Episode 61: Balancing The Technology & People In B2B eCommerce With Mike King

The Hard Truth About B2B eCommerce podcast continues onto the next episode by welcoming Slalom’s very own Mike King to discuss the balancing act of innovative technologies and innovative people in this day in age.

Mike King is the Director of Global B2C Commerce at Slalom, specializing in implementing highly robust and complex Salesforce solutions.  In this episode, we discuss how to lay the groundwork to leverage eCommerce technology to empower power instead of letting people get in the way of what technology can do. Mike King has worked on multiple enterprise Salesforce Commerce Cloud implementations with a variety of agencies, implementing large eCommerce solutions, and has been at the intersection of technology and people for over a decade.

Episode 61: Balancing The Technology & People In B2B eCommerce With Mike King

In this episode, co-hosts Isaiah Bollinger, CEO of Trellis, and Timothy Peterson, Chief Marketing Officer of SportsBiz, welcoming Bar Geron, CEO of Balance onto the show to discuss:

• Differences between using Salesforce and leveraging the system effectively
• Balancing technological innovation with traditional methods of success
• People are hesitant to adopt technical change out of fear – how to overcome this phenomenon
• How eCommerce companies should view technological innovation
• B2B vs B2C best of breed technologies
• Market predictions and trends to keep an eye on

This podcast’s origin story

Podcasts are still a relatively new medium for content, but just because they are new doesn’t mean they lack power. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Podcasts have a unique ability to reach people on their time, whenever it is convenient for them – a way that previously did not majorly exist. Podcast listeners can take the information wherever they go and absorb it as they see fit. And that’s exactly what we are looking to do here. We want to reach a new audience of B2B eCommerce enthusiasts.

This podcast is all about B2B eCommerce. B2B is a different breed of eCommerce and it needs a different breed of Podcast. We get into the nitty-gritty of integrations, adoption, platforms, data and so much more regarding what makes B2B difficult to make successful for eCommerce!

We noticed that a few B2C podcasts exist on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but nothing designed for the B2B eCommerce community. B2B and B2C eCommerce have a lot of overlap, but even more differences. Each has a different set of requirements and customer demands that impact project scope. Let’s call a spade a spade. B2B is harder, more complicated, and harder to market. But it is also a bigger piece of the pie. The eCommerce B2B roadmap to success is not as cut and dry as B2C and that’s why we have started this podcast.

B2C platforms like Magento and Shopify have large communities that support and have done the entre-level work of most projects. The same community does not exist for B2B, but we are starting to build it. The ecosystem may not be as mature, but as experts in the space, we hope this podcast will help some people wake up and reevaluate their online sales strategy.

The first podcast examines major trends around B2B eCommerce as well as answering all of the above questions.  Take a listen for yourself and let us know what you think!

We will be posting new episodes with special guests weekly. You can listen on our dedicated podcast website and download the podcast on all major channels: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro, Castbox, Podchaser, Podcast Addict, Deezer, Listen Notes, and RSS Feed.