Comments on: The Challenges of B to B Marketing http://www.transpromo-live.com/2009/12/08/b-to-b-transpromo-i-beg-to-differ/ Impactful Marketing Drives Customer Loyalty Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:30:40 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: John http://www.transpromo-live.com/2009/12/08/b-to-b-transpromo-i-beg-to-differ/comment-page-1/#comment-280 John Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:45:52 +0000 http://www.transpromo-live.com/?p=452#comment-280 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 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

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