Archive for October, 2020

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Helping the B2B Complex Buying Journey with Credible Empathetic Content

October 29, 2020

A recent Forrester report has identified that B2B marketers’ content ‘shows a deeper understanding of the concerns and challenges buyers face.’ To engage B2B buyers, Forrester says content should be empathetic and easy to consume.1

B2B customers want more than customized content; it needs to be genuinely helpful and embrace the outcomes that they desire.  Also, customers want reassurance that information they receive is from a trusted source. 

‘business and IT decision–makers say vendors give them too much material and most of it is useless.‘ 

Understand what is important to buyers in their job 

Focus on what helps your customers – engaging them in sustainable business conversations.  82% of buyers say it’s important to have a credible, authentic story showing how you help customers succeed. 1 

Make content accessible – shorter format, consumable content.  Forrester reports that 61% of B2B buyers prefer gathering information on their own. Preferred formats include ROI analyses/business cases, brief brochures, reports, case studies and guides, infographics, short articles and blogs, webinars and short videos. 1 

Make content credible and empathetic – 46% of global technology decision-makers find a business case format with ROI Analysis most useful marketing content format when making a technology purchase decision. 1   

What are we doing to instil confidence in our subscribers and their customers? 

We demonstrate with every communication that we have a full understanding of their industry – we know the IT Channel, IT Products, Configure Price Quote and the commercial realities and challenges our customers face. From customer case studies, through to demonstrating ROI with monthly BI Reporting for all customers. 

Giving your customers access to a self-service sales enablement tool allows them to quickly and correctly Configure Price Quote and then buy the products and services they need, exactly when they need. 

1  Credible Empathetic Content Wins Over Elusive B2B Buyers: Four Practices Deliver Value And Engage Your Buyers’ Attention, Forrester Research, Inc., April 30, 2020, Laura Ramos with Caroline Robertson, April Henderson, Miriam ElKorchi, Kara Hartig 

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Channel Partner Experience – The New Trifurcation Channel Model

October 19, 2020

Earlier this year, Forrester’s Jay McBain included in his channel trends analysis, a newly evolved channel model – Trifurcation.  This model identifies three key streams to the channel, influencing different buyers at different stages in their buying journey: 

Influencer channel: affinity partners, referral agents, affiliates, advocates and ambassadors with potential to influence a buyer during their pre-purchase research. With more B2B buyers expecting a customer experience (CX) similar to that of a B2C buyer, Forrester found that 68% buyers are spending their buying journey digitally before speaking to a salesperson and 71% reaching vendor selection after a digital-only journey.1 Influencers have just that effect; the potential to recommend a product or service through social media, even if they’d never be directly linked to a sale. 

Transaction channel: in which the buyer operates, and sales take place.  Configure Price Quote (CPQ) supports eCommerce and facilitates ‘as-a-Service‘ in this stream. There are additional opportunities in this traditional part of the channel.  McBain believes that tweaking channel data management, automation, insights, onboarding, incentives, co-selling, and co-marketing will determine winners and losers here.’1 

Retention channel: consultants, integrators, adjacent ISVs, accountants and digital agencies. This stream has increasing relevance, as vendors move towards ‘as-a-Service’ models, working with customers to ensure adoption, integration with existing tech and processes.  The customer needs to experience integrated communications from the vendor and partners with the same mutually beneficial consistent messages. More than 80% of these (potential) partners will show up before or after the sale, and channel leaders need to break the transactional channel model.1 

There is an opportunity for vendors to support influencer and retention channels.  As part of that ecosystem, we recognise the value that CPQ offers in enhancing the CX, whilst facilitating as-a-Service in the IT channel for Manufacturers, Distributors and Resellers, and influencing their new complementary channels.

1 What I See Coming For The Channel In 2020 blog post by Jay McBain, Principal Analyst, Channel Partnerships & Alliances, Forrester, JAN 7 2020 

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Posted in Attach Pattern Web Service, channelcentral.net, CPQ, CPQ Software, eCommerce, Quote Software, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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Product Lifecycle Management – The Hidden Gem in CPQ

October 8, 2020

Few Configure Price Quote (CPQ) vendors offer Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Our customers love that we do. So, what is it, and why is it a service that many CPQ vendors choose not to offer? 

A recent ForresterNow article cites the importance of Manufacturers investing in Product content for more lift in all Channels – strengthening relationships with Distributors and increasing product sell-though.1 

CPQ Systems don’t work without data; in this context, product data. New products are launched, old products are retired and superseded. That’s the Product Lifecycle. Feeding a CPQ System with data from large Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) Systems can be problematic.  

channelcentral has solved this by working with Manufacturers to receive complex product data and embellish it to support the customer CPQ experience.   

Here are some of the key aspects of this service: 

  1. When products are launched at New Product Introduction (NPI), the PLM Team ensures that products are released on the date to a Service Level Agreement (SLA). 
  2. Before NPI is a confidentiality breach. 
  3. After NPI is potentially damaging to the new product’s adoption. 
  4. The product’s attributes and compatibility/configuration rules are interpreted and modelled. 
  5. When products ‘sunset’ they are only switched OFF for businesses that have exhausted their supply. They remain visible for those with stock. 

Dealing with Product Managers at Manufacturers, it was evident that NPI was important, but sunset was critical. Why? Legacy stock is VERY costly to clear, and you could justify an entire CPQ System on this point alone. Keeping obsolete products on sale where they are available is profitable – sometimes obsolete products are in greater demand than new ones. 

Including PLM solves major headaches for Manufacturers who want to drive CPQ into Channel eCommerce. It’s a hidden gem. 

1 Forrester Research, Inc., FORRESTERNOW, ‘Distributors Bear the Burden When Manufacturers Skimp on Product Content’, July 12th 2020, Joe Cicman, Nick Barber, Allen Bonde 

Watch the summary video here:

Posted in CPQ, CPQ Software, Data Services, Product Management, Quote Software, ROI, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »