Prepare effectively for contact with B2B e-commerce providers
Preparation is the difference between a productive meeting with a vendor and one that leaves you with more questions than you had before. If you go into meetings well-prepared, you’ll gather more information in less time.
1. Company fact sheet as a basis for discussion
Prepare a brief fact sheet about your company: industry, company size, target customers, product range, current order volume and key markets. This will allow the provider to immediately assess whether their solution is a good fit for you.
Include your current system landscape in the fact sheet: Which ERP, CRM, and PIM systems do you use? What interfaces are already in place? This is the information a solution consultant needs for an initial assessment.
2. Communicate requirements in a structured manner
Your requirements should be in writing before the meeting – ideally as a prioritized list of “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves.” Share this list with the vendor in advance so they can prepare for the meeting in a targeted manner.
Be specific about your requirements: Don’t say, “We need customer-specific prices,” but rather, “We have 2,000 customers with individual price lists for 15,000 items that are updated daily from SAP.”
3. Prepare a list of questions
A good list of questions covers several areas: feature set (What can the system do natively?), architecture (API-first?), implementation (What resources are required on our end?), references, and costs (How is the licensing structured?).
Also ask about weaknesses: “For which use cases is your solution not the best choice?”– An honest provider will answer this, while a sales-oriented one won’t.
4. Define demo scenarios
If the initial meeting leads to a demo, define specific demo scenarios in advance. “Please show us how a buyer with a budget limit orders an item that requires approval” is more valuable than a standard demo.
Demo scenarios should reflect real-life situations from your day-to-day business operations. Prepare 3–5 scenarios and share them with the vendor at least 3 days before the appointment.
5. Select internal participants for the call
Who should participate in the vendor meeting? Too few participants mean that the needs of individual departments won’t be represented. Too many make the meeting confusing.
Recommended: 3–5 people. A meeting facilitator, a subject-matter expert, a technical representative, and (optionally) a decision-maker from senior management if strategic topics are being discussed.
Conclusion
Invest 2–3 hours in preparing for a meeting with a vendor – it will pay off many times over. You’ll gain more and better-quality information, determine more quickly whether a vendor is a good fit and save time throughout the overall evaluation process.