Integrated Digital Sales Platform for the Solution of Customer Needs 2/2

Welcome to our series of articles about current theses of our students!

Alumna Antonia Biel wrote an outstanding master’s thesis in the field of digital sales as part of her master’s degree at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences in Cologne. The topic: “Integrated Digital Sales Platform for the Solution of Customer Needs”. Below are further key findings from her thesis. Click here for the first part!

Is a digital sales platform able to facilitate a customer’s customer journey?

 As a result of new digital support options, a customer no longer goes through a traditional purchasing process. He runs through a customer journey and has various customer touchpoints with a company. There, every customer experiences his personal customer journey with individual touchpoints. As nowadays customers expect a consistent appearance with consistent quality where they can switch back and forth between different touchpoints seamlessly, companies face the challenge of linking and aligning their various channels.

A digital sales platform could therefore facilitate the customer journey and support companies with this challenge as diverse touchpoints can be combined in one application. It is therefore able to provide an omnichannel experience for B2B customers, as different sales channels can be united there. As a result, customers can access every channel, information, or event from one place. Because the software and its data are not split up, customers can experience a more consistent and seamless experience. They are able to smoothly navigate from one customer touchpoint to another without a changing experience. This also allows the company to have better control over their customers’ experiences, more easily deliver great and optimized content and evaluate the data.

Does a digital sales platform satisfy the interests of both suppliers and customers?

 In the customer journey, there are some phases where digital sales is much more desired than traditional sales, from the customer’s side as well as from the supplier’s side.

Today, a customer’s search for information largely takes place online and with self-service. Here B2B customers value speed, quality, and transparency. In addition to that, the trend is going towards customers wanting independence in time and place. In this context, a service that is directly available is favored. Moreover, while doing repurchases, cross-selling, and upselling, digital options are also mainly preferred. Here, they seek a buying experience that is quick and smooth. As a result, customers want an omnichannel experience with the opportunity to decide on their own, what content they want to see, and in what form the interaction should take place. In addition to that, they desire high comparability, and information overview, as well as fast and direct tools. Consequently, a permanent, seamless, and data-driven experience needs to be provided.

In addition to that, suppliers seek to offer their customers outstanding experiences and therefore address their target group customized with a strong positioned brand. In this context, the trend is also going towards people in sales wanting to work independently of time and place. Moreover, the recent experiences showed that digital communication can be direct, quick, and international, and therefore save time as well as travel costs. In the future, these findings will no longer be dispensed with. In addition, the constant interest to decrease costs and increase efficiency counts among a permanent interest of suppliers.

A digital sales platform is capable of satisfying all these previously mentioned interests and of delivering added value to both parties. However, it is not able to replace all interests. Especially the urge for personal contact, face-to-face relationship building, and earning trust is not favored to conduct via digital sales platforms. Beyond that, it depends strongly on the respective customer and supplier and which individual preferences they have. Therefore, a digital sales platform is only able to support sales and represents a part of the solution.

Did you like the second part of this master thesis? You can look forward to many more exciting theses!

Summarized and edited by Antonia Biel

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