The eCommerce Surge in Manufacturing is here to stay
I had the opportunity to read Benedict Evans “The eCommerce surge” article, and I was really taken aback by the impact that this period of uncertainty and global crisis is having on the e-commerce business even for manufacturers.
Sure, it was logic that in a time where meeting people is not recommended, digital purchases would have increased, but the graph is very impressive:In the last few months, e-commerce has experienced the same growth as in the last few years combined.
What is happening is a revolutionary change in the way customers interact with companies, and this change is here to stay well after the pandemic.
Despite this, a surprising number of contacts I am having in these weeks tells me that they have paused or postponed their plans for digital commerce!
Sure, companies need to tackle problems caused by the pandemic, because the increase in digital sales does not cover the loss in the offline channels. But as the history of brands like Apple or Tesla tells us, when there is a radical shift of equilibrium in the world, whoever or whatever can ride that wave is destined to remain in a leadership position for the future.
A “Duck and cover” strategy can surely guarantee survival in the very short term, but it is crucial to react and try to seize anything that can turn the situation into an advantage.
Discuss the customer revolution in manufacturing together with representatives from Tacton, Intershop and our mutual customer Atlas Copco at the Tacton Smart Commerce Online Summit on November 17.
The window of opportunity is already closing.
But with budget issues, how is it possible to act in an efficient way and not put the business at further risk?
One way is to act fast and create a quick Minimum Viable Product. Open or renew a digital channel for the most important and remunerative segment of your market: it does not have to be complete or exhaustive, but it is a way to hold on to your customer, increase their satisfaction and loyalty, and why not a possibility to increase your share despite your competitors while they are struggling?
It is wise to choose a solution that comes with the most Out of the Box features, that lives in the Cloud to avoid burdening the IT department, and that requires the minimum up-front investments.
It won’t be beneficial only to the customers, but it will also free up sales resources from mundane tasks and allow them to stay closer to customers and increase margin and quality.
What happens when the wave is passed? It would be very bad to lose the gained momentum. This is why it is very important to choose a platform that not only can go live quickly but also that is sufficiently elastic and reliable to grow together with your business and be the foundation of a newly found prosperity.
Ready to learn more? Join us on November 17th for our Smart Commerce Summit with Intershop, nVent, Atlas Copco, Pelco, and more!
Note: This article was first published by Mauro Boffardi, Customer Success Leader at Intershop
In remote sales, submitting a complete quote to a customer is vital. Here’s how you can collaborate remotely with your customer to co-create a successful deal.
Over the past couple of months, many commercial teams, including those working for global manufacturers, have gotten used to working remotely. While you may have found ways of keeping your customers and prospects engaged, chances are that many on-going sales process were stopped from one week to the next. Today, many organizations are embracing the latest technologies to carry on with their sales processes remotely. Until recently, manufacturers selling complex products lacked the sales tools to enable remote sales.
The most critical moment of a Sale
Submitting a complete quote to a customer is one of the most important moments of a sale. This moment captures all the previous engagements, meetings and discussions you had with the customer and is a testament of how you plan to meet your customer’s needs.
Given the complexity of B2B deals, it is common for an initial proposal to be submitted only to be returned with corrections and suggestions form the customer. While no side wants delays, all parties understand the need to ensure every last detail is correct before an agreement is finalized. The fewer these backs and forth, the faster both parties can get what they want.
In the past, the process of getting the quote just right would be carried out over days or weeks, by means of a back and forth (typically in writing). While e-mail, and document sharing services have managed to speed things up from the days of the fax, the process remained slow and cumbersome.
Don’t just communicate, COLLABORATE!
The process of “coming to an agreement” used to involve the back-and-forth “dialogue” between two sides, each trying to get their needs met. Today, any B2B salesperson understands that it’s never a good idea to see the other party as an adversary (win-lose), rather as a partner with a common goal (win-win). In other words, if you want to be effective today, you need to actively collaborate with your customers and help them achieve their goals.
While many may agree to this win-win approach, in theory, many organizations struggle to put it into practice. Fortunately, today there are new sales tools and software solutions that make it easier to embrace collaboration with your customers while working remotely. Here’s how.
2 Ways of collaborating with customers during the sales process
1) Crafting a quote together, step by step, during the same sales call
Imagine if it was possible to be on a video call with your customer. As you are listening to the needs of the customer, you are able to create the quote so by the time you hang up, the quote is already sitting in their inbox. This is exactly what happens in this video.
