Rethink Sales and Marketing: You’re
Really Doing Commerce
Michael Ni
Thanks to the cloud, today’s online buyer has more exposure
to information. Some studies estimate each of us are exposed
to more than 3,000 brand impressions a day… and that is
only being matched by a shorter attention span.
Potential customers no longer want, nor expect, a long, drawnout sales process where discovery, education, comparing,
payment, and deployment, as well as retention come in
distinct waves. For today’s buyer, if any of those steps are
visibly disconnected or misaligned with their individual needs,
a deal can be ruined completely.
That new sales paradigm has demanded a rethinking of how
sales and marketing platforms talk to and work with each
other to address buyers in a B2Individual (B2I) world and not
just the “consumer” or “business.” No longer can a business
look at commerce and marketing as separate cycles that only
touch at the very ends of their respective processes. Such a
separation creates more opportunity for issues to arise that
cause inefficiency and confusion on the vendor-side and
leave a bad taste on the buyer-side. And why would you add
an extra layer to a process that technology can eliminate?
channels from being seen as just an opportunity to increase
reach to integral pieces of the sales equation. For all intents
and purposes, channels today are nearly the same as their
direct counterparts, but able to get to the specific markets a
vendor cannot easily reach or service.
These new channels can be anything from an online reseller,
mobile application, to a live-chat support person—anywhere
that the individual touches your business. This array of
channels that blur the traditional sales model means that
more holistic analysis of the customer is necessary. Every
point at which a customer engages, discovers, learns, and
uses your service is an opportunity for them to make further
purchasing decisions on your products and services—whether
that’s to buy something, upgrade from a trial, or just sign-up
for a freemium version. That means that, as a customer uses
your products, it’s easy for them to add-on capabilities at the
point of need. Even the more “mundane” of channels, like
outbound emails, sales engagement, and support channels
matter in this “transact anywhere” world.
Going With the Flow
Software buyers today are no longer satisfied with a “one size
fits all” way to pay, and with increasing number of alternatives
to both your product as well its pricing and packaging, buyers
have plenty of choices in how they would like to pay now as
well. Having the ability to offer a product on a fractional
ownership, rental, subscription, or even plain old pay-upfront
has become a core part of the value of your solution to your
customers. Enabling these various business models requires a
holistic, commerce analysis of your key customer segments’
requirements.
Let’s look at three key ways to make the online sales experience
as streamlined and impactful to the individual as possible.
Addressing Needs, Not Waiting for Them
Now, businesses can use various channels, both direct and
indirectly managed, to get their wares in front of buyers
more frequently and consistently. Technology has changed
Additionally, customers no longer want to spend their money
in the same ways as their peers either. Whereas before
they had to succumb to the business models promoted by
the vendor, taking a holistic approach and looking at
commerce as a whole has allowed for businesses to quickly
experiment with and customize their models to best suit the
needs of increasingly fragmented sets of buyers. Along with
increasingly individualized payment models, vendors have
to increasingly expand from the traditional “consumer” or
“business” methods of payment such as credit card or via
purchase orders to payment approaches that increasingly
overlap across both, such deferred payments, bank transfers,
and other payment options.