The tremendous power of B2B operations, from building a value chain to humanizing the carrying system!

After all fields of B2C have entered the red ocean period, industrial Internet has entered the boom mode. More and more traditional business owners have joined the battle, taking it for granted that all they can do is move their offline products online to sell them. But is it really that easy?

Li Gen's previous experience in B2B business taught him that the routine of 2C business is to find accurate individual users and then carry out a fierce marketing campaign to achieve good results.

This is not the case with 2B business. Although working with enterprises is more efficient than working with individuals, what you need to do is heavy integration of the entire industry chain. This is also the core business link of most B2B projects and it is by no means something that can be easily resolved by talking about it on paper.

It is said that beer tastes better when it has bubbles. The same is true for the Internet. The more bubbles there are, the more likely it is that we will get relevant answers through the survival of the fittest. Today I would like to share some of my personal insights into the operations of the B2B industry.

1. Build a valuable supply chain

In the past, we always heard this voice: If we continue to develop this business model, it won’t take us long to defeat Alibaba , Taobao, and JD.com.

I guess no one would believe such lofty ambitions now, but it is understandable. After all, traditional companies do not have much experience to follow when transforming to the Internet. When facing competitors, Chinese companies always want to kill them right away. This may be due to their competitive spirit, or they may have chosen the wrong reference.

In fact, why is this necessary? B2B startups have heavy business and are short of funds and talent, so they need these big guys to light the way. So here I call on all aspiring people to learn from competitors. We should work together to optimize the industrial structure, improve efficiency, and make progress together. Only after you have understood most of the fit points, you will be able to stand out.

Putting aside the SaaS (Software as a Service) service platform, practitioners all know that the core link of the B2B industry lies in the integration of the supply chain. In the vast land of China, the upstream and downstream of the industry are generally scattered, and the price fluctuations of commodities are also relatively large. Therefore, in Li Gen's mind, building a reliable value chain is the key to the B2B project to gain a foothold. You use your own advantages to help the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain solve certain problems, thereby gaining a certain position in the entire industrial reconstruction. This is the meaning.

GP No.1 is an industrial MRO (maintenance, repair, and operation) service provider that I have paid close attention to. Not content with just making a screw, they have chosen to expand the SKU field in both horizontal and vertical directions. MRO, a classification standard based on usage scenarios, is inherently equipped with the function of customer positioning. For an industry with terminals as its main customers, it is undoubtedly important to attach importance to service.

Therefore, in order to provide the best service, the factory chose to build warehousing bases in Jiangsu and other places, and set up a self-developed quality inspection system and inventory management system between upstream manufacturers and downstream customers, thus truly making a good match between products, logistics, personnel, and supporting facilities, improving work efficiency and reducing corporate costs. GP No. 1 has also become one of the most well-known MRO solution providers in China.

In addition, the operation of an enterprise requires human support. The founding team needs traditional practitioners who understand the Internet, as well as e-commerce talents who can initiate offline promotions . Industry experience and resources are prerequisites for project development. Internet promotion capabilities are the most critical for acquiring customers in the early stages of project development, so there must be knowledgeable people in the company to keep a check.

2. Word of mouth is the right way

When talking about their future development plans, many bosses always mention that they have government resources behind them. This top-down relationship-based marketing approach may be more suitable for the business development of traditional industries.

To be honest, it is very difficult for Internet startups to obtain relevant policy support when the amount of tax they pay does not meet the government's requirements. This is actually the same logic as investors , who only provide icing on the cake but not timely assistance.

The Internet market emphasizes disintermediation, and through the fan route, it emphasizes operational value, participation, and product experience, and opens up the market through user dissemination. This is a typical tactic of surrounding the "city" from the "countryside." He who wins the losers wins the world. This saying is absolutely true here.

3. Rely on other models to assist operations

Some B2B platform operators may think that they only need to sell the products to downstream distributors through the platform, and they have no control over whether they can sell the products or not.

This is most prominent among SaaS platform service providers. I just sell the software service to your enterprise. I don’t care who your audience is. This is a typical example of only seeing the platform value and ignoring the usage value.

Isn’t B a company or a group?

That's right, but a company is also made up of specific people, and its audience is also real people. If your platform is just for B2B purposes, the product power may not be able to reach this group of people at all. In addition, the company's decision-making cycle may be as long as several months or even a year. If this continues, it will be extremely unfavorable for business expansion.

In fact, we can understand the deep cultivation of the industrial chain in this way, that is, we can skip the next layer of the industrial chain and focus on its downstream. At this time, B2C and O2O are means to speed up the realization of enterprises. The ultimate goal is to force the integration of the industrial chain, which is also a step that I must take in my next work.