The video was created by one of our product managers working from home, who enlisted the help of his neighbor to play the role of a buyer. This is yet another example of how we are adapting to this situation.
Here you see how within a call, the salesperson is able to make adjustments to the quote in real-time. If you watched to the end, you can see that the quote will be ready “in a few minutes”.
This is an ideal example of what collaboration with your customer looks like. The customer feels understood and feedback if acted upon right away.
2) Asynchronously: Handing the keys to the customer
While configuring the quote at the same time might be ideal. There are cases when your customer is working half-way around the world and having a clear video call at the same time is just not feasible. To remain collaborative in these situations, you need to give the customer part-ownership of the process. There are many benefits to allowing your customers to co-create the quote with you, including tapping into what’s known as the IKEA effect.
In this 2-minute video, we can see how a prospect received a detailed quote and, like in the above video, he is able to visualize the product using AR.
Here, you can see how the customer was not satisfied with the original quote. Rather than “sending it back” to you, the customer is empowered to log in directly to a limited quoting environment and reconfigure the order to match their needs.
All that is left to do, is for you to observe the changes made and proceed with the quote.
(BONUS) The Hidden Benefits of Collaboration
We’ve just highlighted some of the practical benefits of collaborating with your customer, especially when it comes to working remotely. There are, also some additional benefits to working in a collaborative way.
1) Shorter sales cycle: The easier it is to make alterations and adjustments, the quicker both sides can come to an agreement.
2) Reduce quoting errors: With its AI-powered configurator, every quote is technically 100% error-free. This reduces the need for sales engineers to correct any order errors.
3) CPQ quotes and proposals are directly linked to Salesforce (or other CRMs) and with your ERP
4) Configured product orders from CPQ are seamlessly transferred to the PLM or other production software.
Is your organization still stuck on a back-and-forth sales loop? We’re here to help. Click here and request a personalized demo with one of our specialists.
Check out our Resource page where you can read customer success stories, and experience live customer demos.
How to DEMO Manufacturing products remotely using 3D and AR (Augmented reality).
The coronavirus is transforming how we “get to work” – in all senses of the word. With many people being asked to work from home (#WFH), it’s hard to go online and not read tips on designing your home workspace, or even the top 5 tips to host a remote sales meeting.
Few professionals,however, seem to understand the challenges of B2B sales. Particularly, the challenges of selling complex manufacturing products. It’s not as if their sales process wasn’t already complicated enough, now with everyone working from home, it’s next to impossible to make progress on their sales process. Or maybe… you just don’t have the right tools.
Just because you can’t meet your customers in person, does not mean that you can’t demo your products. Here’s how.
Imagine sending your prospects a customized product quote, along with a bar code. For this example, let’s pretend you sell elevators (watch the video below):
It’s important to note that this was not just a 3D/AR visualization of a STANDARD product. Rather, this is a virtual demo of a CONFIGURED product – customized to the exact specifications of the client.
AR demos are becoming more commonplace and they are being used in a wider range of products. On average, 65% of people are visual learners, and they can retain 4 times more information if it’s accompanied by visual aids.
It looks simple, doesn’t it? Well, for our customers that have implemented Tacton Visual Configuration, the process is as easy as it looks. Let’s take a closer look.
It all starts with CPQ (Configure Price Quote). This is the underlying technology that guides the user through the configuration process with ease, ensuring that all components selected are compatible and viable. For configurable products (especially those with many variables that are highly complex), a CPQ is vital for ensuring the product meets the customer’s needs and that the configuration itself is error-free.
In this slightly longer version of the video, you can see what would happen if the customer is not satisfied with the product quoted. CPQ simplifies the configuration process to such an extent that even a customer can do it.
Tacton uses an AI-powered configuration engine, allowing configuration (including accurate price and realistic visualizations) to be carried out in real-time. This makes it possible for you to put together a complete quote during a sales meeting, or right after speaking to the customer. Once configured, you can send images and augmented reality (AR) demos of that exact product. This gives the customer an accurate preview of the product they are looking to buy.
The very same configuration quoted can be seamlessly transferred to the ERP systems or the PLM systems so that it is manufactured exactly as quoted. CPQ eliminated the back and forth between sales, production, and engineering.
So far, all this can be done remotely, without the need to travel or meet in person.
Do you think your organization can benefit from such solutions?
If you are interested in seeing a complete demo on how this quoting process would go, we recently hosted a 20min webinar that walks you through the entire visual configuration process in greater detail.
