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In B2B sales, clients are looking online, and if you’re not there to meet their advanced needs on the sales floor, someone else will.Customer-centric shopping sites shift the sales teams into a consultative role. Observant sales representatives monitor customer data to step in when needed.
Hybrid selling—initially an adaptation to the pandemic—is expected to be the most dominant sales strategy by 2024 due to shifts in customer preferences and remote-first engagement.Hybrid sales drive up to 50 percent more revenue by enabling broader, deeper customer engagement and unlocking a more diverse talent pool than more traditional models.Winning B2B organizations are shifting to a more hybrid sales force by implementing four actions that support success.
In Brief
Meeting customers’ changing expectations
In their business and personal lives, your clients are researching products, comparing prices and shopping online. In the business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, just as in the consumer arena, companies that sell products or services but haven’t implemented an e-commerce platform are missing out.
It is no longer enough to just maintain a serviceable online order portal. Business must adapt to stay competitive. For those just starting to sell online, that means introducing a digital element into current client relationships. For others, who have been at it for some time, the next step may be setting alerts to know when to step in and work through a complex sale with a client through a digitally enabled conversation.
B2B sales have traditionally involved long-standing relationships and personal sales calls, and therefore, a B2B e-commerce site must be about more than completing a transaction. An e-commerce site should be a customer service tool that guides the sale from beginning to end, addressing customers’ inquiries with automated and human interactions as needed along the way. For example, you can offer product expertise a first-time buyer may not have thought of and recommend components that work well with their existing equipment.
Your software can take sales a step further by providing guided selling. A program can use AI to recommend products that complement an existing purchase or are a required component of an item in the digital cart.
The sales team’s evolving responsibility
Shifting into a consulting role, they service the relationship, rather than the transaction.
A robust e-commerce site allows customers to set the tone and timeline for a digital sale and frees the sales team from administrative order-placing tasks. It allows sales associates to step into a consultative capacity, focusing on serving customers, answering specific product-related questions and developing new sales strategies to attract or retain clients.
Summary
Wherever a company is in its B2B e-commerce journey, online shopping is here to stay. Creating a good e-commerce experience means putting yourself in the customers’ shoes along their journey from awareness to consideration to shopping to purchasing again. It means understanding their pain points and removing obstacles from the sale.
Customers who make purchasing decisions as part of their jobs appreciate timesaving, logically organized sites that are easy to use and allow advanced search filters that can help them find the products they need quickly. By integrating existing programs, you not only make their work easier, but you can modernize your operations as well.
Self-Service Buying
For buyers and buying groups, preference for self-service continues to climb. In fact, Forrester’s 2021 B2B Buying Survey reveals that the number of self-directed buying interactions is greater than the number of human interactions (15 and 12, respectively). And in a recent , McKinsey & Company shares that 71% of buyers are willing to spend more than $50,000, with 27% willing to spend more than $500,000, in a self-service model. One sees why sales executives are enhancing the buying experience to include self-service options. It’s as if buyers are saying: “Let us make the purchase ourselves, and we’ll let you know when we need you.”
B2B E-Commerce
Buyers have instant access to peer feedback, product reviews, and technical specs. They also purchase online! B2B e-commerce reduces a buyer’s external dependencies and shortens their buying cycle (and your sales cycle — hint hint). This month, Forrester published its report and estimated that, by 2027, US B2B e-commerce will reach $3 trillion and account for 24% of total US B2B sales. What are you doing to claim your share of that growth? Just imagine buyers saying: “Let us buy anytime, anywhere. And … by the way … make the process frictionless.”
The future of B2B sales is hybrid
Key takeaways
Today’s B2B customers are very clear about what they want from suppliers: more channels, more convenience, and a more personalized experience. They want the right mix of in-person interactions, remote contact via phone or video, and e-commerce self-service across the purchasing journey. Adjusting to this new dynamic requires B2B organizations to shift from “traditional” and “inside” sales to “hybrid” in order to move with the customer.
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