In this regard, I should learn more from Mr. S, an entrepreneur I met in a training course last year. He mainly provides high-end drinking water distribution services to local companies in Shandong. In theory, the companies in the office building are all potential customers, but most of these companies have their own cooperative water delivery units, and they are very disgusted when outsiders come to sell to them.

The suggestion we came up with at the time was to adopt a B2C offline promotion approach while keeping the existing business model unchanged.

From then on, Mr. S began to sponsor designated water for various Internet conferences. The most powerful one was the annual meeting of Peking University EMBA. The venue with thousands of people was filled with Mr. S's water. The unique taste and irresistible packaging attracted a lot of attention at the scene and in the circle of friends. As a result, after the meeting, many water supply orders were received from corporate users. This is the process of 2C leading to 2B.

4. Intermediaries transform into service providers

Guazi.com’s advertising slogan: “Selling cars directly to individuals, without middlemen making a profit from the price difference” has awakened the world. Manufacturers and retailers at all ends have begun to directly connect with individual consumers.

However, after getting rid of the strong support of middlemen, the two will inevitably lengthen their business chains and management chains when facing the public's growing consumer demand. With limited energy, the quality of service will definitely decline. Middlemen must seize this point in order to break through.

Ele.me is a food ordering platform that meets people’s demand for takeout and improves the order efficiency of individual restaurants. But if Ele.me continues to extend its business chain, becoming not only a platform but also opening restaurants and doing logistics... what will be the result?

Similarly, as product suppliers for Ele.me, what will be the result if individual restaurants also set up their own food delivery platforms and logistics?

Yes, there are things you should do and things you shouldn’t do. There is an intersection between the Ele.me platform and restaurants, and that is logistics. Therefore, professional third-party food delivery logistics has become a rigid need for both of them. And what is logistics? It’s a kind of service!

5. Build a humanized carrying system

It should be understood that most B2B systems are linked to small and medium-sized wholesalers. In the original offline market visits and surveys, Li Gen found that there were usually 1-2 people in the store fronts. Usually they were either calculating accounts with calculators or counting shipments. During the peak season, there was not much time to relax. Being busy was the epitome of a day.

If you want to capture this group of users, and you want to negotiate with merchants on the spot about entering the mall with an APP that you haven't even mastered yet, and you don't have a good appearance, you will basically be rejected.

The reason is simple. Due to the limitations of age and cognitive level, these users may only know about the Internet in the areas of shopping and entertainment. As long as they can get the food they want, they are not willing to think about the logic and value behind the APP.

I have seen many startups try to move all functions and categories to the first page. It seems to be very fulfilling, but in fact it puts users in a dilemma of not knowing where to click.

Everyone in the industry knows that the integration of the B2B industry is very heavy and is far away from the first-line life scenes. It is not as frequently used as Meituan , Taobao and other food, drink and entertainment platforms.

Therefore, users will only give us one chance, and if we fail to seize it, there will be no more.

Li Gen personally likes a point of view of Internet tycoon Zhou Hongyi very much: Don’t think too much about users, but consider issues from the user’s perspective!

There are only two things that users want: I want to purchase goods or I want to supply goods. Personally, I think it’s okay to use this as the category navigation on the homepage. After segmenting the population, relevant functions can be pushed according to user attributes. This is both clear and efficient.

Simple is good, but it does not mean that we can ignore the details of the experience. There are three small points that I always want to tell Internet people who run large-scale B2B platforms.

First, when purchasing, there is often a discrepancy between the purchaser and the decision maker. That is, employees select products and place orders based on their needs. When the amount is large, they will ask the boss to review and approve the payment. Some bosses may be away on business for a week, so things are delayed.

If your system requires users to complete payments online, it is recommended that PMs and programmers add an approval process that allows two people to view the transaction status online at the same time. This will not only greatly improve the user experience, but may also become a key link in widening the gap with competitors.

Secondly, regarding the online payment link, some platforms may not have figured it out. Since they are doing matchmaking transactions and the amount of an order is quite large, they still have to pay fees online, and they can save a lot by going offline. In fact, this needs to be analyzed specifically based on the characteristics of the industry.

If you go online, remember to activate UnionPay payment, because WeChat Pay and Alipay both have limits. These tasks must be done in advance. After all, it is about money and everyone is very sensitive.

Third, with the cost of acquiring customers so high today, don’t expect too many people to download the APP. It’s enough to let users learn about your products in the most convenient way. Therefore, you must have an M site. After it is completed, you can directly hang it in the custom menu of the official account to facilitate user browsing.

In fact, to do this job, you still need to talk less, do more, summarize more, be good at finding the weak links in the industrial chain, use your advantages to fill these loopholes, bring value to users, and improve the operating efficiency of the entire industry. If you can do the above, you are not far from success!

Li Gen is willing to encourage each other with partners in the B2B industry. If we do well, we will be the ones who gain the most!

What I said may not be all right, but at least it is useful!