5.1     INTRODUCTION

Apparently, only 44% of small businesses have a website - read more.

I find that in both e-marketing - and marketing in general - students often fail to get to grips with B2B trading. The reasons are numerous, not least that they will have never encountered it before and text books tend to focus on B2C [Nokia, Nike, BMW and Coca Cola make much sexier examples than B2B companies' products]. And perhaps the biggest problem they have is with the concept of lead generation. Although the title of this excellent article from FutureNow suggests it is all about lead generation, it actually addresses all aspects of this chapter, ie B2B online trading. Reading it is not an option if you want to understand this element of Internet marketing. See: Increasing Qualified Leads Online.

Because it echoes what I say in chapter 3.4, I could easily have put this article, Is Your B2B Site a Good Salesperson?, there. However, I have added it to the introduction of this chapter simply because it concentrates on B2B. One thing I would add is that if your market has a large DMU then you might consider appealing to each group within the exercise suggested in this article.

An important aspect of B2B trading that I neglected to include in the book is the 'request for a quote' - more commonly known as the RFQ. As the term suggests, this is where the potential buyer contacts the vendor and asks them to quote a selling price for a specific product or service. On the website, this can be acheived by including an online RFQ form - but note that to be effective, the form should be at the end of a conversion funnel and not simply be an 'add-on' to the content.

This - The Role of Search in B2B Buying Decisions - is a high-quality, must-read whitepaper which considers how the web is used by buyers in B2B environments. It is a couple of years old, but that makes it no less relevant ... and I would suggest that the web is used even more in procurement now than it was at the time of this research.

In the text I use the buying cycle to demonstate how the B2B website must be developed for different audiences. In this article - Is Your B2B Site a Good Salesperson? - the author takes a slightly different approach [note how he also advises using sales staff in website development - something you have already read in the book]. On the same subject - and going into detail with an example - is this article Can your Website Handle the Complexity of your Sale?.

Here's another article that is in sync with the book's content on the subject - Business Searchers Are Looking For ...

Don't forget there are also website development sections on my own website in tips, hints and advice and interesting articles - some of the articles are relevant to B2B sites.

I make the point that there might be friction between 'sales' and 'online', this article helps make my point - Creating a Successful Lead-Nurturing Strategy, and Has Your Telephone Become Your Sales Prevention System? is a good example of how effective online lead generation can be cancelled out by poor offline operations.

The content of many B2B websites is geared towards raising the interest of potential customers so that they contact the organization - here are some B2B lead generation tips.

*pg 165* In this 'practical insight' I mention that B2B e-Marketplaces are also known as communities or portals - well another term that is commonly used is 'buyer hubs' [eg BuyerZone]. It is also logical that some practitioners refer to them as 'multiple-vendor lead generation' - or just plain 'lead generation' - sites [eg MacRAE’S Blue Book]. It might be worth your while spending some time on these sites so that you can differentiate them from B2B directory sites such as ThomasNet].

This article (from the Sunday Times) - website helps firms crack public sector - is about how online tendering can help SMEs compete for public sector work.

OGCbuying.solutions is an Executive Agency of the Office of Government Commerce - the Government's leading procurement services organization.