ISBM at the Penn State Smeal College of Business – Academic Institute supporting B2B Research. Switch to the ISBM-Corporate website.
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the creation of B2B e-commerce platforms.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift from analog processes to automated and digital-first engagements with customers, a process outlined
CEOs can impact sales in B2B settings, but their roles in the sales process must be carefully managed.
The B2B companies that focus on providing effective digital customer experiences will reap the rewards of an increasingly online B2B buying process.
While B2B suppliers often feel that they must compete on price alone, they have an ability to extract a higher price from their B2B customers and provide greater customer value by focusing on all of the offerings that they provide.
Channel partners play a critical role in the financial performance of suppliers. One way in which suppliers can provide useful information to their channel partners is through partner relationship management strategies. Aguirre et al. 2018 provide recommendations for how these strategies can generate the most engagement amongst channel partners.
Trends in the B2B world allow customers to continuously evaluate their relationships with their suppliers. Reacquiring lost customers can often be rewarding for B2B suppliers. The article outlines several customer reacquisition building blocks.
Companies selling to B2B customers face two key issues: managing the salesperson channel and managing the customer-specific discounts often utilized to drive sales. Companies must determine if customers using online channels would benefit from also being served using salesperson channels, or if utilizing salespeople in such a way would be a waste of valuable resources. Lawrence et al. (2019) provide compelling evidence that sellers gain approximately twice as much net profit from customers that have greater contact with salespeople. The interpersonal relationships that salespeople forge with buyers in the B2B context may bring forth positive financial outcomes.
Sales negotiation over email exchanges between sellers and buyers (e-negotiation) is increasingly common in B2B sales. The use of influential tactics as textual cues in emails to manage buyers’ attention significantly affects sales outcomes. To test the effectiveness of influential tactics in e-negotiations, the authors of this study analyze seller-buyer emails over a two-year period part of 40 e-negotiations, along with other data sources and a controlled experiment. In an era where remote working is more prevalent than ever, e-negotiations are more important than ever. It underscores the relevance of this research.
Our own Stefan Wuyts – Director of the ISBM and Full Professor of Marketing – was recently interviewed by PYMNTS.com on digitalization. The interview covers online platforms, buying groups, and the future (if any) of tradeshows. Whatever the future holds – the B2B buying process will be very different in the future.
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