If you missed the B2B Online conference in West Palm Beach, we’ve got you covered…and we’re going to save you a whole bunch of time. Here’s the Master B2B 5 Minute Conference Recap:
Derek Gominger, COO Global eCommerce at Lenovo, presented a framework for driving transformation:
1) Define clear strategy
2) Benchmark (especially customer needs)
3) Define governance model (who’s responsible for what)
4) Implement – work toward agreed goals
5) Measure – internal assessment, create clear dashboards and make sure everyone can see
6) Continually go thru that process to ensure ongoing improvement
Panel: Achieving Digital Success By Managing Data Effectively
Sam Schwartz from Jensen Precast discussed a change she made in the middle of a data transformation project:
“When we first started this project, we didn’t really start with the end user and what they need. Now we think about our front-line workers and what they’ll need when they interact with customers, which helped us focus on what’s relevant.”
In other words, avoid the temptation to start with what your systems need to function, and instead start with what your front-line workers need to make customers thrilled.
Digital Evolution With Omnichannel: Getting Ahead Of The Competition
Parvez Patel – VP, eCommerce & Digital Experience, NAPA, discussed the results of a B2B eCommerce executive survey:
Question 1:
What is the primary challenge your B2B org faces in adopting omnichannel?
Answers were split between tech integration, product data management, and organizational alignment. Almost nobody said customer data management.
Question 2:
Which omnichannel capability is the most critical to drive success in an omnichannel setting?
Seamless ecommerce (desktop/mobile/app) was first. Then split between search/discovery, availability/delivery promise, and personalization.
Question 3:
When measuring the success of your omnichannel initiatives, which metric do you prioritize the most?
About half said incremental sales growth, then sales growth, and shift to channels with lower cost to serve. Customer retention and customer feedback were much further behind.
Question 4:
How do you view marketplaces?
By far the favored answer was “As an additional sales channel for us to sell on.”
Customer Obsession In Building Out Digital Strategy And Roadmaps
Meeta Kratz, Global VP, Product Management & Marketing, Lonza
Kratz shared her thoughts on how to create a customer-obsessed organization:
- Build your north star. Align your foundation (create common understanding of customer perceptions and behaviors). Partner with customers (capture voice of the customer via interviews, NPS, platform testing, etc).
- Prioritize speed and agility over perfection – incorporate feedback and innovate as you grow (test, learn & revise to eliminate complexities). Saying “No” to your customer is sometimes the most customer-centric answer.
- Decode data to innovate, grow and personalize. Insightful understanding: Unlock the “why” behind customer actions (customers may not be able to tell you). Personalize at scale: bridge the gap between in-person and digital experiences by using data-driven personalization.
Jason Hein from Bloomreach shared 5 Ways AI Helps You Close Deals Online
Here are Hein’s 5 ideas for using AI now:
–Automate keyword search tuning: Eliminate null results by having AI look at search terms with null results and learning what other terms are similar to those and drive conversions.
–Site personalization by segment. Hein used the example of a search for “Gloves” – Different customers in different industries need different types of gloves. AI can look at other people from the company of the person searching, and learn when someone types “gloves” and based on what they buy, they can assign different search results based on their company or industry.
–Automate facet order. Let AI sort the order that facets are displayed to match how users engage with the facets based on industry/role/title/geography/etc.
–Category & thematic pages. Use generative AI tools (like Dall-e) to create thematic or stylized art for use on themed pages.
–Create marketing copy. You can’t just put it copy out there because AI “hallucinations” are a real problem, but it’s great for sparking ideas.
Panel: Embarking and Enhancing your digital transformation
Matt Swan, Technical Product Manager, Ace Southern: When you’re looking to sell new tech internally, it’s really a marketing project. You need to figure out how to tailor your message to that person to get them on board. When we moved to a headless, composable platform, we went to our CFO and we didn’t talk about headless, we talked about the change in business model and how the costs will now be more predictable.
You have to think about what each person is concerned about and speak to that.
