B2B marketing, sales, product, and customer success leaders are no strangers to disruptive change — in the markets they serve, in buyer expectations, and in the technologies and tools they use. With the intense economic and geopolitical volatility we’re now experiencing, the imperative to drive growth and profitability persists but seems even less attainable. The key is for B2B leaders to not just seek to weather the storm but to chart a course through it, transforming challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation wherever possible.
Here are the actions that we’re guiding senior B2B leaders to take — now:
Increase focus on stable market segments. Anticipate budget tightening and prioritize market segments that offer the greatest potential for growth. At a minimum, you’ll be optimizing your costs, and you’ll be ready if the CFO and CEO come calling to ask you to give budget back.
Streamline technology and operations. With tech sprawl at an all-time high, it’s time to look for opportunities to consolidate. Focus on incumbent vendors that offer broad capabilities, reducing investment in overlapping tech. Identify non-strategic operational tasks and stop supporting them.
Double down on customer insights. In volatile times, understanding and empathizing with customers must be continuous. Use insights to improve high-friction processes and guide the tone and tenor of communications. This will enhance your resilience and benefit customer satisfaction.
Embrace scenario planning. Preparedness is the best defense against uncertainty. Develop contingency plans for a wide range of scenarios (e.g., increased costs to operate in a market, stalled deals in a specific segment) to help ensure swift and informed decision-making when challenges arise.
Accelerate decision-making. The pace of change demands agility. Empower your frontline leaders to take actions in response to buyer and customer insights. Foster a dynamic decision-making environment to adapt more swiftly to market changes.
Maintain compliance. Regulators and auditors don’t pause during periods of high volatility, but your policy adherence may break under the strain. Don’t let that happen by continuing to prioritize data compliance for internal systems and with partners and suppliers, too.
Master Change Leadership
Beyond these actions, successfully navigating volatility requires intentional change leadership. In times of rapid and unpredictable change, maintaining a connection to long-term goals remains important, but being nimble in the short term is also essential. Corporate and brand values can provide a compass for guiding decisions and behaviors — determine which are most important in the face of volatility and lean into them.
To effectively guide your organization:
Be a beacon of stability. Visible leadership means providing confidence and clarity to stabilize your organization amid chaos. Despite the volatility, set a vision, resolve uncertainty when able, identify barriers, and quickly release resources while actively listening to frontline teams.
Focus on people. Change impacts every level of an organization. Take a balanced approach to both the human and procedural aspects of change to help you ensure that engagement and productivity remain high. Implement or strengthen listening strategies to understand the impact of the change and adapt accordingly.
Prioritize well-being. High stress levels can undermine the effectiveness of even the most skilled leaders and teams. Promoting mental health and continuous learning (e.g., supporting teams with new tech such as AI) is important for maintaining morale and performance.
Steer Your Path With Confidence — But Keep A Close Eye On Risk
Your expertise as a B2B leader — most importantly, your commitment to meeting buyer and customer needs — will be key in helping your company weather the storm. Succeeding through volatility also means leaning into long-term risk management (across enterprise, ecosystem, and external risks). Put the most focus on risks over which you have the most control — for example, adapting to the surging buying power of younger generations and the need to engage with increasingly large and complex buying networks. Though the way through volatility is fraught with challenges and risk, savvy B2B leaders recognize that change also brings opportunity.
If you’re a Forrester client, read our full report for B2B leaders and schedule a guidance session to discuss applying our recommendations. Not yet a client? Explore our complimentary resources for navigating volatility and reach out so we can help you build your action plan for thriving in uncertainty.
