In recent years, business-to-business marketing and sales have changed rapidly as the digitization of buyers has changed how they research and purchase products and services.
The digital revolution has enabled buyers to analyze and collect more data about the supply chain.
Google has become the primary tool of research for procurement professionals. It provides a wealthier and more diverse range of information about products and suppliers.
There is a revolution in information at every level of the B2B marketplace. Buyers are not tolerant of systems or processes limiting their information access. They want detailed and relevant information at their fingertips, without having to deal with the gatekeepers of the seller’s sales department. This is true for buyers of all sizes, from small businesses to large corporations.
What can B2B providers do to ensure buyers get the information they want?
E-Commerce Is No Longer Optional
In the past, B2B vendors could count on prospective buyers to call them early in the selection process. Buyers are much more likely to contact a seller’s sales department when they have already gotten further into the purchasing funnel. They may want to speak to a seller’s salesperson at some point. However, the initial selection of vendors is based on research conducted independently and informed by online information about the company or product.
When buyers cannot find enough information online, they do not contact the vendor’s sales team but drop them from their consideration. This is most likely to be the case for highly competitive industries.
If several suppliers are acceptable, the ones that offer the most helpful information online have a better chance of being selected
E-commerce may be the best way to ensure access to adequate information online. Modern ecommerce applications present products and services in rich detail, especially on the aspects that matter most to buyers. This includes product specifications and pricing. These are essentially content management systems designed for sales, which makes them more effective in presenting information than less sophisticated catalogs or listing solutions.
Also, e-commerce applications include features for B2B. Magento and WooCommerce, more focused on retail for consumers, can be enhanced by extensions and plugins that adapt them to B2B. Enterprise B2B platforms like Oracle’s Netsuite SuiteCommerce and IBM Websphere offer bulk ordering, customer-specific catalogs, and other B2B sales features.
Search engine optimization is dependent on e-commerce. Google is the first place most business buyers go to begin their research. It’s not surprising that Google is the first place people go to do research. Because so many business buyers rely on Google to find relevant products, sellers who don’t rank highly are at a disadvantage compared to their competitors. Your buyers might not know about your products if they don’t appear prominently on Google searches.
Buying Decisions aren’t purely rational
We expect that business buyers will be more rational than the average consumer. Few procurement professionals make decisions on the spur of the moment. There is usually a list of criteria to which a seller must adhere. Nonrational factors, however, can have an unexpected impact on procurement decisions.
Management consultants Bain & Company, in “B2B Value Elements”, offer a hierarchy breakdown of factors that influence B2B customers–organized into a pyramid. You would expect the foundations to meet specifications, acceptable prices, scalability, and quality. Bain also lists other, less concrete factors. These include personal factors like good design, reduced anxiety, and career factors like reputation assurance.
Design and aesthetics are exciting factors because B2B companies haven’t previously focused on them. Older enterprise software or catalog sites may have a “design” you are familiar with. The elegant design of online retail stores and the widespread use of SaaS have led us to expect more than the traditional enterprise design.
The aesthetics and design of online sources can have a significant, even if unintentional, impact on the decisions made by business buyers.
E-commerce is essential here as well. Modern B2B platforms have taken many lessons from retail and can now create an impressive ecommerce presence.
Integration & Automation
Businesses have adopted spend management and e-procurement platforms as part of their efforts to gain greater control over procurement and spending. SAP Ariba and other platforms like Coupa and Jaggaer allow businesses to automate workflows and enforce procurement policies.
When e-procurement can automatically gather data from suppliers, it is more efficient. This includes tasks like automatically generating purchase orders, requisitions, and invoices. Punchout catalogs allow buyers to utilize their eProcurement platform fully.
The only way this type of automation can be achieved is if the suppliers are willing to integrate with the eProcurement Platforms used by their buyers. E-commerce, again, is the easiest method for meeting the integration needs of the buyer. Cloud integration gateways allow any eProcurement Platform to be integrated with any eCommerce application.
We referred to Bain’s Elements of Value Pyramid for B2B earlier. We only mentioned a few elements that influence a B2B purchaser’s decision. Other factors include reduced effort and time, information, transparency, and connection. It is easy to understand why buyers love working with sellers that offer automation and integration.
Conclusion
B2B has evolved slower than consumer retail, but there are many similarities: transparency, better user experiences, automation, and self-service. B2B suppliers that leverage eCommerce and digital tools will thrive, while those who do not will be challenged by buyers seeking partners who can better meet their needs.