B2B Reimagined: Recent Episodes
Zilliant
In B2B, achieving stellar business performance is an incredibly complicated endeavor. At the vertical level, beyond just manufacturing, distribution and services, the intricacies grow even more challenging as unique macroeconomic factors and industry disrupters further stress legacy systems and methods. Gaining strategic control of pricing and sales performance at this level will be the differentiator between leaders and laggards. B2B Reimagined is a monthly podcast with a rotating host of experts. Each of whom brings decades of experience using data science to address industry-vertical specific challenges that give the critical strategic control over pricing and sales that today’s B2B companies simply must-have.
“The patient has to survive the procedure. We have to carry on our operations, serve our clients, send invoices, acquire new customers, while changing our pricing in the background. That's why I always say that pricing change is an evolution, not a revolution.”
Maciej Kraus is a pricing guru, author, TED speaker, and frequent lecturer at Stanford University. We were thrilled to have him on to share his perspective on successfully executing a pricing transformation. Maciej explains that while it’s a must for B2B companies to modernize pricing processes and the underlying technology that supports them, there’s an art to pulling it off.
Hear his prescriptions to pricing excellence, and then register for Zilliant MindShare Europe to see Maciej on stage in Amsterdam in November.
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Listen to our first-ever live episode of the podcast, recorded at Zilliant MindShare 2024, featuring a panel of leading pricing professionals.
Pressure on pricing teams is greater than ever. But in times of great pressure, new ideas and ways of doing things emerge. Mo Beshir (Accenture), Rob Pedigo (Dawn Foods) and Lydia DiLiello (Capital Pricing Consultants) explore the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind pricing transformation, how to elevate pricing within a company, how to manage organizational change, and the tangible impacts of pricing success.
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“Behind the term ‘pricing tool’ or ‘pricing software’ you can actually have very different things in mind. A competition monitoring tool, a margin improvement tool, an AI price optimization tool, a sales interface. So the first thing was, can we categorize the use cases that people have in mind behind ‘pricing software’?”
Malik Rajan is the founder of The Pricing Club. His mission is to foster a dynamic community of pricing professionals helping each other grow through best practices and thought leadership. As such, his team recently released its first ever Guide to Pricing Software.
Hear the fascinating story of how the Pricing Club came to be and the most pressing trends, topics, challenges and opportunities that are top of mind for pricing professionals, from Malik’s unique vantage point.
Download the Guide to Pricing Software
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“Well, if the other side just did their job better, we’d be in much better shape.”
Any B2B sellers or marketers heard this one before? Maybe you’ve said it? At some point in your career, you’ve likely experienced the tension between sales and marketing, two departments that in theory should always be on the same team.
Our guest today, Aggregate Insights CEO Brady Jensen, explains how the two sides become misaligned, how to prevent or stop the blame game, and what sales-marketing harmony looks like in practice. Brady shared what he’s learned from years of primary source research on how to bridge the contentious gap.
Get Aggregate Insights’ free win/loss handbook here.
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Dr. Rainer Schlamp, partner at EbelHofer Consultants, joins us to dissect an industry that often flies under the radar, but is essential to our everyday lives. The sanitary products industry is a complex and vibrant ecosystem weaving together producers, wholesalers, retail stores, contractors, and web shop consumers.
Often products are bundled and sold together as a total solution to fit architectural design specifications and must be priced as such. Rainer and host Barrett Thompson discuss why value-based pricing is essential in this industry, how to factor value into a solution sale, and the challenges facing commercial leaders charged with setting and updating price in an evolving digital commerce landscape.
Learn more about EbelHofer Consultants here
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“For me, the strange thing is companies are investing in transformation in all dimensions of their business, but barely in the one that has the biggest profit impact – pricing,” says Sebastian Wrobel, cofounder and managing director of PricingWorks on today’s episode.
Sebastian and host Barrett Thompson explore how smart B2B organizations include pricing transformation in their digital transformation journeys and have a frank discussion on what “transformation” actually means.
