B2B Sales in B2C style

B2C Leaders like Amazon, Zalando, Bol.com or Coolblue have very much re-invented the customer experience of the B2C customer to the disadvantage of traditional B2C brick-and-mortar shops.

The high variety in product configurations, the possibility for detailed product information and reviews, the flexibility of ordering and returning, the continuous information on delivery status and options, and the easy way of doing business has determined a customer experience never seen before.

For B2C companies, the geographical market has become much larger than the area covered by local shops or local websites. And with the presence on various marketplaces B2C firms can gain market share not feasible via traditional channels.

B2B companies and their leaders are mostly aware their clients will expect similar experience in a B2B context, but the majority still believe in the traditional B2B thinking such as  “people buy from people”, “e-sales is only for small deals”, “buyers prefer selling from sales people”, or “key is  the relationship in B2B”.

The shift towards digital tools and e- channels has helped to mitigate these beliefs about B2B selling and its complexity.

B2B customers expect tailored products & services. B2B customers require a fantastic customer experience (tailored & valuable) and a fast, easy, simple, responsive, proactive service.  Therefore B2B companies need to foresee hyper customisation, visual configuration, pricing and quotation, be present on marketplaces, have subscription-based revenue models, and the possibility to do easy business. Ideally, they provide their clients with a self-service portal, and integrate their e-commerce platforms with internal systems like CRM and ERP.

In this context are Product Information Management solutions key to simply find the items and the information about those items in the search for the right product or service. To improve the search and recommendation, Artificial Intelligence could offer alternative products based on monitored customer behaviour, and hence more sales opportunities. The flexibility in delivery options will require alternative shipping channels as delivery time reduces and accuracy increases. Hyper customisation will require a baseline of standard components with selection of options, requiring flexibility in manufacturing and production planning. And in parallel organisations must become much more customer centric, customer centricity will have to be ingrained into the factory of the company.

B2B sales in the digital age will evolve to B2C alike experience but just as in the B2C world,  B2B leaders need to rethink their operating model, their digital strategy, the  technology and supporting organisation with extended eco-systems, and the gradual approach to scale up from a digital proof of concept to a sustained digital business. And to do this with enough progress, experience will matter, in which Mentor and Men can help.

Is your business ready to grow its market share?

Mentor and Men is guiding organisations to become more customer centric in this digital age.