Streamline your business sales process for purchasing

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Hey there fellow marketers, Professor Wolters here. And today we're gonna be talking about the B2B buying process, or the business to business buying process. I'm sure you've watched our video on the B2C buying process, like how normal people, like you and me, go and buy things and stuff like that. But you have to realize, in the business to business buying process, there's a- it gets a bit more complicated. You've got more people involved, you got to think about more things than just, "I'm hungry, I'm going to go get Culver's." Now, it's more like, the entire class is hungry; what do I get them to eat? Oh my, there's a lot more information I have to take in. Okay. And so we're going to go through this process step by step. And honestly, the first thing we have to think about, the first step is what we call need recognition. Someone has to realize that there's a problem, okay? Like, when you're hungry, you think, "Oh, I'm hungry". But for a company, it could be, "hey, our computer system isn't fast enough", or "our internet can't, like, sustain all the "people watching Netflix in the afternoon, instead of working." Okay, and so we try to see where these need recognitions can come from. Yes, it can come from the workers that notice these things, 'cause hey, I can't do my job as well. Also, it could be our suppliers that let us know like, "hey, we "see that you're- that we're- the other people we're selling to "are buying more, you know, non-meat burger stuff. "You might want to think about that, McDonald's, because the "Impossible Whopper is doing so well." Or it could be our salespeople that are going out there and talking to clients, and seeing that clients want something else, they might bring that back, say, "hey, our products "need to change to our customers will buy them more." Okay. Also, you might learn from your competitors. I mean, when all those phone companies saw how popular the iPhone was, they realized, "hey, we got a need recognition. "We got to change things, okay, in our buying process. "We got to buy stuff to build a different kind of phone, a smartphone, with "that touchscreen and stuff like that, just like the iPhone." Other things you might go, you might go to industry trade fair and see that. There's all kinds of places where this need recognition might pop up, okay, 'cause it can come from anytime and anywhere. And once you realize there's that need, we need it, we have this need, we got to get something done. Now we have what's called "product specifications". We really have to lay out, what do we need in order to get that need fixed? Okay, that that requirement, like, taken care of. So what we do is we kind of lay out all the attributes and needs that our product should deal with. Okay, so if it is a new computer system for a university, okay. Well, we need to lay out our product specifications: 42,000 students, 10,000 staff and faculty, um, we need maintenance. We need to make sure it's backward integrated, so it can use the old software, so we don't have to buy it again. But also be ready for new software that's coming, that it also can connect to our huge, big, mega computer here as well. You're laying all those things out there, because it helps realize, like, "who can I work with?" I mean, if I need a computer system for 42,000 students and 10,000 workers, maybe Bob's Computer Shop down the street might not be the right person to go to. They probably can't handle the load. We're gonna have to go to a Dell, or an Apple, or somebody like that, that can help us out. And the thing is, once we start laying out these product specifications, it helps us, but also it helps our suppliers know what they need to be doing. And the thing is sometimes you actually have are called preferred suppliers, and those ones you already work with. They're kind of like your friends in business. And so you might talk to them. And then they might work with you to say, "oh, well, you want this, "but you also want to be thinking about the next step as well. "It's not just a computer system. "It's a holographic interface. "And that's what's coming down the pipe lines." "Oh, I never thought about that." Yes. And that takes us into our third step. And that's the request for proposal. This is when we kind of officially announce, "Hello, we need help, suppliers. "Could you come with some-some ideas, please?" And you actually build up a request for proposal. And we have a video that goes through request for proposal step by step. But basically you're asking for repose-proposals, "Hey, could you help us out?" Okay, so you have that. And now the next step, once you get all those RFPs in, you get this- you have your step for proposal analysis and vendor negotiations, or nov- or you could also say, "and vendor selection". Okay, so the firm will have multiple vendors, okay. They're going to be sending us stuff, at least hopefully they will, okay. And we have to kind of rank them like "who's doing better?" What do we like more? That's why you have all those criteria in your RFP to kind of help you know, is how do I rank somebody better? And once we kind of analyze these proposals, we might then look at the vendors, like, do we like this vendor? Do we not like this vendor? What has been our kind of experience with them before? And then we're going to negotiate them, okay. Now we actually have another video that goes into the factors and purchasing decisions, like with our suppliers and supplier stuff. So I want you to check out that video as well. But we're gonna move on to the next step because you've selected your vendor now, and now we have step five, and that is order specification. Here, the buyer actually has to say, "Yes, I want to buy from you." You make that decision. Okay. And the thing is, this is where you're going to really like hammer out the details. That RFP was kind of like the rough draft. Now what you're doing is you're laying out exactly the dates, the times, the amount of students, the amount of computers you need. All this kind of stuff, that's where it really comes in. So all those terms, they get finalized. Those payments, that gets finalized. The delivery date, who's working on what, start/finish dates, all that stuff is going in here. And you do not want to leave any parts out because, remember, this is your contract. And the thing is, if they say, "oh, we'll do that for you, no problem." I don't care if they tell you "no problem", what you do is you make sure you go, "hey, I see there's something missing in here. "We need to put it in the contract". Because it's not in the contract, they don't have to do it. Okay. So make sure you're putting all that stuff in your specification part. And then the last step is, after everything has been done, you want to make sure you have a vendor performance assessment. How did that vendor do? How did that supplier do? Did they deliver stuff on time? Was the work in good shape? These kind of things. Because one, you want to make sure they did a good job. But two, you might want to use them in the future, and you want to make sure you have a, kind of, criteria. Oh, this is where they messed up. I need to make sure they don't mess up the corners of the walls, because we needed rounded corners so the kids don't hurt themselves at that school versus the square corners. You want to make sure you have those notes, because, what happens in the B2B world, a lot of times one person makes that big purchase this time, but the next time it's somebody else, and they might not have worked with that vendor. So you want to really mark down what you liked and didn't like from each of the vendors, so you can have that for next time to know, should we work with them again, yes or no? Okay. Anyway, I hope this helps you understand, in general, what the B2B buying process is. Don't forget we have other videos that go into some of these parts specifically, like the RFP process, and ways we analyze, you know, our suppliers, or potential suppliers. So check out those videos as well. And you will learn more about B2B marketing, please subscribe. Bye.