The road to B2B digital sales growth is thru data-driven revenue workflows, says Jay Schneider, founder and CEO of agency B2B-Squared.
Jay Schneider, CEO, B2B-Squared
Taking a page from retail ecommerce, he adds, “what we will do is largely connect a brand new customer to the shop” after which construct a profitable, long-term relationship with them.
“But in B2B, it’s more complex,” he says. “It’s not about promotions or flash sales … where retailers make their money on upselling and loyalty programs.”
B2B commerce, he asserts, “is more about products that go into assemblies, related products and product lines, and replenishment products.”
Schneider says the more B2B sellers compile workflow data on how they seek for, interact with, and buy through digital content in addition to through offline channels, the more sellers can use that data to construct personalized marketing automation to spice up conversions and sales from existing customers.
The sales engine flywheel effect
It’s the sales engine flywheel effect — the more customers interact with a seller, the more data the vendor has to trigger automated, personalized marketing designed to drive conversions and sales, he says.
B2B-Squared has launched Flywheel B2B Marketing Automation, a technology and services package designed to construct on customer online activity and product and marketing data for a more productive B2B buying experience.
“As we do that again and again and once again, it creates this flywheel effect — this energy that continues to drive ecommerce,” he says, adding: “If we’ve various these workflows working all at one time, it ought to be what we actually expect commerce to generate in B2B — and that’s the chance to sell more to our existing customer.”
Schneider asserts that enterprise marketing platforms are mostly designed for generating sales leads and marketing content, “not constructing incremental ecommerce income.” He adds that email and marketing platforms are built primarily for consumer marketing and never for the complexities of B2B customers and markets.
He says that Flywheel B2B Marketing Automation takes a special approach, including:
- Marketing automation triggered by such online actions as add-to-list, add-to-cart, or checkout; or responses to email promotions or sales rep communications.
- The usage of critical data from a seller’s products and promotions and from customer activity to construct personalized and automatic campaigns designed to spice up conversions.
- Integrated technology to coordinate email delivery, marketing automation and personalization for constructing and improving customized marketing campaigns.
- A turn-key approach where all services — campaign design, management, reporting, etc. — are included within the monthly subscription.
Justin King, managing partner of consulting and advisory firm B2X Partners and a world senior analyst for the B2B eCommerce Association, has reviewed the Flywheel B2B system and says it’s critical for bringing more B2B customers into digital commerce.
“Within the B2B world, there’s a ton of chatter about technology like ecommerce platforms and product information management systems (PIMs), but the true challenge is getting customers to really use these digital tools,” he says. “It’s more about the best processes than simply the technology. Simply establishing a B2B store isn’t enough to make sure customers will flock to it.”
King says Flywheel B2B is “the primary digital marketing platform designed specifically to shift customer transactions from offline to online. By creating workflows that link customers on to your online store, it not only helps kickstart their use of the ecommerce site but additionally keeps them coming back, which in turn means they are going to spend more.”
B2B-Squared is offering Flywheel B2B as a monthly tiered subscription, starting at $1,995, with services and software included.
Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].
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