Better software and technology can transform any job function or sector overnight, and the B2B industry is no exception. New software products help various B2B companies run their organizations more efficiently by lowering operating costs and eliminating high upfront expenses.
While these changes sound exciting, keeping abreast of the changing software landscape is important. Otherwise, B2B firms risk falling behind the competition. Check out some of the most impactful developments the B2B industry has witnessed in the past few years thanks to the efforts of software developers:
AI Software
Software is an integral part of modern sales companies, handling everything, from writing emails and scheduling meetings to identify critical sales behaviors. And this is precisely how AI is transforming the modern sales landscape.
Sophisticated artificial intelligence sales software allows B2B marketing and sales teams to acquire customers quickly with increased efficiency. AI software like predictive analytics and automated emails serve as a force multiplier for the B2B marketing people.
No wonder, Deloitte Global predicts that the pace of adoption of AI software will increase in 2019 and 87 percent of businesses will have AI-integrated enterprise software.
A stellar example is People.ai, AI-powered sales, and marketing automation software. Already, companies have lowered sales team response time by 33%, scaled-up sales processes, and automated contact and activity capture, using the tool.
Even conservative estimates realize how AI software can bring value to businesses by:
- Offering fresh insights
- Improving customer experiences
- Enhancing business processes
- Cutting costs
- Streamlining decision-making processes
- Conversational engagement.
Cloud-Based CRM Software
Customer relationship management platforms are among the most common software tools in B2B firms. CRMs help manage lead and customer data, and they contain helpful information regarding customer buying habits and behavior. They dramatically help to improve business revenue.
In fact, a Nucleus Research study found that CRM implementation yields an $8.71 return in sales revenue for each dollar spent.
However, software makers have come out with cloud-based CRM platforms that are changing the B2B selling process. Now, instead of on-site software systems, CRM data gets hosted on the cloud. These services are deployed online and do not require on-premise deployment.
Cloud-based CRM software is more than just a luxury, altering the face of B2B selling forever. Some of the benefits of this software include:
- Accessibility: Cloud-based CRM software frees B2B sales reps from the confines of their desks, allowing them to access data anytime, anywhere.
- Increased Productivity: Thanks to the cloud, mobile CRM software allows 65 percent of sales reps to achieve their quota.
- Rapid Implementation: No time-consuming installation is involved. Cloud-based CRMs are up and running instantly on the Internet.
- Scalability: Instant updates on cloud-based CRM platforms allow sales reps to work on new sales goals as their B2B selling objectives change.
Timesheet Software
Time tracker software allows business owners to learn where the team spends their time along with how productive their time management is. Timesheet software allows workers to either manually or passively track the time spent on different tasks, projects, and deliverables.
Employers in B2B companies can use timesheet software to increase accuracy, stay organized, and manage their employees’ time. The software improves employee productivity as it promotes:
- Accountability
- Discovery of events or activities that waste time
- Management of all time data in a single location.
Ideally, this type of software can tweak flaws in workflows to increase profits and automate the billing and payroll operations in B2B companies. It provides an end to end solution for automating shift scheduling, attendance tracking, timesheet management, and all related functions. With the help of intuitive reports, it helps managers plan, manage, and control employee time resources.
Business Intelligence and 360 Degree Reporting Tools
B2B organizations have countless moving parts. Managers can neither hope to keep track of all these parts, no expect synergy when they take decisions in silos. The solution – business intelligence and 360-degree reporting solutions.
Although BI isn’t a new concept, it continues to be a differentiator for B2B organizations. The challenge – avoiding the pitfalls of BI implementation. And one of the keys here is to make the tool serviceable and usable with the end-user in mind.
That’s why reporting tools such as Sisense deliver massive benefits to business, with capabilities such as:
- Self-service analytics
- Interactive and real-time reporting
- Intuitive Dashboards Out of Complex Data Sets
- Single Source of Truth
- Compatibility across device types
B2B Integration Software
50 percent of information exchanged between businesses still travels by phone, fax, or email instead of B2B integration software. However, B2B integration tools can digitally transform the relationship between trading partners.
B2B integration software enables organizations to transform digitally through features like:
- Process automation
- Operational insights
- Community management
- Supply chain visibility.
With more and more B2B firms relying on supplier and customer collaboration as well as complex supply chain networks, suitable B2B integration software allows companies to conduct business outside the four walls of the organization.
B2B integration software provides facilities such as:
- Information Digitization: B2B integration software digitizes and makes all the information in business documents like email, fax, and paper more accessible.’
- Managed File Transfer: Several B2B integration tools offer managed file transfer components that allow large data files like CAD or video to be quickly and securely delivered worldwide.
- Order Management: Companies implementing B2B integration software get more visibility across two major supply chain processes – procure-to-pay and order-to-cash.
- Community Management: B2B integration software provides a single platform for collaboration and communication with customer and supplier communities.
- Operational Insight: B2B integration solutions allow companies to attain end-to-end visibility of their supply chain performance and manage all B2B activities.
- Financial and Treasury Management: This software eases the process of integrating into the business processes and networks of banking partners.
- Invoice Management: B2B integration software often feature e-invoicing to make the process more efficient, comply with increasing global regulations, and speed up the settlement of invoices.
- Process and Workflow Management: Some B2B integration tools facilitate secure, end-to-end flow of correct, precise data into the digital workflows and enterprise applications.
Concluding Remarks
Software is changing different aspects of the sales process. These trends can often seem overwhelming to sales reps but they benefit from them in the long run. B2B companies should assess their targets and identify areas of improvement before selecting the right software. They should take on one objective at every step, and soon they will end up with an efficient, streamlined B2B sales strategy.
