Is your business facing a collaboration crisis following the pandemic? The good news is that you’re not alone. The bad news is that you need to do something about it. Immediately. With 89% of B2B business leaders agreeing that cross-functional collaboration brings significant benefits to their businesses, if you don’t start to break down those barriers now, you risk facing a long uphill battle.
Before we get down to business, let’s pause for a moment to explore what cross-functional collaboration is. In essence, it’s what it says on the tin: collaboration between individuals with different functional expertise. It’s all about bringing different experience, knowledge and expertise together to form an unstoppable team. Think of it as The Avengers, only with way less violence and a lack of ‘cool’ costumes.
Now, if you are going to invest resources into creating that collaborative culture every company dreams of, you’ll need some evidence to justify your decision. And you’re probably wondering exactly what those ‘significant benefits’ mean for your business. And that’s where we come in. We’ve put together a list of three of the biggest benefits of cross-department collaboration in 2022. So grab yourself a cuppa, get comfy and prepare to take note.
Create an unbeatable customer experience
With many B2B markets now overcrowded, business leaders are under pressure to perfect the one thing that can make their organisation stand out from the crowd: customer experience. It cannot be replicated. It’s the thing that will create (or break) the bond between your clients and business. And it’s essential to get it right.
The recent pandemic has only accelerated the need for businesses to provide an exceptional customer experience, with 86% of B2B brands now agreeing a great customer experience is essential for their company to differentiate itself from their competitors. So, where should you begin?
If you’re serious about nailing your customer experience in 2022, you need to start by saying so long to silos. Every seamless customer experience, naturally, begins with unity on the inside. So rather than focusing on their own agendas, you need to encourage your teams to prioritise the most important thing to your business: your customers.
Customer experience is a big priority for B2B businesses in 2022 – and for good reason. If you get it right, you will create a serious competitive advantage and can expect to see significant growth. Discover what B2B marketing legend Pam Didner has to say about cross-functional collaboration in her interview for The Boss To Boss Podcast above.
Build a stronger workforce
It comes as no surprise that facilitating cross-department communication makes for a more collaborative culture. And this in itself will bring several benefits to your business. First, there’s the obvious one: improved communication throughout your organisation. By creating a common goal, you will encourage shared decision-making and increased collaboration, regardless of department, in turn, this will lead to higher levels of employee engagement (something so beneficial it has its own blog post – check it out here), increased productivity and plenty of opportunities for employees to upskill one another to really optimise their performance. It’s a no-brainer, right?
Up the innovation
How many times have you sat for hours struggling to come up with the perfect solution only to have someone swoop in at the last minute with the answer to all of your prayers? It’s pretty common, which is why it makes sense to get multiple people from different backgrounds involved from the start. By bringing in individuals from different departments you will unlock fresh perspectives and new insights which are exactly what you need when it comes to innovation.
It’s all too common for B2B organisations to get comfortable and fail to push themselves to reach their full potential. By encouraging collaboration between departments, you are likely to see more creative and out of the box ideas along with optimised solutions for some of your toughest challenges.
So there we have three of the main benefits of cross-functional collaboration for B2B organisations in 2022. But it doesn’t start and end here. Facilitating collaboration between departments will bring a world of benefits to your organisation and employees – so don’t overlook it and risk falling behind in 2022.
Looking for a helping hand with your marketing? Get in touch today to organise your free consultation and discover how we can help you to reach the next level.
