Digital selling was part of the sales structure long before the pandemic started, but emphasis on digital interactions with customers became even more crucial when in-person meetings disappeared at the height of Covid. There was a real urgency amongst businesses to embrace digital selling motions across industries. These digital selling and buying channels are very much here to stay. The Gartner Future of Sales report predicts that by 2025 80% of B2B sales transactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels. 

One example of this accelerated shift to digital channels can be found within multinational glass manufacturer Saint-Gobain. Prior to the pandemic they had a traditional approach to purchasing and selling, completing only 10 percent of orders online. Now, more than 80 percent of orders are conducted through AI-powered digital selling platforms, as a direct result of the growing preference of buyers to purchase digitally. 

Buyers’ purchasing expectations haven’t entirely changed. They still want straightforward, seamless buying experiences, regardless of whether the sale is taking place in person or online, largely informed by positive experiences in best practice retail B2C shopping.

So, what can businesses do to continue supercharging their digital selling momentum, while delivering the optimal experience for their buyers?

Enhanced data use

Businesses now have an opportunity to leverage digital selling platforms that can collect vast amounts of internal and external buyer data. This buyer behaviour includes the amount of time buyers spend navigating a website, sensitivity to offers, and records of past purchases, just to name a few. Companies can utilise this data to ensure each interaction with a buyer is personalised to that buyer’s specific needs. The ability to leverage this trove of data is critical to best understanding each buyer’s journey. 

B2B organisations armed with more intuitive insights from their data can also expand revenue opportunities through upselling and cross selling products customers may not have considered purchasing before, further optimising the buying experience.

Accurate and consistent pricing

There is a common misconception amongst B2B sales reps that existing customers are hesitant to adapt to digital selling – some viewing it as too complex or not personalised enough to entice existing customers to return to complete a purchase. Some sales teams have kept pricing close to the chest, only sharing directly with customers to ensure a continued rapport between buyers and sellers. This mentality and practice ultimately places a finite limit on revenue potential for the company.  

Today’s businesses should be striving for pricing transparency and the ability to deliver market-relevant pricing quickly and anywhere buyers are, whether that be over the phone, in person, via chatbot, or website. Consistent pricing across all channels will earn a buyer’s trust. With an omnichannel approach, buyers have the flexibility to choose their preferred communication channel (or channels) to complete the sale and enjoy a seamless experience throughout. Simply put, businesses that fail to deliver market-relevant and consistent personalised pricing across these channels will lose out on a competitive advantage.

With the application of AI and machine learning, pricing professionals can see the relationship between price, demand in a buyer’s past transactions and external factors like availability or inflation, in order to deliver an optimised price recommendation. For buyers, this translates to the friction-less, no surprises, buying experience that they have come to expect. 

Transparency within a business’s supply

Inconsistencies in supply are often out of a business’s direct control, but there must be transparency about inventory and proactive solutions when supply is short. Few things are more frustrating for buyers than not being notified in advance of the checkout stage, that certain items are out of stock.

Proactive communication with customers about current inventories or when there is an anticipated supply shortage is the transparency B2B buyers expect. Should a salesperson know that a customer regularly buys a particular product, and a shortage is forecasted in a few months, that salesperson can reach out to the customer in advance to discuss a solution. Alternatively, if that same customer requests to buy products ahead of schedule, to minimise disruption to the business, they should have the opportunity to do so. 

Beyond this, having the ability to intelligently predict supply fluctuations, and to reflect such changes in your price offerings will also lead to significant bottom line impacts that should not be underestimated.

As businesses look to recovery, customers will remain in control of their buying preferences and expectations, whether in-person sales will return or through digital channels, or more likely a mix of both. Businesses can’t always predict how a buyer will shop or when, but they can be prepared by using this digital selling roadmap. Businesses have the unique opportunity to take advantage of the abundance of data they collect from buyers and external factors to create a highly personalised experience that will keep them coming back for return purchases. The future of sales is digital, and the ability to offer customers a seamless digital buying experience will be a differentiator in today’s new selling landscape.