You can provide service 24/7 without having the staff in the office. Your staff don’t have to perform the boring routine tasks as checking order status, stocks, and getting rest order lists for the customers, but can focus on the more advanced assignments as the personal contact that really makes a difference.
Differences B2B – B2C
When you look at B2B, you can see that B2B has changed a lot lately, and that many sites have adopted functions as personalisation and campaigns, that B2C has had for a long time. But I wouldn’t say that you in B2B has shifted focus, but more broaden the concept. The customers in B2B has the same needs and behaviour as a regular consumer, and can at the same time be a classical B2B customer who prefer to order with article numbers, and can do it in a monochrome terminal window, all depending on what they do at that moment.
B2B is broader than we see in B2C, and it is important that we know which kind of customers you have so you have the appearance and functions that your customers need, and not try to look like another site with another type of customers. Dustin couldn’t look like Ahlsells and vice versa.
An important difference between B2B and B2C is that you often have a different kind of relation to the customers. There is often a contract between the parties regulating price and assortment, and in that case it is important that it is also reflected on the site. If you can call your sales rep and get a special price, you undermine your site.
At B2B sites we can also benefit from the functions that make it easier for the customers, that are not that useful at the consumer sites, and if you make it right, it can give you the competition advantage that you need.
Facilitate
Apart from selling things to your customers, it is also important to facilitate tasks and the daily work for them. If you have a good site that the customer wants to use, you will connect the customer to you, and they will in the long run order more from you. It should be fun doing business with you!
Despite if the customer wants to order from you, you need to provide the customer with the option to work as the want, despite if they want to check out the site and add one product at the time to the cart, or if they want to add all items in a form of a quick order. The customer might want different shopping lists that they can work on, or watch lists so that they are informed when a product is in stock again.
If you sell spare parts, a really nice function is that you can see cutaways and easily click down to find the parts that you are looking form, and in an easy way order them from there. Some of you sell products to store, and they probably don’t have your full product line. A function that you could have that makes it easier for stores are to show a recommended price, and what the store buys the product for together with contribution margin/coverage ratio. It is then easy for the store to see how far you can go if you want to offer the customer any discount. If you can quickly hide this information, the store can use your web page to compare different products together with the customer.
You can also have a function where you as a customer can create a product page or catalogue by selection a certain number of products that you can use to create a nice PDF with product information where the store can put their prices.
We have also built an attest function in certain systems, in order for those with budget responsibility can easily attest an order that is placed on the site. They don’t have to handle a lot of papers or e-mails internally. Anything to making it easier for the customer.
The Sales Organization
That today’s sales and marketing organizations need to adjust to be successful in the future is a must. The change from looking in a paper catalogue and talking to sales reps, to searching for the information and ordering products online is huge. It is all about adjusting the sales organization to the new way of selling, and seeing the web as a helping hand, and not a competitor that is trying to steal their job. There are numbers of different chat functions that can be used to offer visitors at your site to get in touch with a sales rep or customer service. The sales organizations expertize is often needed, but it is better if they do the work where it is really useful and provide suggestions and recommendations when it is needed.
Sometimes we have clicked on several pages on a sites to even find the ways to get in contact with a company. Don’t make it hard to contact you when you want to, and don’t be afraid to offer help, be personal at your site. Sales reps and the site should complement each other and live in symbiosis. So listen to your customers and find out what they expect from their sales reps, and listen to your sales reps to find out what ideas they have to adjust to the future B2B commerce.
Omnichannel
If you have cracked the sales idea, you are one step in the right direction to omnichannel thinking. For B2B companies, omnichannel isn’t just a buzz word, it means business. We have heard a lot of omnichannel, but you usually talk about it in connection to B2C. For B2B it is not enough with little digital fragments in a solution that is patched together, for the future B2B commerce, an omnichannel way of thinking is required from the start that is reflected in the entire business.
There are great possibilities for the companies that can offer an online order or reservation to then pick it up in the store the same or next day. A think that is suited for some companies is a form of Drive through, as the hamburger chains have. You order to pick up in the store, but instead of going in, you can go straight to picking it up. Fast and easy. If you are in a good mood, you can get them a cup of coffee to go, so they don’t miss out on that store benefit.
Corporate customers also expect the prices to be the same in different channels, and that all delivery options can be selected. It is not ok as for example DELL where ordering online is not possible, since the prices when you call are that much better.
It is just to realize that it takes investments in technology to get a well-functioning omnichannel solution going, but it also demands investments in the organization and the processes so it reflects the entire company.
