Kito Crosby

After more than 20 years working in B2B industrial markets, including oil and gas, manufacturing and lifting equipment, I've learned that some of the most valuable business opportunities begin with a simple question: What would make our customer's job easier?

It's a question that has shaped how I approach marketing, business development and customer relationships. It also reinforces something I've believed throughout my career: marketing is a promise, and the entire organization has a responsibility to deliver on it.

Marketing helps define what customers can expect from a business. Business development builds opportunities around that expectation. When both functions work together, with a clear understanding of the customer's needs, they create something far more valuable than a transaction: a relationship that continues to grow.

Marketing's Place At The Business Development Table

Marketing has traditionally been associated with campaigns, communications and brand awareness. Those responsibilities remain valuable, but they represent only part of its contribution to business growth.

I believe marketing belongs at the business development table, helping identify market opportunities, understand customer behavior, recognize unmet needs and guide decisions about where the business should invest its efforts.

 

In industrial markets, where purchasing decisions involve technical requirements, safety considerations and long-term relationships, this connection becomes especially valuable.

A distributor may need better access to product information. An end user may need technical training to work more safely. A customer may be looking for a supplier that can support several operational needs without adding unnecessary complexity.

Each of those conversations reveals an opportunity. Marketing's responsibility is to turn those insights into a better understanding of the market, while working with business development and other teams to determine how the organization can respond.

We Succeed When Our Customers Succeed

One of the principles I hold closest is that our success depends on our customers' success.

At Columbus McKinnon, I have the opportunity to work within an organization that brings together a broad range of industrial solutions, technical knowledge and support capabilities. I'm genuinely excited about what that means for customers, particularly when we can make their work easier by helping them find the right solutions and resources in one place.

But having those capabilities is only part of the equation. Customers need to know what's available, understand how it applies to their work and feel confident that we'll support them after the purchase.

Training is a good example.

In industries where equipment performance and safe operation matter every day, training goes beyond product knowledge. It helps distributors make informed recommendations and gives end users the confidence to select, inspect and use equipment correctly.

For me, helping customers become more knowledgeable and capable is one of the most meaningful contributions we can make to their success.

Listening Creates Better Business Opportunities

Some of the most useful insights I've gained throughout my career have come from conversations with customers, distributors, sales teams and customer service professionals.

Often, the feedback is surprisingly simple. A process takes too long. Information is difficult to find. A customer needs greater visibility into an order or wants an easier way to do business with us.

These observations deserve attention because they tell us where the customer's experience and our intentions don't quite meet.

Our work with Crosby Connect, a distributor portal, has reinforced that lesson. A significant number of its improvements have been informed by customer feedback, helping us address practical needs around ordering, information access and dayto-day account management.

What matters to me is the process behind those improvements: listening, identifying recurring challenges, bringing the right people together and turning feedback into action.

When marketing and business development share that knowledge, customer conversations begin to influence how the business operates, rather than simply what it communicates.

Making Customer Success A Leadership Responsibility

We're in the relationship business. And relationships are built through the experience customers have with us, long after the first conversation or purchase.

That requires marketing and business development to share responsibility for more than generating opportunities. They should also help the organization understand whether its promises are being fulfilled.

Are we making it easier for customers to do business with us? Are we helping them become more successful? Are we using what they tell us to make better decisions?

These questions should help shape priorities, investments and the way we measure success.

I firmly believe that the strongest business relationships develop when customers see us as people who understand their challenges, value their time and care about what happens after the sale.

When marketing helps shape the promise, business development helps create the opportunity and the organization delivers on both, customer success becomes a shared business strategy.

And when our customers succeed, we give them every reason to keep succeeding with us.