“In some companies, what they call ‘transformation’ really isn't a transformation,” says Barrett. “It's more like just a technology upgrade, something more like maintenance, and the bigger promise of transformation isn't really achieved…They ought to be doing better things, not just the same practices embodied in a different tool set.”
Find PricingWorks customer success stories here.
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Profitability and customer experience are important. That’s about as noncontroversial a statement as you can make in B2B. So, pricing – which is perhaps the biggest driver of both – should be at the heart of every B2B company, right?
“That is quite a controversial statement whenever I make it,” said Karan Sood, pricing expert and today’s guest on B2B Reimagined. “When I show people my spider chart of how pricing is the heart of the organization, some people are very supportive and some people are like, ‘You're smoking something.’ But I do believe pricing is at the heart of the organization.”
Karan and host Barrett Thompson examine the distance between pricing’s theoretical strategic value and the reality - its common lack of organizational influence - through the lens of four pricing paradoxes:
- Pricing should be considered first in a new campaign or product launch, but it often comes last.
- Pricing teams should be forward-looking, but most toil in the past (last quarter’s profitability, what went wrong?).
- Pricing should lead the organization in data-driven capabilities, but it’s usually one of the last adopters.
- Pricing should have visibility to the C-suite, but it’s relegated to the back office.
Listen as we diagnose the reasons behind these disconnects and prescribe immediate actions pricing leaders can take to expand their influence, based on real-world examples.
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What should come first: pricing technology or pricing strategy? Our guest today, PwC Partner Ron Otocki, makes a strong case for why the two should go hand-in-hand. Ron leans on his vast experience guiding companies through digital transformations to explain how pricing fits into larger transformative projects, and how the most successful pricing initiatives mix strategy and the right tools from the very start.
“When you're in an enterprise environment, it's easy to essentially ask for investment in a tool and say that's going to be the solution. It's much harder to say, ‘Well, I'm going to implement a tool, but I also have to implement a culture change and implement role changes.’ That's the harder stuff, but it’s so critical to have those two go hand-in-hand; otherwise you're only doing 50% of what you need to do.”
Listen to learn how to marry strategy with technology in your pricing and digital transformation initiatives.
Past PwC episodes: Pricing in Times of Inflation | Revenue Growth Management in B2B
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In the subscription economy, a company’s product takes a backseat to its subscriber. What does this mean for a company’s go-to-market strategy? For starters, value-added services and customer support become paramount.
In your everyday life, you most likely subscribe to various streaming services or office software tools. But subscription and usage-based models are expanding far beyond the consumer realm, becoming more and more popular in traditional B2B spaces.
Dan Balcauski, founder and chief pricing officer of Product Tranquility, joins the show to explain why this shift is happening, the ramifications for the B2B world, benefits versus risks, best practices, and much more.
Visit: https://www.producttranquility.com/
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Read enough headlines about generative AI and you will start to mull some big questions: Is it the next big paradigm shift? Is it a grave threat to the modern workforce? Can it be smarter than me?
“It’s about a six-month-old puppy at this point,” says Lou Simon, vice president of Uptima Elevate and our guest on today’s show.
However, like a puppy, Lou expects generative AI tools like ChatGPT to learn and grow very quickly. He and host Barrett Thompson share ideas on what that evolution will look like for B2B companies, and how generative AI can combine with purpose-built AI platforms like Zilliant and other best-of-breed technologies to create something even bigger.
Register for MindShare 2023 (June 7-9) to catch Lou’s breakout session, “Stitching Technology Together for Industry Innovation.”
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Price changes and churn threats occur throughout the customer journey. How your organization handles them determines how your customers will react: either positively or negatively. Do they stick with you and buy now? Or go elsewhere without a word? It’s up to you.
This friendly debate between two passionate CX experts – Zilliant Sr. Director of Alliances, North America Karl Helfner and industry expert Frank Borovsky – is a must-listen for commercial leaders looking to enhance the customer experience. Hear how pricing and sales leaders can team with their CX counterparts to improve customer attitudes and behavior with real-time pricing optimization and revenue operations and intelligence.
