In the last few years we’ve worked with hundreds of IT Resellers, MSPs and VARs, and built a clear understanding of what makes customers happy. Creating a great customer experience is a proven strategy for increasing sales, so we’ve broken our learnings into two groups: what customers do and don’t like, to use as a future checklist.
What Do Customers Like From IT Resellers?
Give customers access to their account information
Customers want to be able to browse both historic account information (such previous quotes and invoices) as well as current, time-sensitive information like shipment tracking. In our consumer lives we expect all these details to be readily-available, all without talking to anyone on the phone. A customer who can self-serve this information from a personalised dashboard will save you time in the short term, and make better purchasing decisions in the long term.
Explore The Modern Selling Customer Portal
Explain product discounts or deals on quotes
Modern customers are cautious of variations in cost (“what is wrong with the business I’m buying from?” “will the price rise next time?”) and therefore any price reductions must be qualified. Arbitrary discounts on a haggled quote price are no longer part and parcel of the B2B sales process, instead the criteria of every deal or additional incentive must be clearly justified. Acting transparently in this way builds trust between the buyer and seller, especially when continued over a sustained period of time.
Offer multiple ways to action tasks on your webstore
Different types of customers want to be able to interact with your webstore in different ways, typically a combination of self-service and assisted actions, all in the pursuit of the same goal. Simply put, your customers need to be able to get whatever they want, however they want, whenever they want – fortunately there are digital tools you can implement to make this happen. Functional webstore Search, implementing Wizards & Configurators to guide users, and creating agreed product Bundles or Core Lists are just a few examples of webstore features designed to support your salespeople; with the option to escalate to phone/video calls as solutions become more complex.
What Do Customers Not Like From IT Resellers?
Avoid wasting customers time with unnecessary phone calls
Speaking to the wrong person on the phone really frustrates modern customers, with many customers preferring not to speak on the phone at all. B2B eCommerce offers a brilliant environment for customers to self-educate based on the content you offer, which means they will be able to purchase confidently and independently, or that they will have a clear understanding of the solution they’re looking for before speaking to one of your sales team.
Never give your customers wrong or differing information
The beauty of integrated systems is that ongoing and historic data is all available – for both you and your customer to reference. This provides your team with the opportunity to provide a unified position on quotes – this also means that your customers will be very aware of receiving different costs. Stock In The Channel’s stock and price engine ensures that you have access to consistent, reliable information so that no one is out of the loop.
Integrating third-party CRM, ERP or PSA systems doesn’t just create a smooth experience, it removes the need to repeatedly key-in data, too, which saves a huge amount of time. Even more importantly, this minimises human error, so that your customers never receive wrong tracking numbers or shipment details.
Encourage customers to feel responsibility for their decisions
The sales process has become more complex in a short space of time – with remote working, multiple ways to speak to customers and purchasing touchpoints to bear in mind. Modern customers do not want to be “sold to” instead they prefer to reach solutions collaboratively. This sort of collaboration means working side-by-side with customers, rather than a head-on, transactional sales approach. This is especially important for larger purchases where pricing can be adjusted while still maintaining a healthy margin. Our new Collaborative Quoting tool brings negotiations into real-time with new quote iterations immediately available so that it feels like you and your customers are working alongside one another.
How can Stock In The Channel’s 7 Principles of Modern Selling help resellers?
Achieving best in class B2B eCommerce
Our goal is to help IT resellers digitise all areas of their business according to our principles: Self-service, Transparency, Self-education, Personalisation, Collaboration, Automation and Insight. We have created 25 (and counting) digital features that put these principles into practice to ensure a seamless purchasing experience for your customers, and to streamline the webstore portal management for your team.
Built on the back of the channel’s leading stock and price search engine
Using Stock In The Channel lets you choose from hundreds of distributor datafeeds with accurate, up-to-date stock and price availability. Dropship orders to your customers using our all-in-one webstore platform solution, combining Magento with the power of Stock In The Channel.
