How to Sell on a B2B e-Commerce Site

Today I’m writing about how to incorporate a B2B e-Commerce site into your sales pitch.  I’m focusing on sales in the Outdoor and Action Sports Apparel, Equipment and Footwear industry, but many of these tips and tricks will be helpful for sales reps in general manufacturing as well.

First, know that you’re going to do a lot of the things you’d do for a buyer in any case.  You still want to review comp season orders, and/or more order history if it’s applicable. (e.g. if your brand’s product line doesn’t change much season-to-season, you might want to look at the last year or even more) 

You’ll want to call out winners and losers, make comparisons with new products, and present a suggested buy while merchandising products visually.  You might want to present the line generally too – either in full for smaller brands, or the buyer’s segmented options if you’re working for a big brand with oodles of products.  It’s the how that is changing here.

-        If your B2B site has a reporting tool, you can use it to pull together your order data.  Many B2B platforms don’t yet have a good way to organize and present this information, unfortunately.  However, it’s easy enough to download to Excel and use Pivot Tables, which you might already do today.

-        Most B2B solutions offer a Merchandising tool.  Prior to meeting with larger clients you can create a suggested assortment.  For mid-tier and smaller accounts, you can create a template assortment and trade out a few products if needed.  You can download the assortment to PDF and email it, or often you can share it with the buyer within the B2B platform itself.  Most platforms that allow sharing also allow the buyer to create an order from the template as well.

-        During your presentation there are a few tips and tricks that will enable you to make the most of your B2B e-Commerce tool:

o   Before your presentation, pull up all of the digital tools you’ll be using.  Log in to your site and pull up your Merchandised Assortment on one tab, and pull up a showroom-style (large-format) view on another.  Have your reporting file(s) open, along with any other sales tools like sales programs, policies, images, etc.

o   Having two people to run the presentation makes it easier.  One person can show the line, while the other works on the online assortment and any other presentation tools.  Make adjustments to the assortment as you go, so that you have something close to a finalized suggested order when you’re done.

o   Have the buyer open the assortment, as well as a digital catalog or the showroom view you’ll be displaying.  If stars or Favoriting is available, show them how to use it.

o   Another option is to supply a digital catalog to the buyer in a PDF format.  They can mark up the document with any comments as they review the line.  If the buyer hasn’t brought a laptop, you can supply a tablet for this purpose instead.  If you choose this option, make sure to save a copy of the buyer’s file with their notes to send to them afterwards.

Once your presentation is concluded, you’ll have a near-final assortment for your buyer that can easily be converted into an order, and your buyer will have the information they need about your products to make their final selections.  Less work for everyone, and a better method of communication that gives you more solid insight into their plans for the coming season!