Listen to Frank Borovsky’s other appearance on B2B Reimagined: Episode 69
Read Frank’s CX-focused blog series on Zilliant’s site: Critical Calculations for Customer Experience in 2023
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Logik.io CEO Chris Shutts returns to the show, this time to connect with Pascal Yammine, chief executive officer of Zilliant. They discuss the transformational digital shift occurring in industries like traditional manufacturing, high-tech, software, and business services, driven by customer demand for self-service product discovery and buying.
Drawing on recent conversations with customers and prospects, Chris and Pascal paint a vision for a headless, end-to-end commerce and pricing solution that goes far beyond traditional CPQ: bringing flexible, frictionless, and profitable sales motions to life.
Listen to Chris’ first B2B Reimagined appearance: How to “Consumerize” B2B Manufacturing
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“When people talk about the death of the channel, the death of distribution, I just sit back and go, ‘Hold my beer – give me a whiteboard and I will explain to you how wrong you are.’”
Channelnomics CEO Larry Walsh is our guest today for a wide-ranging discussion on what the channel is and why it matters for B2B companies.
He shared how the pandemic exposed both the vitality of the channel and the perils of neglecting it, how the channel serves as a salve to a recession, why talk of a “new normal” may be misleading, and much, much more.
Read the Channelnomics whitepapers discussed in the episode here: Recession Survival Guide | Distribution as a Recession Countermeasure
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“The world is not constant and stable. So why should your pricing strategy be? You have to mimic the working world that you live in,” said Argano Chief Strategy Officer Tim Harris on today’s episode.
Harris joined Barrett Thompson to continue the show’s ongoing examination on how manufacturers are digitizing their commercial platforms in response to ongoing volatility and unpredictability. Argano specializes in designing modern digital foundations and partners with Zilliant to infuse agile, intelligent pricing into manufacturers’ digital future.
Harris and Thompson go deep on the “why” and the “how” behind this critical digitization process.
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“You need to combine the pricing brain and the pricing muscles…the bruscles of pricing.”
What does this mean? According to our guests from Accenture – Strategy Principal Director Daniel Lindner and Managing Director, Pricing and Commercial Strategy Daniel Antolin – it means embedding powerful pricing tools into your pricing strategy from the very start. When B2B pricing teams combine the thinking and the doing, so to speak, they earn a seat at the table with company decision-makers and overcome the common obstacles to resiliency. Namely, they can achieve agility, consistency, transparency and differentiated pricing.
Listen to learn how Zilliant and Accenture are busting age-old myths about B2B pricing and how we help our clients find quick wins that serve to fund the rest of their pricing journey.
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Slalom is a global consulting firm and one of the top Salesforce manufacturing partners in the world. Matt Baker and Calvin Chow from Slalom joined the show to help us continue our exploration of current manufacturing trends and commercial solutions.
Learn why a major theme for 2023 is the concept of being nimble – in the areas of pricing, procurement, quoting, and response to macroeconomic changes. We talk through several real-world scenarios and examples of customer success.
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We take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to bring together both of our hosts for the first time. Lindsay and Barrett take a long look at the B2B landscape as 2023 is now underway, with considerable macroeconomic uncertainty persisting amid a new normal in B2B buyer expectations.
How should companies adjust their pricing strategies as prices eventually come down? How can sales operations teams retain and take share, even with widespread reduction in salesforce headcount? Why have those who modernized their commercial systems prior to the pandemic gotten so far ahead of the competition, and how can laggards catch up?
Get the answers to these questions and more, then stick around for our hosts’ recommendations on the must-listen episodes from 2022.
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“It used to be that pricing was the most dangerous thing to change, and that if it were done wrong, customers would head out the door and never come back. As a result of the pandemic and the barrage of supply chain woes, material availability, order management, S&OP and demand planning, all that has changed. Historical supply and demand trends don’t apply anymore.”
In this episode, Salesforce Vice President, Industry Sales for Manufacturing, Auto and Energy Frank Borovksy brought us this insight and much more. Listen to Frank and Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Duran discuss current manufacturing trends, why dynamic pricing is necessary to prevent margin erosion, and what to expect in 2023.
