Smart Sales Is the Key to Future B2B Interactions
Breaking down data silos and digitalizing communication in order to optimize the sales process for customizable products. (w/ white paper)
A wide range of quality products and a high degree of customization in production are what distinguishes and defines prime industry players. As development continues, business and sales teams face new challenges, and better commerce solutions are required. This is where the “Smart Sales” concept from Eyekon and the product-data specialists at Intelliact comes in.
Customization Through Digitalization
In the specialized industrial sector, the digitalization of modern manufacturing processes is already advanced, largely due to targeted investments. For example, in Switzerland where we’re located, even small product series can be produced profitably, quickly and affordably for both businesses and customers. This creates a strong position for ‘small’ industry players in a field largely populated by international mass-producers and manufacturers, but it also generates customer expectations of high flexibility in implementing specific requirements in all areas.
New Challenges for Sales and Engineering
It is clear that the trend towards individualization places high demands on engineering; products can no longer be thought of as individual entities, but rather as the sum of exchangeable and configurable components. What is often forgotten is that sales departments are also affected by change, in their function as an interface between engineering and customer. On one hand, a sales team has to know all the variants and combination options of their own products and the general conditions of production. On the other hand, they have to understand the customers’ requirements in detail, and translate individual requests into prices, production times, etc. — all in a multi-stage journey.
Therefore, Sales’ challenge is skillful coordination and communication. They must efficiently mediate between engineering feasibility and customer requirements in order to find and present the best possible solutions.
Of course, it’s ideal if the solution is a configured standard product or a product consisting of standard components. However, when a customer’s needs cannot be met with existing stock, individual solutions are required, and communication becomes more challenging.
“Which requirements can be fulfilled by exchanging certain components? What level of sophistication and functionality does this new combination have? Does a change make technical sense and can it be implemented?” — questions that the sales department must answer in the sales process.
The subsequent loops of questions, consultations and answers often take place via telephone or email — forms that can neither be evaluated nor digitally processed further. Customer requests are often stored locally in various documentation formats, such as Word or Excel, and are not accessible to all project participants. This is where enormous optimization potential is hidden.
Sales Journey with an Optimized Digital Customer Experience
In this case, optimization means creating consistency. The individual steps in the sales process must be seen as a cohesive customer journey and should be designed to be consistent. On the visible level (front-end) this means a user-centered structure and preparation of information (communication, information architecture, usability and UI/UX design), which is uncompromisingly oriented towards the needs of the customer and the sales department. What customers know from their experiences in B2C shopping also applies to B2B, including a seamless and user-centered customer journey, and maximum traceability across all touchpoints.
Connecting Data and Systems
A seamless sales journey is highly dependent on the underlying product data, and only possible if these data can be mapped completely and consistently. Typically, a large amount of data is available in enterprise systems such as PDM (Product Data Management), PIM (Product Information Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) — but rarely in central or directly usable form, as the different systems are often not able to exchange their data seamlessly.
“For a sustainable competitive advantage it’s not enough to optimize individual data silos. The boundaries between the individual systems must be removed in order to bring the data into continuous interaction.”
To establish a Smart Sales process, these data silos must be broken down. Unified and efficient coordination between internal departments, and the creation of a common and accessible customer history can only succeed if departmental silo thinking is replaced by interconnected data.
Successful Digital Transformation of the Sales Process
With a holistic approach that includes various stakeholders, process steps, and digital disciplines, the Smart Sales concept enables the transformation of sales communication. What has long been established in the B2C sector is successfully transferred to B2B: consistency in the digital customer experience. The idea behind this is no accident — whether it is a private individual or a company representative, in the end, we want to reach people.
“Business interactions and transactions, especially in the digital world, should be based more and more on the concept of ‘Business-to-Human (B2H)’.”
Applied to sales communication, this results in a continuous and efficient process that reduces time-to-market (and time-to-customer), increases product quality and strengthens the standard product range, as sales teams are better able to support customers in defining requirements throughout the entire journey.
There’s more to learn — take a deep dive into each aspect of the process and actionable steps with our Smart Sales white paper, available for direct download here, or let’s chat over coffee.
