Master B2B eCommerce

On the last Master B2B Friday 15 podcast... Andy Hoar and Brian Beck discussed what's the best way to recalibrate your digital strategy? They said there are 3 questions you need to ask yourself about your company: 1) How do you know if your current strategy's working? 2) Who should lead the review process? 3) How do you prioritize the changes? In the full episode you'll hear the best way to go about answering those questions. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Don't miss a single episode - a new podcast is released every Friday.

On the Master B2B Friday 15 podcast, Andy Hoar and Brian Beck talk about how often practitioners should re-visit their digital strategy. Andy shared how he thinks that one of the biggest challenges is that companies of a certain size are not really equipped to handle the speed of change in digital: "Most companies are built for stasis. They're built for stability. They're built to execute. But they're not built for disruption. They're not built for self assessment." Brian talked about the difficulty of finding a balance between structure and agility: "You have to leave some margin to be agile. You can have a plan. You have to have a structure. You have to have something to march against. You have to have a vision, and there are some B2B leaders who, every year, put out a vision and talk about how we're going to work against our vision. But you have to have a structure to start with, and it's really important to be flexible." Subscribe to the Master B2B Friday 15 podcast wherever you listen to podcasts... 

On the Master B2B Friday 15 podcast, Andy Hoar and Brian Beck discussed whether AI Chatbots replace first-level customer service people in B2B. They shared their experience with empathetic AI chat tool Hume AI. What impressed the guys was how close the tool seemed to being ready to answer first-line customer service inquiries. Often when we see an early version of a new technology, we can see the outline of how it might work in the future, but the actual execution is a little off. In this case, it feels like we're a year or two away from implementation, rather than 10 years away. Andy pointed out a significant benefit of moving first-line customer service to a chatbot: once you train an AI-based chatbot, it never forgets what it's learned. And you can continue to train it with new information over time. Plus, it's (basically) infinitely scalable, so even if it's not quite as accurate as a human, it solves for one of the main annoyances customers have about customer service - being placed on hold.

In this week's Master B2B Friday 15 Podcast, Andy Hoar and Brian Beck talk about who should own customer experience in an organization. At a recent executive roundtable we hosted, we asked this question and answers were all over the place - the CMO, CRO, VP of eCommerce, CIO (??), CEO. Brian Beck offered his own idea: "I think it really does end up depending on how you structure the role. Ultimately, I think a CXO or Chief Experience Officer can work, but they have to have real organizational influence. It's the same argument as a Chief Digital Officer - there has to be some real meat to the role. Otherwise, they turn into the chief cheerleader. And they end up selling the whole time and have no real power to do anything. Whoever is in this role has to have power to do something. And whether you call it Chief Digital Officer or Chief Experience Officer, you put it under the remit of the revenue officer or the marketing officer, it's almost less relevant or less important than the actual way that the organization is structured."

Where are B2B Ecommerce execs spending time and focused attention in 2024? Well, at Master B2B eCommerce, we have been fortunate to see an enormous number of practitioners signing up for our upcoming events - both physical and virtual. Hundreds of B2B leaders from companies like Schneider Electric, Henkel, Kimberly Clark, HD Supply, Grainger, Motion Industries, Boeing, HP, Georgia Pacific, and many others will gather shoulder to shoulder to learn from one another and from industry experts at our intimate events this year. From our in-person Executive Roundtables in 10+ cities around the US, to our Executive Dinners, our annual Mindshare Summit in Chicago on June 4, and our virtual Mythbusters sessions, we have been overwhelmed with the response from our community of manufacturer and distributor executives. Many of our upcoming events now have waiting lists. If you are a software company or other solution provider, we provide opportunities for pre-qualified Subject Matter Experts to join us at our events. We have a limited number of these sponsorships remaining available and would be happy to discuss with you. You can find out more about our events and register your interest on our site: https://lnkd.in/ePFRT_hR #b2becommerce #billiondollarb2becommerce

Dallas-area Ecom execs: Andy Hoar and Brian Beck are getting excited about our in-person Master B2B eCommerce Executive Roundtable coming up on April 10, 2024 in Dallas. We'll have 25+ of the best of the best in digital commerce in attendance, and already have RSVP's from some amazing executives from industry-leading companies, including Boeing, Pregis, Dal-Tile, Fleet Pride, City Electric Supply, Doskocil, Advanced Energy, and others! We're going to be talking all about the hottest trend in digital transformation - AI and how to best (and practically) leverage this new tool in your business to create world class buyer experiences and drive efficiencies. Our Roundtable discussion starts at 4 PM CT and will be followed by a fantastic cocktail hour and networking dinner. The entire event will be held at the exclusive Tower Club of Dallas. This event will fill up! Reserve your spot today. It is complimentary for practitioners at manufacturers, brands, and distributors. Apply for an invitation to attend here: https://lnkd.in/g_GVZ4zC We look forward to seeing you!

On May 21, Master B2B eCommerce will be gathering an incredible group of 25+ Ecommerce leaders from the Denver area for an Executive Roundtable and private networking dinner. Our discussion will be all about leading successful AI initiative in B2B, one of the hottest topics in our industry right now! With so much "buzz", how are manufacturers, brands, and distributors actually putting these tools to practical use? We are going to find out. Then we break for cocktails and dinner at a fantastic, elegant location in Denver (to be announced shortly)! We already have a great list of leading executives from the incredible Denver area companies such as, McLane Company, SRS Distribution, Apeel Sciences, MDM, Skratch Labs, Essendant, Advanced Energy, MasTec, Videojet, and numerous others! If you are an executive at a manufacturer, brand, or distributor and would like to join us for this complementary event, please let us know. You can direct message me here on LinkedIn or register right on our web site here:

On the Master B2B Friday 15 Podcast, Andy Hoar and Brian Beck talk about how much the CEO needs to be involved in digital transformation projects for them to be successful. They dug into the ongoing transformation at Honeywell, and how the former CEO was incredibly hands on leading that process: "When the CEO leads the digital transformation effort (and now the AI effort), it's a lot more successful than when it's delegated to somebody south of that in the organization. And the fact that the CEO actually appointed himself and led key meetings... I think made all the difference here."

On the Master B2B Friday 15 Podcast... Andy Hoar and Brian Beck debated whether dynamic pricing is coming to B2B (or whether it's already here), and whether companies understand the implications of being transparent with your pricing... As Brian said, "Hiding prices is something that B2B companies still want to do. They're worried about competition. They think the pricing is a competitive advantage...Nope, ain't anymore!"

In last week's Friday 15 podcast (and if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, it's so much easier to just have it show up every Friday afternoon in your podcast feed and enjoy it at the end of a busy week. Or a slow week. Whatever week you had is fine.) Andy Hoar and Brian Beck talked about whether marketplaces resolve or complicate channel conflict. Here's Andy's take: "Channel conflict predated you. And the channel conflict will post-date you as well. You're not going to be able to change the channel conflict because it's inherent in the business model. The question is, 'How do you grapple with it?' You can resign yourself to saying, 'We're not going to change anything about our traditional selling models internally and externally.' But you can either do nothing and just let the chips fall where they may, or you can actually re-prioritize your strategy around “where are your customers?” That should be what's driving all these decisions..."