Read about a building products manufacturer that used advanced pricing tools to overcome economic volatility: Strategic Pricing: Thriving in Tumultuous Times
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“We have seen distributors really catching up as it relates to technology. Digitalization has been a key topic across the entire industry. Cloud seems to be the big equalizer, because the software can be staged at really low setup costs. There's not an innovation tax anymore that companies need to pay.”
SAP’s Global VP of Wholesale Distribution Magnus Meier shared this sentiment and much more with us on today’s episode. He joined Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Duran for a deep dive into the current state of wholesale distribution, challenges that distributors are facing, and how technology and value-added services are the key to success in 2023.
Watch our recent webinar with Magnus: Moments of Opportunity: Margin & Revenue Growth in Distribution
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Those working in and observing the building materials and construction industry have been through a rollercoaster ride. In 2020, plants and job sites shut down completely. Then, upon reopening, a surge in demand for new builds and remodels collided with shortages in many of the products necessary to satisfy it. Prices thus soared in 2022 but look to be on their way down as a potential recession lurks.
Few follow the sector closer than Craig Webb, president of Webb Analytics and longtime industry journalist. Craig came on the show to help us make sense of the past three years, his expectations for various construction markets in 2023, and what companies need to be doing now to get ahead of the next economic shift.
Subscribe to the Webb Analytics newsletter
Read the whitepaper mentioned in the episode: Inflation & Beyond: 5 Margin- and Revenue-Driving Strategies for 2023
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“I'm a strong believer that pricing should be first before CPQ,” says Accenture Managing Director Mo Beshir. “Everyone knows if I am doing a CPQ solution, I am looking at selling faster, selling better and selling more. What if I'm selling faster, better and more with the wrong price?”
Mo joined Zilliant General Manager of Commercial Excellence Barrett Thompson for a deep dive into the maturation of price optimization software and how it adds value to any CPQ investment. They explore the downsides of using CPQ without an integrated pricing solution, how Excel-based pricing puts companies behind the volatile economic times, and much more.
Read the explainer mentioned in the episode: A Guide to Smarter, Faster Pricing in CPQ
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Senior Vice President of Products & Science Pete Eppele is back to go in depth on the chronic undermanagement of customer price agreements. Although often more than 50% of a B2B company’s revenue is transacted via customer price agreements, this important price type tends to lack the attention it deserves.
When using manual tools to manage agreement prices and legacy ERPs to house agreement records, companies fall prey to “set-and-forget” pricing and, usually, preventable margin loss. Zilliant’s newest Quick Start package – Quick Start for Agreement Management – empowers sales reps to proactively manage agreements in as few as four weeks.
Quick Start for Agreement Management Datasheet
Product Video
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Get to know recently-appointed Zilliant Chief Executive Officer Pascal Yammine, who marks 60 days leading the company with his first appearance on the podcast. The former senior vice president and general manager of Salesforce Revenue Cloud brings a customer-focused background and 20 years of enterprise software leadership to Zilliant.
In this episode, Pascal joins Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Duran for a wide-ranging interview on what attracted him to Zilliant, what he’s learned in his first two months, his perspective on the pricing and revenue optimization and management market, and much more.
Check out our upcoming events around the world!
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The newest addition to Zilliant’s Quick Start Program, Quick Start for Revenue Operations & Intelligence, is now available. The purpose-built solution is designed to intelligently derive and deliver revenue-driving, account-specific actions to sales reps, eCommerce and marketing automation tools in as few as three weeks.
Returning guest Brian Hirt joins Barrett Thompson to answer questions on how the solution works, why a better approach to revenue operations and intelligence is critical today, who is an ideal candidate for the Quick Start, and much more.
Links:
Press Release | Video | Blog Post
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“There is no magic wand to digest all of the information that you have. The only way to actually have true control is by having data-driven platforms.”
