How to manage customer contracts?

The contract with B2B customers is the document that stipulates the conditions under which one party will provide a material good or service to the other in exchange for payment. In principle, it is the most common relationship on the market. 

The function of the contract is to formalize the terms of the relationship, that is, to determine the terms and conditions for commercial exchange between the parties. 

B2B contracts have six key elements that determine the terms and conditions, which are: 

1. Price of the product or service
2. Dates
3. Delivery times 
4. Payment Methods 
5. Payment terms 
6. Periodicity of supply 

According to the above, the type of client is defined and based on this, discounts, promotions, bonuses, others. 

The above is the challenge that companies must face today, having the ability to easily manage their client portfolio in an effective and efficient way, seeking to obtain the highest profitability. 

At this point, it is where technological tools can drive business. On the one hand, we are in a digital world that seeks mobility and automation of most of the processes; on the other hand, circumstances have driven the exponential adoption of digital platforms. A study carried out by Cloud Craze of more than 200 companies supports it: 55% of B2B buyers demand access to an eCommerce platform. With this, companies that have inflexible traditional commerce systems do not have the capacity to satisfy the complex needs of their buyers and are left behind in the digital experience. 

Companies are increasingly taking advantage of the benefits of having an omnichannel strategy that allows them to increase their sales, improve customer perception and experience and achieve agility in the data collection processes. 

In this sense, there are currently alternatives that can automate and simplify all these processes. Organizations reach their goals faster by integrating different methods and mechanisms. 

A B2B eCommerce platform can adapt to manage customer contracts in a personalized way, business success in the B2B environment depends on the strength of the relationship generated with our customers and on the other hand it provides the sales force the tools to track customers in a much easier way, reduce the sales cycle and facilitate the access, analysis and management of customer information. 

Digitization allows us to carry out a contract management of our clients in an agile, flexible and personalized way unprecedented until now for millions of buyers. 

The customization of the B2B experience is the ability to bring all the details of the purchase contract to a platform that reflects them in detail, which is impossible to achieve in the physical world, in fact consider it, your company probably manages catalogs for the commercial management of their clients, they cannot be personalized with the prices and conditions for the different types of clients, on the other hand, they may publish monthly promotions, discounts and others, with the same problem where they can be personalized to us, if not that they publish with the conditions for the different categories of clients and this is complex to handle for the salespeople in the face of the clients. 

All the above, without considering the costs associated with printing material that ends up out of date. 

Specifically, the most important aspects that personalize a B2B platform are: 

• Searches: in the case of B2B clients it is essential to find the correct information without having to navigate between thousands of SKUs and data that may be irrelevant to their work, they require that searches only adjust to the products that are important to them. 

• Catalogs and lists: one of your salespeople may be an expert navigating the many catalogs and pages, but B2B clients need to be able to easily find only the products that are of interest to them. Possibly B2B catalog customization is one of the most valuable elements of the B2B commerce experience. 

• Pricing: Most likely think that pricing can be simplified, but the reality is that it is becoming more complex within the manufacturing and distribution industries. Each product could end up with a different price or margin depending on market conditions. Prices are the reflection of each contract and therefore we must be able to reflect that customization that allows self-service on a B2B platform. 

• Orders: it is key to be able to save all the historical information of the orders, since B2B commerce is a hybrid experience, the purchase scenario may vary even for the same item, on occasions making the request through a seller or a representative of tele sales. 

• Marketing (promotions and commercialization): increasing sales per customer implies suggesting discounts on those items that will be relevant to each buyer and these must be carried out according to the contractual rules. 

• Approvals: within B2B purchasing scenarios the approval processes can be quite complex, these may be different with each client, as an example custom approval means that a purchasing supervisor can log into the portal of a manufacturer or distributor and establish rules for each specific buyer in the organization. 

It’s clear that B2B contract management is a great challenge for companies, if you want to know how to do it efficiently, we invite you to schedule a consulting session.