Media Center (2019)

In this Innovation Briefing, we take you behind the scenes at companies that are leading this B2B Renaissance and some of the initiatives they are spearheading to tackle not only digital transformation but also creating a seamless buying experience to retain their customers.

B2B Online partnered with the WBR Insights research team to investigate how leading B2B companies are developing winning strategies through digital transformation. In this report, we explore how dynamic technologies provide new opportunities for manufacturers and distributors, including creating personalized, frictionless buying experiences and trusted relationships between their customers and their brands. We benchmark existing transformative measures and explore how companies are preparing and executing strategies for technology adoption. Finally, we evaluate the key areas of business these technologies will transform leading into the 2020 fiscal year.

There has been a significant amount of digital transformation within the B2B space in the last few years. Customers who are responsible for purchasing products and services on behalf of their companies also purchase products online in their personal life. They are familiar with brands and interfaces like Amazon and they have come to expect that type of experience in all of their online purchases. B2B  companies have to quickly ramp up their online experience to meet increasingly high expectations of their customers, or risk losing market share to someone who is. Manufacturers and distributors need to meet their digitally savvy customers where they are and need to put strategies in place to reach them in as many channels as possible. This has been a challenge or the industry because of their legacy systems, organizational structure, and lack of digital-first mentality to support their omnichannel and change management goals. Ultimately, the B2B industry is at a crossroads, but there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. We’ll tackle these challenges at B2B Online Miami, and give you the tools that fit your goals and needs.

As B2B customers adopt digital interfaces to conduct business, relationships forged by salespeople must graduate to new digital environments. But companies are concerned they will lose customers when deals conducted online become purely transactional. In digital sales, personal relationships salespeople form with customers become all the more important.Onboarding to Digital analyzes industry pain points and directly consults B2B sales leaders to understand how they are approaching their digital transformations. This report uncover how the direct attention of salespeople will remain relevant in a complex, technology-driven sales environment.

In a complex B2B environment, manufacturers and distributors must provide customers with engaging interactions and experiences that delight them. But with outdated engagement methods, disappointing service models, and insufficient resources, how can they create the ideal customer experience?In this report, we uncover how B2B companies are leveraging sophisticated data to predict pain points, increase the efficacy of marketing and sales communications, and reach the future state of customer experiences.

B2B salespeople continue to use traditional methods of selling, such as engaging buyers via phone calls or even face to face. But time has become a constraint for buyers, and new digital purchasing channels have emerged to speed up the buying process. In this report, we explore the B2B buyer demand for those digital channels versus traditional channels. Buyers acknowledge the “amazing experiences” sellers can provide using digital platforms, which provide greater availability of more products, easier management of operations and relationships, and successful on-time product delivery. Digital channels, including marketplaces, have emerged as the clear, transformative favorites among the youngest buyers in the workforce—Millennials, born from 1977 to 1995—and as a popular choice among other age groups as well.Mirakl, Oracle, and B2B Online surveyed 200 B2B buyers across Latin America, Europe, and North America. Respondents represent only private companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue. The majority of B2B buyers do business with both manufacturers (86%) and distributors (90%). Each respondent is directly involved in their company’s buying processes and represents one of the three age groups measured in the study.

In 2018, already competitive B2B companies are tracking industry developments and keeping an eye on the evolution of customer behavior to maintain their competitive edge. According to our findings, 48% of B2B companies are already using predictive technologies as a key part of their business.This report provides a detailed analysis of market disruption, cognitive maturity, and the evolution of customer engagement in B2B markets; and reveals how business leaders are aligning the enterprise to face the market disruptions.