The road to B2B digital sales growth is through data-driven revenue workflows, says Jay Schneider, founder and CEO of agency B2B-Squared.

Jay Schneider, CEO, B2B-Squared

Taking a page from retail ecommerce, he adds, “what we can do is basically connect a new customer to the store” and then build a profitable, long-term relationship with them.

“But in B2B, it’s more complex,” he says. “It’s not about promotions or flash sales … where retailers make their money on upselling and loyalty programs.”

B2B commerce, he asserts, “is more about products that go into assemblies, related products and product lines, and replenishment products.”

Schneider says the more B2B sellers compile workflow data on how they search for, interact with, and purchase through digital content as well as through offline channels, the more sellers can use that data to build personalized marketing automation to boost conversions and sales from existing customers.

The sales engine flywheel effect

It’s the sales engine flywheel effect — the more customers interact with a seller, the more data the seller has to trigger automated, personalized marketing designed to drive conversions and sales, he says.

B2B-Squared has launched Flywheel B2B Marketing Automation, a technology and services package designed to build on customer online activity and product and marketing data for a more productive B2B buying experience.

“As we do this over and over and over again, it creates this flywheel effect — this energy that continues to drive ecommerce,” he says, adding: “If we have a number of these workflows working all at one time, it should be what we really expect commerce to generate in B2B — and  that is the opportunity to sell more to our existing customer.”

Schneider asserts that enterprise marketing platforms are mostly designed for generating sales leads and marketing content, “not building incremental ecommerce income.” He adds that email and marketing platforms are built primarily for consumer marketing and not for the complexities of B2B customers and markets.

He says that Flywheel B2B Marketing Automation takes a different approach, including:

• Marketing automation triggered by such online actions as add-to-list, add-to-cart, or checkout; or responses to email promotions or sales rep communications.
• The use of critical data from a seller’s products and promotions and from customer activity to build personalized and automated campaigns designed to boost conversions.
• Integrated technology to coordinate email delivery, marketing automation and personalization for building and improving customized marketing campaigns.
• A turn-key approach where all services — campaign design, management, reporting, etc. — are included in the monthly subscription.

Justin King, managing partner of consulting and advisory firm B2X Partners and a global senior analyst for the B2B eCommerce Association, has reviewed the Flywheel B2B system and says it is critical for bringing more B2B customers into digital commerce.

“In the B2B world, there’s a ton of chatter about technology like ecommerce platforms and product information management systems (PIMs), but the real challenge is getting customers to actually use these digital tools,” he says. “It’s more about the right processes than just the technology. Simply setting up a B2B store isn’t enough to ensure customers will flock to it.”

King says Flywheel B2B is “the first digital marketing platform designed specifically to shift customer transactions from offline to online. By creating workflows that link customers directly to your online store, it not only helps kickstart their use of the ecommerce site but also keeps them coming back, which in turn means they will spend more.”

B2B-Squared is offering Flywheel B2B as a monthly tiered subscription, starting at $1,995, with services and software included.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].

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