So says Gonzalo Benitez, pricing and data analytics manager at Rush Enterprises, on our latest episode. The heavy-duty truck parts industry has not been spared from the economic upheaval of the last two-plus years. Supply chain issues have caused Gonzalo’s team to work creatively to source alternative products, while inflation has led to sometimes more than triple the number of supplier cost increases per year.
Gonzalo spoke with us about how data-driven tools have been critical to executing cost pass-through and enabling transparent communication with Rush Enterprises' customers.
Read the article mentioned in the episode: Navigating the Broken Supply Chain
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Gene Metheny, partner at Carlisle and Company, stops by the show to talk about the myriad macroeconomic problems facing B2B companies and what must be done to get ready for the next shift in supply and demand.
He and Barrett Thompson then drill into some examples of how pricing data and analytical measurement are being used to improve visibility throughout the value chain in the trucking industry. They also explore the potential for executing value-based pricing in trucking and beyond – by interpolating between the market data that you have and the data you don’t have to derive a value hypothesis.
Read the auto parts roundtable mentioned in the episode.
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Kevin Mitchell has been spreading the gospel of pricing for most of his life. As the president of the Professional Pricing Society (PPS) tells it, “I remember as a child carrying boxes of canary yellow pricing newsletters uphill, both ways, through the snow in Phoenix, Arizona.”
This walk down memory set the tone for a lively and enlightening conversation between Kevin and Zilliant CMO Lindsay Duran. Kevin shared the three biggest hot button issues that are keeping PPS members up at night and his insights into today’s macroeconomic landscape. After acknowledging the present challenges – inflation and otherwise – Kevin and Lindsay spent the bulk of the episode on why it’s an exciting time to be in pricing: pricing professionals are more essential than ever to their organizations and, with the right tools and training, they can drive business strategy at the highest levels.
Read our recap of PPS Spring 2022 here.
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Many wholesale distributors have been running SAP for decades. While most of them started simple, over time they’ve introduced new requirements (read: complexities) into their order system. At the same time, many are behind the curve on modern approaches to price optimization and management. In an industry with such thin margins, this is a troubling combination, especially in our new age of inflation and supply constraints.
Three-time guest Pete Eppele makes his hosting debut, interviewing DataXstream CEO Tim Yates about how the company’s transformative OMS+ platform streamlines order management for wholesale distributors in today’s consumer-driven economy, and why the industry leaders are pairing OMS+ with AI-driven price optimization and a real-time pricing engine.
Watch the Zilliant-DataXstream integration demo discussed in the episode here.
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In December of 2021, Madison Dearborn Partners acquired Zilliant as a strategic growth investment. John Lewis, an executive partner at Madison Dearborn, became Zilliant’s executive chairman following the closure of the deal.
We were excited to welcome John for his first appearance on B2B Reimagined to discuss everything from his prolific professional background to his enthusiasm for Zilliant’s value proposition (“You will not find any CEO in the world for whom this is not a top three issue…how to price effectively, how to optimize revenue, profitability, margin and volume”) to his thoughts on what will define the winners of this unprecedented era.
www.zilliant.com
Chris Shutts has spent the 21st century at the forefront of the evolution of sales in the manufacturing space. He co-founded Big Machines in 2000 and sold the business to Oracle in 2013.
Now he leads Logik.io, a strategic Zilliant partner that delivers next-generation technology to manufacturers of complex products. Logik.io helps these companies consumerize the way they sell by enabling faster, self-service product configuration for their customers. He joined Barrett Thompson for an in-depth conversation about how Logik.io and Zilliant work together to lead the next evolution of sales and customer experience for manufacturers.
www.zilliant.com
To get you ready for Zilliant MindShare 2022 (June 13-15) in Austin, TX, we bring you a very special episode of B2B Reimagined. Barrett Thompson emcees the show and brings on voices from around the company to share what to expect at the biggest annual event on the B2B pricing and sales calendar, and how to get the most out of it. The episode features:
CEO Greg Peters on what he’s most anticipating in our first in-person event in North America since 2019.
SVP, Customer Success & Support Nathan Rabold on why Zilliant customers need to attend.