Would you like to try it for yourself?
We’ve created 2 fictional companies: Tructon, a Truck manufacturer; and Parker Lifts and elevator company. These are free for anyone to try out. It’s important to remember that these are “demos” and tacton provides the underlying technology. The looks and feel (UX) can be completely customized by the customer.
How to start using our AR app:
1) Download the app here: AR app available only on IOS, if you have Android, you can still test the demos on the desktop and view the 3D versions, check out steps 2 and 3).
Since the WHO declared Covid-19 as a pandemic, many organizations have asked us: How are we supposed to sell our manufacturing products remotely? Consider this the first installment of a series opportunistically named “How to sell your manufacturing products remotely”
Recently, Tacton CPQ was named a Visionary in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CPQ Application Suites, and as such, we wanted to give you some practical tips that any team selling complex-configurable products can implement today to get the most out of their remote sales meeting.
1) It’s an opportunity to build Stronger Customer Relationships
Misconception to avoid: Video calls are “distant”, and therefore also creates distance in your customer’s relationships.
Anyone working in B2B sales understands that building strong customer relationships is the key to success. For the past couple of years, we’ve been hearing how “vulnerability” and “empathy” have empowered business leaders to make better decisions and strengthen their business relationships. The current global crisis, halting business-as-usual, offers us a chance to put business aside and take a moment to listen to our customers’ issues, empathize with their situation and offer guidance.
For this, it is important to remain authentic and not ask if you are not willing to truly listen. This is an opportunity to set aside the frantic pace of sales, and use the time for other less urgent matters. The whole world is slowing down, so turn this to an advantage.
2) Don’t downplay video calls – Embrace them
Misconception to avoid: Everyone sees video calls as a poor substitute. No one is “happy” about meeting on a video call.
We know how face-to-face meetings are (almost) always preferred, and there is just no substitute for speaking with someone who is right in front of you. Video conference call is the next best thing. Not a phone call, but a video call with a camera pointed at you.
Depending on your personality, you may feel the need to start by politely apologizing for “meeting this way”. By beginning your conversation with an apology, you are already setting a negative undertone to the meeting.
Instead, seek to fully embrace the medium and play on its advantages. Video calls can help you communicate clearly and asking direct questions that require a bit of time to respond. In a video call, you can easily take a few more seconds to respond without making it awkward. Your answers might become better structured and complete than ever before.
3) Enlist behind-the-scenes help
Misconception to avoid: You must host the conversation alone, and you should be able to handle it on your own.
Maintaining the focus on the meeting and making sure that you communicate effectively requires large amounts of your limited attentional bandwidth. According to studies cited in the book “Hyperfocus” by Chris Bailey, on average we possess just enough attention to hold a conversation and carry out 1 other routine task (like walking, running, or listening to music).
However, when one of these items is new to us (like meeting a customer for the first time or having to use video calls while searching for files on the computer), our brains maximizes the attention span to the new task at the expense of everything else (i.e. at the expense of the attention you give your customer).
The way to help you cope with this lack of attentional focus is to outsource some of that mental bandwidth. You can enlist the help of a fellow colleague during the call, that can help you with presenting the visuals, and having other relevant information at hand while you focus on the call. This person does not have to be formally introduced and can operate in the background as a helping hand. This will allow you to be more present and therefore ensure that you accomplish your goals for the call.
If you think that you cannot ask for help, think again. Team members are usually most likely to help if you ask. If no one volunteers, offer to return the favor to one of your fellow sales team members.
4) Use Visuals and Additional Materials
Misconception to avoid: You don’t have any quality images or visuals to show. These are just a distraction.
Studies show that on average, your customers will retain only 10% of the information presented in a sales meeting. However, when presenters use visuals (such as images or video), audiences are able to retain an average of 43% of the information. The fact that 65% of people are visual learners might have something to do with it. Here is a visual that drives the point home:
If you don’t have any images or visuals, think again. Nowadays you can ask your marketing team, your product designers, etc, to share some relevant images.
If images for the actual products are not available, how about similar products? Have you reached out to your happy customers for images of your products?
Perhaps you may already have some images you took with your phone. Those are as good as any, and by showing them from your phone, it shows that you are dedicated and resourceful.
5) Don’t go at it alone, Invite others to join you
Misconception to avoid: Remote sales meetings are no place for anyone else other than the sales rep. Having more people on the call can deter the quality of the call.
