Dealing with sales reps is the ultimate catch-22 — you can’t do business without them, but oftentimes it seems like a challenge to do business with them.
In a recent McKinsey survey of 1,000 B2B decision makers, lack of speed in interactions with their suppliers emerged as the number-one “pain point,” mentioned twice as often as price. That’s no doubt the reason that 86 percent of respondents said they prefer using self-service tools for reordering, rather than talking to a sales representative
By 2020 (next year!), the average business buyer is expected to manage 82 percent of their relationships with vendors without interacting with another human. This is quite a shift when you consider almost all B2B purchases were conducted by phone, fax or in person just a few years ago.
When buyers have the freedom to purchase on their own through a convenient platform, they are more likely to complete purchases and less likely to turn to competitors.
E-commerce has changed the way people and businesses shop for and buy products, which is why HQ has elevated its online presence too. In addition to being the industry’s number one printed publication, connecting B2B sellers and buyers, HQ has expanded to include a fully functional shopping cart feature. Wholesalers are now able to sell products through the MARKETZONE under a personal digital page. Pre-qualified registered buyers browsing our site are now able to access participating wholesaler pages and place orders directly.
It’s all about convenience (for a small processing fee, of course). As a wholesale vendor, you get the chance to sell your products easily and quickly with less hassle. Orders placed through the MARKETZONE are instantly forwarded to the vendor for processing and fulfillment. Think of the site as a new salesperson who’s on task 24/7 working for you. Another big win is the added advertising and marketing reach.
For the buyer, it means instead of talking to ten different companies—ten different sales reps—and trying to make ten different orders, they can now log onto one central platform and take care of everything at once.
