How to optimize my cost structure from a B2B approach

The optimization of the cost structure is not simply making cuts, but on the contrary, it is looking for a way to do more things, but spending less, to achieve this you must optimize costs by reviewing all the processes of your company: financial, commercial, purchasing processes, inventory management, logistics... but hey, this is a time to adjust the structure and grow.

Next, we will mention some points to analyze:

• Personnel costs: salaries, social charges, among others, but there are also costs for work accidents and illness; It is clear that under the traditional sales model we require a commercial force with the capacity to produce the turnover that the business requires, but the result in the end is proportional to the "limited" capacity they have to produce and it is almost impossible for a company may have a 24/7 sales channel available without an adequate digital architecture.

• Inventory management: within the processes of the supply chain a fundamental point is the proper management of inventories, which is not cut just for cutting, a balance must be achieved between inventory costs and the optimal level to cover the demand.

This is a cost-risk relationship, which is intelligent inventory management, but for this it requires tools that allow you to interpret customer demand data so that you can foresee a scenario of evolution of demand that you will have. For this, a tool is required to save customer behavior histories.

• Logistics costs: There are many factors that you must consider, in principle the logistics costs are confirmed by:

o Procurement costs (purchases)

o Storage costs

o Inventory Costs

o Internal transportation costs

o Costs of distribution of finished products

o Personnel costs.

In order to optimize these costs, a tool with the ability to improve order management is required, the seller and the customer share a common goal: "to achieve the fastest and most accurate product of an order", for this the company It must have an efficient and flexible tool that has the ability to adapt to business conditions and current market demands, all of which have a direct impact on the aforementioned costs.

• Stationery and administration: it will seem trivial but a great saving can come from the adoption of a digital architecture that allows to eliminate costs of paper, stamps, catalog printing, brochures, ink and the work of the personnel who perform these tasks, as well as rework in those that are incurred many times.

• Optimization of costs for fixed assets versus productivity: many of the traditional systems require large investments in infrastructure and that in most cases do not have an impact on the perception of the client and much less on the value of this over time On the contrary, the B2B eCommerce model has two great advantages:

o All its architecture is based on the cloud, which avoids the company incurring expenses and, on the contrary, will end up generating savings.

o It is a platform designed to generate productivity, which translates into improving the valuation and profitability of customers over time.

• Adjust the portfolio of products and services: something classic that foolishly generates losses the need for many companies to want to offer ALL kinds of products and services with the intention of wanting to reach more customers, it is clear that this is a mistake and to To correct it, it is necessary to have tools that allow us to clearly understand the demand that companies have, so that products and services can be prioritized, at this point the Business Intelligence capacity of a B2B eCommerce becomes vital.

The points that we have just described are important, but what about the critical areas of marketing and sales, what we can do, especially when due to the crisis companies have decided to reduce their investment in marketing to a minimum and in turn have decided to lower the prices. Is there something we can do to optimize these areas by achieving an adequate marketing and sales strategy, while reducing costs?

The answer is Yes, for this, it is necessary to perform an intelligent management by designing promotions based on the analytics that a tool such as B2B eCommerce can provide us. It is clear that all commercial actions cost money, especially the promotions or incentives that we give to customers (discounts, royalties, etc.), it is for this reason that it is essential to know very well which of all those actions we do are the that actually contribute to increased sales and have a positive return.

We must also analyze whether we should do them with all clients or for certain ones, the frequencies and time windows, among others. It is about discerning with what combination of actions I have more sales and at what cost.

B2B eCommerce gives you the ability to analyze each of your customers or segments, establish how much it costs to keep them happy and loyal to you, what must be asked is, is that investment worth it?

Probably this last point, the commercial cost, is one of the most difficult to evaluate and decide what to do to optimize it, since it is directly related to the company's income, to help you in this process we invite you to download an infographic that It will help you to evaluate the Cost of Acquisition per Customer and from there to make the right decision on how to improve the commercial cost of your company.