Normally it’s not possible to bring your sales engineers or product manufacturers with you to sales meetings. However, since you will all be joining remotely, you can easily ask a product manager or sales engineer to tag-along on your sales call.
What would have been strange to invite someone to join by conference call, does no longer seem out of place. This can signal to your customer that you are willing to invest time and resources on them, given them the chance to get technical if they so wish. It also enables your customers to get some technical answers in real-time, which can drive them down the sales funnel.
We hope these practical tips can help you and your sales teams to make use of their limited time with your customers.
We wouldn’t be named Visionary without offering you a realistic vision of what remote selling looks like for our happy customers. To get a preview of what this looks like, check out this short video below.
Our CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) Visual Configuration works with any manufacturing product, and it can handle unlimited product variance. To find out more, request a demo and we’ll be in touch.
CPQ Integrations with your CRM, ERP and PLM can change how you do business
Your business and your favorite sports team have more in common than you would think. For example, would you want to have a team of role players combined with one superstar, or one great player and a few inefficient ones? If you’re anything like me you’d like a team that works in unison to achieve a goal instead of wasting your time waiting for inefficient players to change. Integrations may be the teammate you’ve been looking for.
That begs the question, why would you have inefficient processes in your manufacturing operations? Having accurate configurations and quoting are critical for the bottom line of your business which makes accuracy critical to your success. This makes it important to have all your systems integrate seamlessly within one another to maximize success, profit and customer experience.
Every System Plays a Role
Keeping that idea of team play when it comes to yourbusiness integrations is a great way to demonstrate how having a harmonious flow of data and information can help in so many ways. Your CRM system (Dynamics 365, Salesforce, SAP) is a great way to understand your interactions with potential customers, but it can only do so much when it comes to creating your product for them. Your ERP (SAP) also plays a part in how you sell your products. Sending your expected product to an ERP system for final review can be a tricky process when configuring and quoting complex products. This is where the ball gets dropped and the inefficient player shines with items such as spreadsheets with customer data and product information.
As you know, spreadsheets are messy and can lead to incorrect versions and lost data. Not to mention human error and inefficient processes can cost your company time and money. Your CRM and ERP systems aren’t going anywhere don’t worry, it’s time to look at how to better optimize them to maximize how you sell your product. That’s why it’s time to consider pairing your CRM and ERP with a new teammate, CPQ.
Manufacturers that fail to invest in digital commerce will lose deals to competitors.
Making the move to CPQ does not need to be complicated. Tacton CPQ for manufacturing makes it easy with integrations to leading platforms including SAP, Salesforce.com Sales and Manufacturing Clouds, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle Sales Cloud, and other ecosystems with an open API:
Tacton Smart Commerce extends Salesforce with capabilities that make configuring and selling custom products easier than ever. Offered through AppExchange, Tacton CPQ for Salesforce integrates your customers’ data into Salesforce. Developed specifically for the manufacturing industry, Tacton helps your sales team to configure, price and quote with 100% accuracy.
Tacton Smart Commerce CPQ integrations with Microsoft Dynamics and simplifies manufacturers’ unique workflows. Enable a frictionless buying experience for your customers by allowing your sales team to deliver the optimal quote every time.
Tacton integrates with the tools you use to run your business, whether it’s SAP C4C or Oracle Sales Cloud, we integrate seamlessly into any CRM or ERP system. Tacton’s CPQ integrations make it easy for you to connect your digital business initiatives with the tools you already use.
Tacton Smart Commerce for SAP ECC and VC integrates your data by eliminating manual maintenance, syncing data across your systems, automatically aligning configurations and quotes, creating a simplified, personalized buying experience for your customers, closing complex deals faster. Tacton offers out of the box integrations to SAP ECC and VC. Additionally, our open API enables integrations into any SAP system.
Let CPQ be Your Data Superstar
Pairing your CRM and ERP systems with integration to CPQ combines teammatesthat can help your business thrive internally and when preparing quotes for customers. Instead of doubling your team’s workload by entering data in two different places, keepall your master data in one spot. That even includes updates to product portfolios and new pricing! By pairing your systems with a CPQ you can remove human error and ensure your sales team confidence that they are using the right data, every time.
Ensuring your integrations run smoothly can change how you do business, so what are you waiting for? Team up your CRM and ERP systems with Tacton CPQ and watch the wins pile up while you leave the competition in the dust!
Putting the customer at the heart of the sales process sounds like an easy thing to do right?
