Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly
Business-to-business relationships can be filled with many challenges including multi-channel sales conflicts, delivery difficulties, and configuration issues, but they remain the key to the success of many enterprises. Solid B2B relationships can ward off advances from competitors and provide a firm foundation for you company to continue to thrive.
Here are a few tactics your company can use to nurture and develop your B2B customer relationships.
Constantly re-imagine and refine your B2B relationships
The world of business doesn’t stand still, and neither should you. No matter how good your B2B relationships are, the key to continued success is to be constantly thinking about ways you can improve the situation. The first step in achieving this goal is to develop a clear understanding of exactly what your brand represents to your B2B partners. If you are known primarily for an area such as high quality or customer support, this then points to other areas in which you can introduce improvements.
Identify the challenges facing your B2B partners and find ways to solve them. This will make your firm even more desirable and lead to a mutually beneficial collaborative relationship. Always be sure that any strategies you implement are scalable so that they can match both the business cycles of your partners and also future changes in demand as both businesses grow.
Seek out partners with complementary technology
Companies today expect the same smooth and consistent shopping experience when dealing with other business enterprises that they experience when dealing with consumer organisations. This means that if you want to ensure your B2B relationships remain strong, you need to offer a personalised experience that can be accessed from multiple channels and allows purchases to be made easily across any of those touchpoints.
Finding a B2B partner that offers complementary product will make it easier to expand your enterprise. For example, Omnia B2B Portals from a supplier such as Weaveability, allows your business customers to receive real-time information about your products and provides your organisation with real time transaction information.
Invite customers to be in a case study
Detailed information about exactly how actual customers make use of your wares can be enormously valuable when it comes to improving the products and services that you offer. One of the most efficient ways to gain such information is by asking key customers to be the subject of a case study. In addition to the high-quality feedback you receive as a result, you will also benefit from the fact that the customer will become aware of their importance to your firm, benefiting future relations.
An alternative approach is to create an advisory board and invite several key customers to meet with your team leaders a few times a year in order to discuss any areas of concern or points for development they may have. Lack of feedback can sometimes lead to a company implementing systems that antagonise or alienate existing customers, so running any potential changes past an advisory board first can prevent difficulties.
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