The internet has changed the B2B buying process so radically. To recollect how pre-internet B2B buyer use to go about the business of making a purchase: paper catalogs, phone, documents, and people mostly were being used. The process went something like, ask the analyst about the next target, collect requirements, get a list of vendors, attend trade shows and collect collaterals, evaluate responses by emails or fax, call in a short list of vendors, follow-up with a technical drill down meeting, call a reference account, price negotiation, contract terms & conditions and further wrap it all up by planning of the project: a complex and expensive effort. It was a slow, arduous and expensive process.

Just as the new B2B buyer has evolved in the adoption of the internet, B2B sales and marketing adapt their strategies and tactics to the new B2B buyer’s expectations of online independence and instant gratification. Today business buyers are awash in a deluge of online information. Virtually every business process, products and services, no matter how obscure, seems to have one blog post or guest comment. Most business searches turn up thousands, if not millions of results that include product description, news articles, videos, podcasts, images, books, white papers, free trials, presentations, Wikipedia entries, rankings, blog post, comments, tweets and so forth. Being into the competitive world, your branded product lost into the bulk with the same kind of availability.

On the other end if you want to go with monopoly, then your sales reps has a physical catalog for their product and service information. There you are the alone provider of the quality product, without facing the competition.

For each new behavioral trait that differentiates the new species of the B2B buyer from its pre-style of purchasing, there is a new tool of engagement which is Catalog Bar, an online catalog builder as a mobile sales app that complements the behavior to maximize B2B sales and marketing effectiveness.

These new B2B buyer behaviors cannot be abated; they can only be addressed with a positive approach. Digital catalogs could be effective as the internet now is a significant and recurring influence throughout the B2B sales process.

Moreover, the B2B buying process neither starts nor stops at your website. It is more likely to start at a catalog for product overview. If you want your products or services to get considered, you should go with digital catalogs. So that your content appears wherever the new B2B buyer goes online at every point in the decision-making process.

Remote access could not be possible with your paper catalogs and neither your prospects would have found your website if you didn’t show up in search or social media. But Catalog Bar justifies both remote access and direct web reachability.

New B2B buyer wants independence and efficiency from the internet. So if your prospects rely on Catalog Bar, as the primary source of your products information, both independence and efficiency can be accomplished.

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