SAS CMO makes the case for community-driven CX in B2B
Business decision-makers might see an ad, download a white paper or attend a conference that eventually leads them to invest in a B2B technology solution. There’s nothing wrong with that, but to marketing leaders like Jennifer Chase, long-term success will take treating those people less like “decision makers” and more like core parts of a valuable peer community.
As the CMO of SAS Inc., Chase is responsible for help shaping the customer experience (CX) for the global data and AI company. While its analytics solutions have been a mainstay within large enterprises for years, SAS now has an opportunity to reposition itself as a leader within the artificial intelligence (AI) space, and has updated its Viya platform with agentic capabilities and copilots.
Chase believes taking a community-centered approach to marketing will help make the evolution SAS has gone through clearer and, ultimately, more compelling for its target audience.
“We believe we have more work to do with CIOs and IT leaders so that they understand who SAS is today, and specifically the value Viya offers,” Chase told 360 Magazine. “When they experience the new version of our software, it’s a different experience with SAS.”
Part of Chase’s community strategy is literally meeting customers where they are, rather than forcing them to expand their carbon footprint by constantly travelling. The company has taken one of its largest flagship events, for instance, and turned into a 19-city world tour.
This is coupled with a digital presence, of course. Chase noted that, like many vendors, SAS has hosted online community hubs for years, but she and her team are paying close attention to how customers and prospects connect to educate each other, and striking the right balance between SAS employee involvement and true peer community participation.
“If somebody goes there because they have a question or want a recommendation about how to use our software, we measure how quickly another customer will respond, and we would rather another customer respond,” she said. “Part of that value is we’re going to introduce you to a community of people who, like you, are trying to solve some really hard problems with data and AI, and you’re going to get value not just out of engaging with SAS, but with engaging with other individuals who are just as passionate as you are.”
A true community experience is based on openness and a willingness to help without strings attached. Chase said that principal is changing how SAS is looking at the impact of its marketing efforts.
“Some of those performance marketing metrics actually drive behaviors that can go against customer experience,” she said, giving the example of putting a gate in front of an asset that provides expert guidance, limiting the number of potential customers who will see it. “When I talk about our community or our customer engagement-related activities, I’m looking at, how is that affecting net revenue retention and how are we expanding our relationship with our existing customer? I’m looking at customer satisfaction metrics. And not only are customers willing to recommend us to somebody, but are they saying we’re easy to do business with?”
Ideally, a customer who really feels part of the SAS community will be willing to share their success story on stage, talk to the media or write a review on a public forum, Chase added. This doesn’t happen at scale overnight, but she said it’s imperative as vendors automate customer operations on one hand while humanizing the way they build relationships with them.
“We used to do ‘batch and blast’ type marketing in the past (as a profession),” she said. “But campaigns that are driven by a journey that you think you can control . . . that’s no longer the case anymore. The customer is in complete control of their journey.”
