It's not good enough for your company to just endure. It needs to grow. If you can't attract and retain customers continually, everything else is just noise.
Companies like L'Oreal, which have endured for more than 100 years, guard against complacency. And it's a big reason L'Oreal is the world's largest beauty company with more than $45 billion in 2024 revenue. The company embraces its history and innovates for the future.
Snowflake, a cloud-based data storage company founded in 2012, now has over $4 billion in annual revenue. The company shows how to attract and retain customers relatively quickly with the right structure in place.
Align Sales And Marketing Early To Attract And Retain Customers
Sales and marketing are the two engines that fuel growth. But "too many companies allow sales and marketing to operate as rivals," said Denise Persson, Snowflake's chief marketing officer. "At Snowflake, marketing treats sales as our customer."
Persson, along with Snowflakes' Chief Revenue Officer Chris Degnan, wrote "Make It Snow: From Zero to Billions: How Snowflake Scaled Its Go-To-Market Organization."
"Marketing's job is to generate demand, build the pipeline and equip sales to close deals," she said.
This means everything from creating awareness and thought leadership, to running targeted campaigns to delivering qualified leads that sales can convert, Persson said.
"Alignment isn't a soft skill; it's a competitive advantage," she said. "It's the difference between a $3 million business and a $3 billion one. Companies that get this right don't just grow, they scale exponentially."
Codify And Protect Your Culture
A company's culture is key to its ability to grow, Persson said.
In the early days of Snowflake, rituals like "Waffle Wednesdays" and team ski trips built a sense of belonging for the team, she says. As Snowflake grew, they set eight values in stone to ensure culture.
It starts with putting customers first and stressing integrity always. But the company also urges employees to think big and strive for excellence. Great ideas aren't worth much if not executed. So the staff is rewarded for getting tasks done and owning their completion. Teamwork is critical, too. Employees try to make each other the best they can be and embrace other's differences.
"Write down your values early, live them daily and use them to guide both hiring and strategic decisions," Persson said.
Attract And Retain Customers By Putting Them At The Center
The No. 1 value in Snowflake's culture is "Put customers first." So it's not surprising the company is "obsessed over solving real customer problems, not pushing features," Persson said.
She suggests every leader asks: "Are we truly listening to customers, and are we building solutions that remove their pain points?"
That customer-first lens "will keep you focused when distractions arise," Persson said.
Double Down On Your Key Product
Identify the one or two products or services that truly move your business and put disproportionate weight behind them," said Leslie Marino, president of L'Oreal's U.S. Professional Products Division.
L'Oreal recently doubled down on investment and marketing around professional hair treatment products when they discovered that they were outpacing shampoo purchases.
Find lots of ways to connect with customers. Doing so will keep your brand and products at the top of your customers' mind.
Brands need to meet customers across multiple channels — in person, online, through various social media platforms — to help retention and deepen brand connection.
"Customers don't just want claims and benefits, they want to be inspired by stories and experiences around the brand," Marino said.
Invest In Customer Education
L'Oreal's Professional Products unit invests a great deal of resources into educating salon professionals. This helps them master their craft and run stronger small businesses.
"As a division, we host over 25,000 education classes per year, with an eye on scaling and efficiency," Marino said.
Every company — from small to large — should ask themselves what information and education they can provide to help customers get the most out of products and services.
Balance Legacy with Innovation
Customers trust brands with long histories, but they also expect innovation, Marino states.
L'Oreal balances its 115-year legacy in hair color with product innovation. That's what happened as products such as treatments and serums began to outpace shampoo in sales.
"This mix reassures legacy customers but also keeps the brand fresh for new generations," Marino said.
Execute with Discipline
Focus beats frenzy, Persson said.
She says Snowflake resisted the temptation to chase every shiny opportunity. Instead, the company focused on building the best data warehouse they could to become a backbone of the AI revolution.
"Choose a clear path, execute with discipline and only expand once you've nailed your foundation," she said.
While the lessons Persson has learned and developed come from a high-tech, product-based company, "the principles of alignment and culture apply to almost every business," she said. "It's about setting a clear culture and scaling with discipline."
