Over the course of my career, I've had the opportunity to work with a number of B2B companies across a variety of industries - consumer goods, hospitality, and education services. Some of the most interesting insights I've garnered have been from those you might classify as "traditional businesses".

Those that seem to have embraced the benefits of using technology to make running their businesses easier have adopted some (or all) of the areas listed below.

  1. B2C user experience design - Most business owners in the B2B ecosystem have in some way been exposed to the methods of transacting in the B2C world. Whether it's using App's catering to Market Places, Delivery Services or Service Aggregators, they've seen how convenient it is to use and how the user interface seems to simplify that process.
  2. 24X7 Access - The ability to place an order at any point in time, get realtime updates on new product/service launches/discounts, etc.
  3. Real-Time Tracking - The ability to track and more importantly provide a heads up for when goods arrive. This allows operations teams to plan warehouse space, optimize the inward process, improve turn around time, use logistics more efficiently, etc.
  4. Omni-Channel Access - For a number of business owners, the flexibility of being able to access key systems regardless of where they are is proving to be a big benefit. So having a system that allows access via a mobile phone pays dividends (depending on the nature of the business). Tapping existing behaviors like using either SMS / Whatsapp to drive notifications makes it simpler to interface with core functions.
  5. Insights - Using technology to provide insights for a variety of things like customer behavior, purchasing trends, inventory, pricing/discounts, etc. Utilizing AI / ML to predict usage trends/price points allows the business to take a more data-centric view on decision making, planning for and managing inventory, etc.
  6. Business Reports - For some businesses, the profit margins are relatively thin so having a strong grip on understanding the costs associated with moving goods or services from suppliers to the end customer is critical. Being able to get advanced reports that allow business owners to segment and group products or services to gain category level insights is important.
  7. Improving Customer Engagement - Providing tools for business owners to help increase engagement with their customers. Digital Content that could be used for both Offline / Online marketing. Updating product catalogs across different formats with a single click.
  8. Payment Solutions - In the rush to adopt the same multitude of payment gateways that exist in the B2C world it's important to understand your business owners' network well. For a number of them, they might prefer continuing to operate on the same credit cycle as before / want to continue making offline payments, etc. Depending on the nature of the business figure out a mechanism that increases convenience (for them) without increasing the cost to service it.
  9. Integrated, Easy to Use, Systems - Integrating the various Sales, Marketing, Customer Interactions, Finance & Operations systems ensures there is seamless communication between the different departments and allows the business to scale more efficiently. Smart UI that leverages design principles from the B2C world ensures that teams are able to interact with the system more intuitively than before and requires less training.

Depending on the nature of the challenge faced by the business applying the principles of product management & design thinking to get a better understanding of what your business owners need tends to pay dividends and helps both your top and bottom line.