The vast opportunities available in the fast-growing B2B ecommerce space are often stymied by the complicated business model of potential prospects. The near endless number of product configurations, the need for buy-ins from many decision-makers and the sheer budgetary commitment are just a few factors that make the B2B buying conversion so often difficult.
Quote-to-cart, CPQ, and creating a B2C-like experience for the B2B buyer are just a few ways to remove the friction for your B2B prospects and maximize conversion opportunities.
Below, we offer a round-up of some of cleverbridge’s key B2B content pieces to help your business position itself for success in 2019 and beyond.
B2B Ecommerce to Reach $1.8 Trillion by 2023
The expansion of B2B ecommerce shows no sign of slowing down, with Forrester projecting growth to reach $1.8 trillion in the U.S. by 2023, and account for 17 percent of total U.S. B2B sales overall. Driven by the demand to find a high-quality product at the right price point, business decision makers often leverage the many resources at their fingertips to ensure they become a satisfied customer – from research and reviews, to price comparisons and discounts.
More and more, B2B customers want to have the ease of use, automation and convenience normally reserved for the B2C market, similar to that of an Amazon, Etsy or Zappos. To that end, B2B companies must forge ahead with a digital-first sales approach to ensure they’re tailoring to their increasingly digital-first customer base. Read more.
Land and Expand: Grow Your Existing B2B Customer Base
As the software market continues to usher in a more subscription-focused business model – in which the value is not simply acquiring as many customers as possible, but rather selling more of your product to those you already have – the expansion of your product throughout your current customer base through a long-term, trusted relationship remains paramount for continued growth.
Here, we’ll outline the Land-Adopt-Expand-Renew model, put forth by the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), which explores each of four steps in the process as well as the key role needed to successfully execute each one. Read more.
On-demand Webinar: Automating Your Low-dollar, Long Tail Renewals
Ecommerce companies often service a high volume of low-dollar contracts and a smaller number of much higher-value customers. Traditional thinking dictates the more lucrative business should receive more engagement from sales and account teams versus those that bring in less revenue by themselves.
When taken in aggregate, however, low-dollar contracts are not only profitable, but in some cases eclipse the total value of those higher-value contracts in the long term. And with finite resources at your disposal, how do you ensure these low-dollar deals are receiving enough attention to renew?
In this 30-minute, on-demand webinar, Julia Stegman, TSIA’s VP of Research for the Service Revenue Generation practice, and Doug Caviness, cleverbridge’s VP of B2B Strategy and Partnerships, explore the benefits of automating your low-dollar support contracts and subscription plans in an efficient, cost-effective way. Read more.
Use Referral Marketing for Your B2B Business: 8 Steps to Success
When you’re preparing to make a large purchase, don’t you love getting a recommendation from someone you trust? With the big-ticket sales going on in the B2B world, referrals are even more important. In fact, according to one study, 84 percent of B2B decision makers start the purchasing process due to a referral. And sales leaders agree: referrals close 70 percent faster and have a 59 percent higher lifetime value.
If your business doesn’t currently have a referral program in place, it’s time to build one. So, how can your B2B business see success with referral marketing? Here, we’re going to discuss eight steps that will take you through the process of creating a successful referral program. Read more.
Navigating the B2B Sales Role in the Face of Growing Ecommerce
Will technology replace my job? If so, when?
As the use of automation and artificial intelligence becomes more ubiquitous, these questions continue to thwart the future of job security across many verticals. Customer service, manufacturing and agriculture are just a few industries that have seen portions of their workforce replaced with automated processes, which, while increasing efficiency and output, places the need for human labor on the chopping block. The continued expansion of ecommerce – particularly in the B2B space – rightfully begs the question, “what will become of the traditional sales role?” Read more.
Renewal Automation: Grow Your Digital B2B Business
The adage that retaining existing customers is more valuable to your business than acquiring new ones is particularly true in the B2B space. And setting up a process to increase the likelihood that your customers will renew their contract and ideally expand your product within their organization is vital to the growth of your business.
Here, we investigate key best practices for automating your renewals to support your revenue stream and long-term relationships with your customers. Read more.
Leverage CPQ for a Shorter Sales Cycle, Increased Revenue
As a business-to-business seller, implementing a more consumerized experience into your buying cycle can help improve self-service and product transparency, and empower your sales team to take on a more consultative rather than transactional role.
One of the emerging trends designed to mitigate this challenge, especially in the B2B space, is the Configure Price Quote (CPQ) model – a sales tool that enables a B2B seller to quickly provide a cost estimate based on a set of rules according to a prospect’s specific needs. Read more.
Bring Consumerization to the B2B Buying Experience
Mass adoption of ecommerce technology in the corporate space – particularly software priced on a subscription basis – has powered a surge in B2B ecommerce purchases in recent years.
We’ve explored a number of ways that separate the B2B and B2C purchase processes, but the truth is, convenience and simplicity influence all purchase decisions, whether selling to a customer or a corporate entity. Let’s look at some ways in which you can leverage the consumer experience as a B2B seller. Read more.
7 Key Differences Between B2C and B2B Ecommerce Models
Much has been said in recent years of the digital business-to-business model (B2B) versus the digital business-to-consumer model (B2C), in terms of scope, customer acquisition and retention, pricing, product variety, and most importantly, profitability.
Many companies choose to focus their full efforts on one model or the other, while others attempt to hedge their bets by supporting a hybrid of both. Here, we’ll dive into some of the main differences between the B2B and B2C ecommerce spaces, and the key concepts necessary to support a thriving digital business, regardless of your end user profile. Read more.
Learn how cleverbridge can help manage, monetize and optimize your digital business as you continue to grow. We take responsiblity for recurring billing, global payment processing, compliance, customer service, and more. Contact our sales team today.
Kyle Shamorian is the content marketer for cleverbridge. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