Many companies have different ways to reach their buyers but still fail to make successful impressions on them. This is a common occurrence in the manufacturing industry where complex products are sold daily in a mostly in-person setting with a sales executive.
Now that B2B buyers do most of the research (57% according to Accenture) and purchasing online it’s important to offer them the products where they are buying them and quickly. But offering them products quickly isn’t the most important part of an omnichannel experience. Customers want self-service, they want all the relevant information on hand before they even think about purchasing your products. Your buyers want to see the full range of your offering by using a configurator and visualization technology to see the product they want.
For all the worried salespeople reading this, don’t worry your job is still criticaltomanufacturingproducts, but it’s important for your company to offer ways to eliminate the tedious processes that impede sales.
In-person selling is a proven way to sell directly to a customer, but with B2B buyers taking more time than ever to weigh their purchases it’s important to find a new way to reach them. This is where manufacturing could take a page out of the retail marketing playbook.
Once eCommerce became the main way customers bought products many retailers made products available via a website and mobile apps. Now more than evermanufacturing companies need to use an omnichannel experience to reach these customers, something that manufacturers who want to be more B2B based need to do to digitize their company.
What is an omnichannel experience?
An omnichannel experience offers your customers a seamless way to interact and buy your products across multiple channels at any time, this allows for your business to be in touch with them throughout the buying journey.
What does an omnichannel manufacturing experience look like?
This is an important way to sell products in the manufacturing industry but how can it be done with products that are complex and difficult to configure?
To truly havean omnichannel experience it isnecessary to simplify the sales process. As products have become more complex to build the longer the sales cycle has become. From the back and forth between sales and engineering to get orders right to building a unique item it can take a lot of man-hours to sell a product. This slow process needs to change to sell faster and enhance the customer experience.
The first step before a buyer contacts your sales team is researching your product offering. If you don’t have a place to showcase your unique products you will lose business to a company that can.
This is where it is important to offer items such as a configurator and visualization right on your website. Buyers don’t want to have meetings in their initial stages of buying, they want to see how the product would look and feel. Selling can be easier when you understand the tendencies of your buyer, an omnichannel selling experience allows for you to be with them at every touchpoint along their journey. Adding something like a built-in configurator will be another reason why they’d choose your business over the competition who can’t show them their product on their phone or the comfort of their own home.
An omnichannel experience for your customer can also help align the goals of your sales and marketing teams. Having an omnichannel presence can bring marketing and sales closer by leveraging the data from your customers into results. Using visualization on your website is a perfect way to drive interest in your products, but more importantly, generate high-quality leads.
Allowing your customer to reach out to a sales team member at any point is important for several reasons. Understanding which channel, the customer has come from can help your sales and marketing teams engage them with similar content or messaging as the channel they came from. This allows your sales rep to have all the information about the customer before they even walk into the sales meeting, helping them prepare the perfect pitch.
Today customers expect more when they are buying from manufacturers. With so many options how can your company capitalize on new technology to win deals and enhance the customer experience? Now your company must go beyond traditional B2B sales and use technology that allows for an omnichannel, self-service experience while empowering your sales team to showcase products for their customers.In fact, Gartner’s research shows if your competitor is using visual configuration and AR, you are being outsold.
So, what is 3D Visualization?
Visual configuration is a series of technologies that include 2D/3D visualizations, augmented reality, and CAD automation. In simple terms, visualization allows your customers and internal teams to interact with the product in various contexts, including customers’ own environment. These different solutions usually integrate with other programs such as CPQ, CRM, and ERP.
How can it help your team sell?
With visualization your sales team can quickly configure the product for the customer in real-time, no more waiting for CAD drawings when the team can show a product in minutes. Next, your sales team can show how the product will fit in the environment it will be used in. Many deals hinge on being able to see a product quickly. With 3D visualization, it’s possible to show them in real-time.
How else can I use visual configuration?
These tools are perfect for your sales team when they are out in the field, but they can also be hosted on your company’s website for lead generation. With more than 57%, according to the Gartner Corporate Executive Board, of research being done before a customer reaches out to a supplier, it is a necessity to show how easy it is to configure yourproduct through self-service functions. Using an interactive visualization tool that has features such as drag and drop allows for your customer to directly engage in the building of their product.
How will this help me outsell my competition?
Manufacturers continue to lose customers to cheaper, more nimble competition which makes implementing visualization even more important. Your sales team will be able to visualize the sale to your customers in minutes instead of weeks. Accelerating sales by showing them in real-time. This can even be done on mobile devices to enhance the customer experience.
