We caught up with Nicole Lontzek, Marketing Director at aioneers ahead of the B2B Marketing Festival on June 7th & 8th.
Please could you introduce yourself?
Hello, I'm Nicole Johnson. I'm Marketing Director at aioneers a sophisticated supply chain management software. I've been working in marketing for around 12 years now across different sectors and industries.
I used to work at google and for clients like aliens or TUI or other big brands and  I'm super happy in the B two B sector, because I think that marketing in B2B has a lot to do with educating people. I always come from that angle where you teach people so that they can improve themselves and their services, processes and products. So I'm very happy to be in that place.
I'm very happy to be in that position where I can lead and direct people into what I think is the right direction in this case, improved supply chain management. Because I mean you know that this the topic is becoming even more important and now in the future, so when you have a look into the news, you see supply chain topic spread all around and we are here to solve the most pressing issues.
What will you be discussing at the upcoming B2B Marketing Festival?
We will be discussing how to improve customer retention with interactivity and with gamification. I think that this is going to be a very interesting conversation because you can look at it from different angles and we have seen that for example gamification has grown a lot over the last decade, people just love to interact with the product and want to be involved and be part of something bigger. I think that is going to be a very interesting conversation and I'm very much looking forward to it.
What nugget of wisdom are you hoping to leave attendees with after your talk?
For me, I think the most important part is to put the customer at the centre of your actions. I can't stress this enough because more often than not I see companies trying to operate around their personas and around their ideal customer profile, but they don't really know who the real customer is. And this is because they don't listen to their customers. I think that this is something you can easily avoid. It's a little effort in the beginning, so you have to stand close to your customers or close to your desired customers and you have to listen to them very, very carefully and also ask the right questions. But if you manage that game, if you're good in listening and really understanding customers problems, then you have a way higher chance of selling your product or selling your services and you have a way higher chance of succeeding.
So if I could leave you with one message, it would be please put your customer at the centre and listen to them because they know best what they need.
Which other sessions are you looking forward to attending at the festival?
So what I would be interested in besides our panel discussion is the topic of digital technologies or technologies in general and how they have evolved throughout the last one or two years, and how you can use those technologies to automate marketing processes and to streamline operations. And of course, besides that, I'm very much looking forward to connecting with other people and exchanging ideas.
