Today I read that TransPromo was not a good “fit” for the B to B market. I just don’t understand why. We have been working with so many B to B loyalty program providers to deliver relevant information to the reader.
When someone says “it only goes to procurement” are they thinking that procurement does not have metrics, education, savings objectives, or revenue objectives? The procurement job for companies is a very stressful role – I know – I did it. I would have welcomed any tools, education, best practices around proposal writing to implementation to business case development. In this economic crisis, procurement was the team that had to review all the financial health of its strategic vendors making sure companies could continue to deliver.
So, for those of you that think TransPromo is only for B to C. I beg to differ.
While I applaud your optimism on opening this market, and would love to see it grow, I think the B2B applications are pretty limited. I have run both small and large operations. The first was a law firm with 6 people and I was the chief cook and bottle washer. When a bill came in I saw it, paid it, and made all purchasing decisions (though my assistant really made the decisions – I just paid the bills
).
Transpromo is certainly effective for that kind “Mom and Pop” operation where the same person who reads and pays the bills is responsible for purchasing. I also ran a 100 person commercial printing company. I never saw a bill unless there was a question (like “how does this Amex charge from “Exotic Dancing” relate to business?”) The problem with larger enterprises where the mail-room opens and sorts the mail and bills go to an AP department, any messaging would be seen by an AP staff member, not a decision maker. Once the big decision is made (financing equipment, purchasing services, etc…), the bills and payments were all handled by admin staff.
Limiting the audience to small companies, I agree that it is just as viable as B2C. I also agree that larger enterprises could use the help in lowering their OUTBOUND invoicing costs with better designed transactional documents. Reductions in DOS, call center volume and fewer short-paid invoices would all be measurable benefits. We made one change to an invoice and reduced short pays by over 50%.
Let me know if you would like to talk more. I love your site and appreciate your hard work.
John