3 simple ways to increase B2B sales

The volume of purchases and sales made by companies online is constantly growing. Ordinary netizens buy a lot on the Internet, and businesses even more. In 2012, Forrester Research predicted the volume of orders from US companies and government agencies on the Internet at the level of $ 559 billion - twice as much as the projected volume of B2C-spending.

However, in many areas, the B2C segment outpaced B2B in aspects such as ease of shopping and process coherence. But everything changes. For example, 46% of executives of companies operating in the B2B e-commerce industry said in a survey of Forrester Research that they expect up to a third of their customers to come online within three years. In the same survey, 67% of executives said that their companies' IT budgets would increase this year, and 49% were convinced that within 18 months the company's ecommerce platform would be completely redesigned to provide sales to other companies, government agencies, educational institutions. institutions and other businesses.
')
This article will focus on three steps that you can take to increase online sales and attract more B2B customers at no significant cost.

Retailers can increase sales using three approaches:

1. Selling more products to current customers.
2. Selling current products to more customers.
3. Selling more products to a wider range of buyers.

The best strategy is obvious, but implementing it is not always that easy. It will be even more difficult to understand how to sell more to a wider range of customers if you work with both private and corporate clients. B2B sales are very different from B2C - understanding this fact will be the first step to success.

Step One: Find Out Who Your Customer Is

B2B	B2C
The company sells to another company.
Buyer needs a solution	Buying is often driven by emotion.
Longer sales cycle: research → approval → approval	Short sales cycle: availability of goods → price → purchase
Many decision makers participate	The decision is made by one person.
Brand loyalty is important	No brand loyalty
Large sales (volume)	Small volume
Wholesale prices	Retail price
Deferred purchases	Buying here and now
Different payment terms	Instant payment
High risk, long term relationship	Low risk, short term relationship

The paradigm of B2B sales in e-commerce has changed. Competent corporate clients go from long and resource-intensive negotiations, phone calls and orders by mail or fax. Now they need convenience, availability of service 24 hours 7 days a week, an informative and beautiful website, the ability to instantly order automatically, flexible payment terms, reviews of other users, etc.

Moreover, it is changing how it is worth going out with such customers to contact - they no longer need to call, very often they themselves find the right product via the Internet, so you need to have a good website. These changes also affect how B2B vendors should work to attract customers and build a sales process. To build a successful and long-term B2B sales channel, you need to provide customers with the same level of convenience, support, and technology that the decision-makers at this company are accustomed to as individual online shoppers.

If for now you do not have such B2B solutions, or they are far behind B2C, then the next step may be personalization.

Step Two: Personalized B2B Purchasing Process

You will need an attractive - that is, professionally made and appropriately looking - and user-friendly website. Here are some of his features and things that are required to be done:

• SEO and metadata tags - to be higher in search.
• SSL certification is a guarantee of security.
• Desktop and mobile version - flexibility and scalability.

Intuitive site - good design.

• Clear way to make a purchase. Information → Demo → Offer → Contact → Purchase.
• Detailed product catalog with good images - product detail, specifications, availability information.
• Product positioning - expert reviews and reviews, comparisons with competitors, etc.
• The ability to bind the client "club membership", awards and promotions.

Easy payment

• Client account with privileges and attributes.
• Various payment methods - credit cards, payment systems, credit
• Discounts, coupons.
• Credit approval system.
• The ability to use third-party delivery services.

Customer support - virtual or real:

• Interactive support on the site.
• Online chat, virtual assistant, mail or phone support.
• Features personalized communication.

Step Three: cost optimization and profit maximization

Reaching the point where sales go through various channels, you need to think about how to manage them. To do this, use the so-called multi-channel management platform, which link the processes of sales and back office. All this helps to detect thin spots and eliminate them, resulting in increased productivity, and reduced costs for manual control.

Here are some of the most tangible benefits that a multichannel management platform provides:

• The ability to manage goods in various ecommerce-systems (POS, ERP).
• Automate the flow of incoming / outgoing orders from suppliers and buyers.
• Delivery management.
• Synchronization of product information (price, availability, etc.) in different systems at the same time.
• Updating online accounting databases - simplifying the process of accounting and reporting.
• Detailed sales reports and analytics tools.

Creating such an “environment” in which corporate customers could feel comfortable (at the same time satisfying their needs) is a solution that benefits everyone. If a B2B company can offer a convenient and inexpensive way to make purchases for its customers and at the same time debug sales processes, its business will grow, and satisfied customers will return more than once.