Another unique way visualization helps outsell your competition is by having a visual configurator on your website for lead generation. By moving mass customization to online self-service, your customers see how fast they can configure products based on their needs.
This will also add a WOW factor to your sales pitch, giving the customer something other than your word on how a product will fit. Allowing an interactive buying experience will engage your customers, enhance their experience and keep them as long-time clients.Now your sales team can go beyond B2B sales by offering an omnichannel, self-service experience with visual configuration.
Visual configuration is just one of the many solutions included with Tacton Smart Commerce that brings the seller and buyer closer together. Check out our Smart Commerce eBook to find out how to take your sales pitch to the next level.
In a recent McKinsey survey of 1,000 B2B decision-makers, lack of speed in interactions with their suppliers was the number-one “pain point.” Speed was mentioned twice as often as price.
Perhaps the phrase “time is money”, should really be changed to “time is more valuable than money”.
At Tacton, we regularly highlight how our digital commerce solutions let our customers deliver “fast, error-free quotes” at a fraction of the time of traditional means. We do this because we understand that speed matters, especially during complex B2B sales cycles.
When does Speed Matter?
To clarify, we are not arguing for a “speed at all costs” approach. In the world of B2B commerce, solely focusing on speed, without taking the time to invest in relationships, quickly misses the point.
When selling complex-configurable products, establishing strong customer relationships requires time, consistency and hard work. There are, however, many interactions with the customer where speed and being able to respond quickly to your customers can build stronger relationships and cultivate trust.
One of the first and most important interactions where speed can leave a profound impression is in the quoting stage. If “first impressions” are correlated to the success of long-term relationships, then suppliers should ensure that the quoting stage goes as smoothly as possible.
A practical example
Take for example a construction company that is currently planning to build a skyscraper in Sydney. The procurement division of the company requests a quote to a well-known Japanese elevator company. The deal is certainly complex, given the fact that the elevator company must comply with specific technical, legal and safety requirements. There are also many pricing issues that the company should account for (currency exchange rates, date of payment/delivery, etc.).
In this example, the elevator company knows that they are going to be competing with other companies and therefore making a good impression from the start will give them an advantage. Being first signals to the decision-makers that you are efficient and experienced (and that it will continue throughout the entire project if chosen).
It is also safe to say that in complex sales deals, there is rarely just one quote presented. Normally the buyer can change their requirements or change some details of the original proposal, requiring the seller to provide modified quotes. The ability to repeat the same level of service (provide fast error-free quotes) will build even more trust.
Quoting at Speed – a catalyst for stronger customer relationships
As we just discussed, being fast at quoting signals to the buyer that you are efficient and reliable. This improved efficiency results in better allocation of your resources. In other words, simplifying the quoting process (through the help of smart software tools) allows you to spend more time on relationship-building initiatives.
As we hinted earlier, building strong relationships with the customer is imperative for B2B commerce. To achieve this, organizations should ensure that interactions with the customer are authentic and they help drive the sale closer to the signing table.
If an organization is using up its people and resources to configure a quote, it will need to invest even more resources to attend to the customer’s need. This is the tradeoff that many B2B organizations are doing, scrambling to complete quote that meets all the client’s requirements, at the expense of poor customer experience, and loss of trust.
In this sense, being able to quote at speed will give your salespeople more bandwidth to build stronger relationships. It can also give the peace of mind that if the customer changes its requirements, they will be able to respond quickly and effortlessly.
Conclusion
In today’s fast-paced world, B2B buyers are rightfully demanding when it comes to response speed from suppliers. In the world of complex B2B sales, where long sales cycles are the norm, suppliers can use speed to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Speed, however, should not come at the cost of relationships. Instead, organizations can use speed to signal to their customer’s reliability and efficiency. Simultaneously, speed can help the organization to allocate more resources to relationship building interactions and ensuring the customer’s needs are addressed properly.
One example where speed can make a profound impact is in the quoting phase. This early phase of the buying process is where many suppliers get to make a first impression. It also offers a chance for the organization to start on the right foot and create a lasting relationship.
Do you want to learn more about how Tacton helps sellers of complex products build stronger relationships? Click here.
Smart Commerce Summit: Customer-centricity in the age of Disruption
Join us on November 17th for our next webinar to learn about the importance of manufacturing customer-centricity with our guests nVent, Atlas Copco, and Intershop.
