The international consulting firm McKinsey & Company recently conducted a survey among about 3,600 B2B company executives globally in industries such as manufacturing, energy, pharma, healthcare, finance, and more. The survey highlights several interesting trends:
- 96% of company executives changed their GTM (go-to-market) strategy due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 55% of companies relied on human service representatives before the pandemic. This number now stands at 21%.
The most significant finding is this: Of all the companies that adopted a new sales model due to the pandemic, 80% intend to keep this model in the future.
There is no doubt that we are witnessing a significant change in the way companies do business, a change that will remain even after the pandemic is no longer present.
Implications for Manufacturers
These findings have significant implications for manufacturers. Here are the most important ones:
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E-commerce – the new normal in the B2B world
Before the pandemic, not all manufacturers were motivated to switch to an e-commerce model. They managed well with phones, faxes, and emails for orders and customer management, and may have been reluctant to develop a sales channel due to relationships with sales agents and distributors. The COVID-19 pandemic changed all that.
Since service and sales representatives struggled to perform their roles remotely, manufacturers began to reassess their existing e-commerce solutions, if any, and realized that they needed to provide a solution that is convenient and user-friendly. Without true integration of SAP and ERP systems, customers cannot conduct complex transactions online. Both manufacturers and customers experienced unsuccessful digital platforms, sometimes in combination with various improvisations, with the distant goal of creating a new platform.
For these manufacturers, the COVID-19 pandemic helped them understand the difficulty of lacking an e-commerce system integrated with organizational systems.
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B2B Consumers Prefer Self-Service Online Purchases
A further finding from McKinsey’s survey is very relevant for manufacturers: 47% of consumers who were asked how they prefer to communicate with their suppliers, preferred online self-service, with 25% favoring the supplier’s website and 22% choosing to receive online information from the supplier.
This offers an important insight for manufacturers: in a post-COVID world, B2B buyers prefer the digital channel as their main source for product information, and therefore, manufacturers must provide electronic catalogs with rich content, photos, videos, documentation, product comparisons, and more.
But rich content is not enough. 46% of consumers were asked which ordering method they prefer, and they said they prefer using the supplier’s website. This means that manufacturers providing electronic catalogs to customers must enable online orders. Consumers need rich content to gather information about the products, but they also need the ability to place orders online afterward, ideally with personalization based on business logic tailored to each customer.
This is good news for manufacturers in the post-pandemic era. Self-service e-commerce is not only the best way to sell to customers when service and salespeople work from home, but it is also the method preferred by customers.
So how should manufacturers prepare to launch their first e-commerce channel (or replace the previous platform)?
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Companies that respond quickly and decisively in a crisis are more successful.
An article recently published in Forbes about Agile during the COVID-19 period stated that companies that adopt the Agile methodology comprehensively are the most successful. In times of frequent changes, like during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Agile methodology allows for easy changes because work is planned in small units and shorter time periods.
Moreover, according to McKinsey, companies that used Agile during the 2008 financial crisis are performing much better today than companies that did not use this methodology. Manufacturers must adopt Agile methodology and apply it to digital self-service solutions for customers.
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Implementing a Digital Customer Experience Using Agile
In a world where the COVID-19 pandemic is present, traditional transformation methods are too slow and expensive to meet the rapidly changing needs of customers. Manufacturers must aim to gradually improve the customer experience and apply the Agile methodology at two levels:
- Digital transformation program using Agile. During the transition period, manufacturers should focus on the most valued components, aiming for quick wins that offer real value to customers. In a world where the pandemic is still ongoing, this could take many forms: for example, launching an order tracking portal in the first stage, and later expanding the platform – adding product catalog browsing and full e-commerce.
- Agile approach for every stage of the transformation process. Manufacturers must incorporate the voice of the customer into every version that integrates new capabilities. For example, if the organization begins offering online order tracking, it is very important to present the platform to customers and ask them what motivated the launch of the system today. This will expose critical requirements that might not be discovered until after the launch. This information will help you address customer needs before offering them the final solution, making it harder to make changes later.
Full implementation of the Agile methodology will help manufacturers meet customers’ digital needs and prepare for future crises. The key is to prioritize customer value, and then plan transformation projects to deliver that value quickly.
At Signature-IT, we acted quickly, expanded and tripled our digital marketing department by acquiring the business from Web Media Group, whose expertise is in this field. The acquisition allows us to offer end-to-end digital services – from developing a digital strategy to implementing it across various media channels – websites, social networks, search engine optimization, and the implementation and integration of Marketing Automation systems.