Episode 89: How to Adopt an eCommerce Mindset if You’re in B2B

The Hard Truth About B2B eCommerce podcast continues this week with an in-house episode welcoming our new guest Justin King, Chief evangelist and VP of B2B Strategy at Salsify, to discuss the best practices of leveraging online space to scale your B2B business.

Justin King started his career 20 years ago doing ERP-based eCommerce projects for B2B and B2C organizations. Eventually, he realized there was this massive knowledge gap in B2B, so he started his own B2B eCommerce website to educate the industry. Over time his knowledge and expertise took off and he became a top consultant for major B2B companies to adapt to eCommerce and is currently the VP of B2B at Salsify.

Episode 89: How to Adopt an eCommerce Mindset

In this episode, co-hosts Isaiah Bollinger, CEO of Trellis, and Timothy Peterson, President & COO of Speir Digital, Inc, are welcoming Justin King, Chief Evangelist and VP of B2B Strategy at Salsify, to discuss:

In this episode, co-hosts Isaiah Bollinger, CEO of Trellis, and Timothy Peterson, President & COO of Speir Digital, Inc, are welcoming Justin King, Chief Evangelist and VP of B2B Strategy at Salsify, to discuss:

• eCommerce in manufacturing industry 
• Change management and customer adoption
• Tech development in eCommerce
• How to attract the best tech talents
• Partnerships between in-house and external talents
• Cultural problems that hinder eCommerce adoption and how to reset the culture within the company
• What shifted during the pandemic years
• The importance of the unified transformational mindset
• How to reach 92% customer adoption through shifting to eCommerce
• A sense of “wall” and control in B2B customer adoption
• Building the processes within the company to acquire new digital properties 
• How to remove constraints on innovations
• Positive constraints on enterprise level
• How to encourage sales reps adopt eCommerce faster
• Gaining a competitive advantage though exposing your business online
• Nuances of the processes in manufacturing and distribution industries
• The importance of deep knowledge and consultancy in sales
• Two sides of product content and how to add value to it
• What is great content for B2B and examples existing out there
• Why you need to think mobile-first today even in B2B
• Design and aesthetic value vs content: what should come first

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.