkout and dropshipping. The business partner didn’t have to ask us for this support. We came to them proactively and catered to their specific needs, helping them best serve their customers.
Sometimes our recommendations come further down the funnel. A business partner was doing great in web builder sales, but was having trouble upselling. We did some analysis and noticed an issue in the way their CTA were presented. The UX was not ideal, causing customers to drop and take no action. So we recommended reevaluating this part of the user journey to increase conversion. Sometimes all it takes is a small change to make a big impact. But it requires expertise in both tech and business in order to spot issues and turn them into opportunities.
Proactive success management—like leading a travel expedition—takes skill, experience, teamwork, trust and confidence.
It’s not easy to find business partners who offer the right proactive guidance. But the results speak volumes.
To become the compass for success, we must invest in doing what’s best for the business partner, even when it’s not obvious to them.
We know our business, we know the business partner and we commit to doing the hard work—taking steps together that bring us all to new heights.
Learn how a channel partnership with Wix can drive growth for your business and your SMB customers.