By: Rajesh Gharpure, VP and Global Head, Manufacturing, Energy, Industry 4.0 and ESG, LTIMindtree

Disruption has been the ‘new normal’ since 2020. Although businesses face some level of constant change, COVID-19 has impacted the world in ways no one could have predicted. This article will discuss how the current situation has forced manufacturing companies to sit up and rethink their relationship with their end customers.

In the pre-COVID era, traditional B2B manufacturing companies engaged distributors and customers differently. The B2B manufacturing enterprise had always been at arm’s length from the end-user, and it was the distributor who managed the customer experience. Distributors were considered immediate customers of the enterprise and functioned like employees, governed by contracts. But, the current shift towards digitization has challenged this thought process, forcing companies to re-evaluate their direct relationships with their customers and overhaul their day-to-day business processes.

Now, translating this problem into technology parlance. New-age B2B manufacturing companies will need to think like their distributors by adopting and leveraging omnichannel e-commerce solutions that will expand their market presence across B2B, B2C, and B2B2C channels.

It’s time to rethink, rearchitect, and elevate the relationship between manufacturing companies and customers, taking it to the next level with tech-enabled, user-centric B2B2C e-commerce platforms. Let’s look at the top three  imperatives that are driving this transformation of the marketing function for all manufacturing companies:

1. Customers purchasing behavior: The advent of e-commerce has created a massive shift in customers’ buying behavior. While this shift is predominant for small to mid-value consumer products, there are noticeable changes in the customer expectations from industrial goods. Replicating the durable consumer e-commerce experience in the B2B and expensive B2C purchases will quickly become an absolute necessity for manufacturing companies.
2. Customized digital marketing: Marketers in manufacturing companies will now have to focus on enhancing digital customer journeys. They will create and leverage digital content based on market trends and end-user expectations about a specific product. Digital content such as blogs, articles, whitepapers, videos, testimonials, and user reviews will help the buyer gather necessary information about the product, generating brand recognition and subsequent loyalty towards the OEM. Providing the customer with a hyper-customized digital experience is now a top priority for ambitious manufacturing companies. For example, manufacturers who previously relied on older forms of marketing, such as trade shows, magazine publications, and field marketing, can reach a broader market through targeted advertising and a social presence.
3. Recreating the complete digital buying experience: Previously, dealerships, distributors, and sales teams were the most critical customer touchpoints as they represented the OEM and contributed significantly to the overall buying experience. However, any lack of product-specific technical knowledge among the members of this team would mean losing customer attention and eventually impacting the bottom line. But with the introduction of digital tools, it has become effortless for sales teams to recreate an immersive experience for the customer using 3D models and AR-/ VR-enabled product simulators. For instance, companies are curating buying experiences that explain the product’s technical capabilities in a relatable and consumable language for the customer.

These are the three imperatives driving the change toward e-commerce. Let’s look at what manufacturing companies must do to adopt a unified digital marketing experience:

1. Provide a far superior customer experience as compared to the market by enabling features like self-service options, intuitive search experiences, and more.
2. Upselling and/or cross-selling related products.
3. UX-driven product documentation with intelligent search integrations for faster accessibility of information specific to your products.
4. Scaled pricing and ready inventory availability with real-time order tracking among other features to establish greater trust and transparency with customers.
5. Knowledge enhancement for the Salesforce and authorizing the field sales employees to drive compelling conversions, shorter sales cycle, and better customer retention.
6. Enable marketers by providing visibility into the ROI of marketing efforts. These insights will help the team to focus on and build better-targeted campaigns.
7. Empower the organizations through better alignment between sales and marketing functions, an engaged pool of prospective customers, optimized marketing spending, and greater visibility into post-sales revenue.

However, in my experience, organizations cannot achieve that overnight. Enterprises need to first and foremost study and analyze their target groups, the target market’s strategic trends, the competitive CX landscape, and most importantly,  the latest technology trends in B2B eCommerce. Once this data is analyzed, laying the foundation for an organization’s new e-Commerce strategy becomes more manageable.