Episode 75: Leveraging B2B eCommerce To Sell Parts As A Manufacturer

The Hard Truth About B2B eCommerce podcast continues onto the next episode by welcoming our new very special guest Kristina Harrington, the President of GenAlpha, to discuss automation and digital transformation in manufacturing.

Kristina Harrington is the President of GenAlpha, a B2B eCommerce platform that specializes in OEMs, specialty vehicles & aftermarket organizations.  They have interactive parts manuals and allow you to sell parts with the entire suite of products to allow customers to return what they need if necessary. Parts can get very complex for large vehicles and equipment and you need a robust system to handle all the use cases that might come up when selling parts to service them. Kristina talks about all the things they have seen to help manufacturers over the course of a decade. Previously to Gen Alpha, Kristina worked in manufacturing and has a deep understanding of the needs of such businesses.

Episode 75: Leveraging B2B eCommerce To Sell Parts As A Manufacturer

In this episode, co-hosts Isaiah Bollinger, CEO of Trellis, and Timothy Peterson, President & COO of Speir Digital, Inc, are welcoming Kristina Harrington, the President of GenAlpha Technologies, to discuss:

• What is so special about manufacturing businesses
• Challenges in the manufacturing industry
• How replatforming can make it easier for manufacturers to automate, update and sell equipment parts
• GenAlpha’s interactive system with all orders data updating automatically
• Creating a better buying experience and assisting sales teams with complex orders through digital automation
• The difference between small businesses and enterprises when it comes to purchase behaviors
• How to keep services operational and not to lose a market share because of manual approach to purchasing processes 
• Helping your customers get critical components for their equipment fast and easy
• The importance of putting your availability online as a manufacturer to sell more
• Problems related to the returning process of equipments parts and how GenAlpha helps manufacturers solve them
• How much time can be saved when manufacturers adopt eCommerce solutions 
• Improving the buying process for dealers
• Why using ERP systems is not good enough as a source of information for your customers and sales teams
• Adhering to advanced customers expectations on how they want to communicate with your business 
• How much every interaction with your customer service teams costs your business
• Why customers trust your business more when you have online presence
• How an increase in online orders leads to an increase in call center staff
• The growth of SMS communication in business interaction with customers
• Upcoming generational hand-off in manufacturing companies and digital transformation
• Why hybrid models are needed to serve your customers better today
• The importance of controlling your branding and customer experience in manufacturer & dealership relationships
• Efficiency of a direct model to create an organic demand while focusing on your customer’s needs
• Future of manufacturing and why businesses should prepare themselves to go directly online

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.