How To Adapt Your B2B Business To Digital Sales

Digital sales are set to become the cornerstone of B2B business. With half of your customers likely to be buying online by 2021, it is vital that you adapt to changing customer needs now. If your business still relies on traditional sales techniques, you may feel daunted about the prospect of investing in a self-service ecommerce platform and adopting a more tech-centred approach to generating orders. Pioneers of online selling probably had the same apprehensions - until they reaped the rewards.

With digital sales growing ten times faster than offline sales, you can no longer rely on face-to-face marketing, telesales or print catalogues. Closing a deal could get harder for field sales reps as customers recognise the time-saving benefits of conducting product research and ordering online. If you want to shift the focus of your marketing strategy to the web, you will need to stop thinking solely about lead generation and focus on conversions. Comgem, the UK’s market-leading developer of B2B ecommerce platforms, reveals the benefits of a B2B business going digital.

Digital sales and online marketing for the B2B business

Dani Attard is an ecommerce expert. The Commercial Director at Comgem, she says:

“Marketing messages and presentations reach far more people online than in person. Think about it. How many appointments does one of your field sales executives have to make to close a decent deal or get a new customer on board? If you use the right tech, you can attract people interested in your products to your website - and at far less cost. If you can engage your website visitors, they are more likely to buy.”

Here Dani lists the gaps between traditional marketing and digital sales:

• B2B buyers are busy. They are more likely to have time to look at your website than agree to a meeting with a sales rep or talk to someone on the phone
• Buyers are cost and quality conscious. They like comparing products, prices, delivery options and payment terms. They do this online
• The cost of maintaining a field sales team is higher than investing in a responsive ecommerce platform
• Most B2B buyers are tech savvy and prefer to make decisions based on research than oral sales pitches
• Printed catalogues are the new junk mail. They are expensive to produce and distribute and impossible to update, making them particularly inefficient. Online catalogues can be instantly updated and tailored to individual customer’s needs with smart ecommerce technology
• B2B ecommerce keeps the customer informed automatically at every stage of the buying process. This reduces the workload on customer service departments. It can also link in with suppliers and stock control systems to reduce problems that have traditionally been associated with human error

How to make the switch to digital sales

Dani says investing in the the right B2B ecommerce solution is pivotal. She points out:

“Once your B2B business is online, you should tempt existing customers to order via your website with special offers. An email marketing campaign is a great place to start. Invite buyers to subscribe to your platform and make it worth their while to sign up. Have a loyalty scheme in place and ensure it is super easy for customers to re-order products they regularly need."

“By paying attention to your online content, product descriptions and pricing, you can make your business more efficient and sell more. Ambitious businesses that offer a great online experience that is mirrored across all devices will sell more than competitors who fail to grasp how digital sales are transforming the B2B landscape.”

Discover what the top B2B ecommerce features are in this free to download guide.

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