Sales Director Lance Golinghorst on why folks evaluating a solution should attend.
Director, Product Experience Sam Leung on the innovations and exclusive product demos attendees will see.
Director, Product Management Brian Hirt & Engagement Manager Matthew Knaggs on their interactive breakout session centered around creative use cases for revenue intelligence solutions.
REGISTER FOR MINDSHARE 2022
www.zilliant.com/podcasts
The average time for global companies to update pricing when costs change is between six weeks and four months, which is much too slow in today’s economy. It’s a process which unfortunately results in significant margin loss. The Zilliant Quick Start program was created with this in mind, delivering industry-leading pricing and sales software deployment times of 3 to 8 weeks.
Zilliant Senior Director of Product Management Dave Kurak makes his first appearance on the show to give listeners an overview of the Quick Start program and our first package for Global and Country Price Lists. Listen to gain an edge on how you manage pricing in response to inflation.
Click to learn more
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In this episode of B2B Reimagined, Zilliant Senior Vice President of Products and Science Pete Eppele joins us to discuss the steps companies need to take to attain real-time pricing capabilities with a better pricing system of management and how companies are likely to think about pricing systems of record in the future.
Hear about an advanced, yet attainable vision for real-time pricing capabilities and an immediate opportunity to drive more value from your pricing practices. Read the whitepaper discussed in the episode here:
Legacy Pricing is Harming B2B: Do This Instead
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Zilliant Price IQ® is the only B2B price optimization solution that can measure price elasticity, enforce rational price relationships, and conduct goal-seeking what-if scenarios. And now it’s gotten even better.
Vice President of Science & Analytics Lee Rehwinkel joins the show to introduce the next evolution of Zilliant’s market-leading price optimization – Next-Generation Price IQ. Learn about the advances in performance, visibility into the science, faster implementation times and more intuitive user experience that Lee and his team have brought into the market.
Read part one of our Next-Gen Price IQ blog series
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Greg Peters has led Zilliant for nearly 20 years as president and chief executive officer. He makes his long-awaited debut on the podcast to tell us why right now is “the most exciting time since I’ve been in the company.”
In these 20 years, Greg has helped navigate Zilliant and its customers through economic ups and downs and seismic go-to-market shifts. Most critically, Zilliant was the first price optimization software provider to transition to 100% cloud-native SaaS nearly a decade ago. In this episode, Greg has a candid conversation with Chief Marketing Office Lindsay Duran on the thinking behind that fruitful decision, Zilliant’s recent acquisition by Madison Dearborn Partners, his take on the future of intelligent commerce in B2B, and much more.
Register for MindShare 2022
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Volatility is the new normal state-of-play in B2B. To unpack the best pricing response to protracted economic volatility, we spoke to the man writing the book on it: Holden Advisors Vice President of Pricing Jeet Mukherjee.
Jeet has over two decades worth of global experience in management consulting, strategy, analytics, marketing and pricing. He goes back a long way with our host, Barrett Thompson, from his time using Zilliant pricing solutions as a practitioner. In this episode, Jeet and Barrett emphasize the importance of making faster decisions and not being afraid to fail in the short term to capture long-term stability. Jeet also shares insights from interviews he conducted with pricing leaders and C-suite executives for his upcoming book.
Register for PPS: Pricing Strategy Connected (April 26-29) to hear keynotes from Zilliant and Holden Advisors!
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We celebrate our 50th episode of B2B Reimagined with special guest Ian Altman, one of the foremost experts on B2B sales and a keynote speaker at our upcoming MindShare 2022 conference. Ian joined host Barrett Thompson to help us get to the bottom of why it’s so difficult, yet essential, to continuously train, mentor and coach sales reps.
Ian has conducted research with more than 10,000 leaders on how they make and approve decisions. Given his background, he has no shortage of enlightening and entertaining stories to tell, several of which he lays out for our listeners. Zilliant’s platform delivers AI-driven customer insights to sales reps to help them sell more and execute corporate strategies more effectively. Ian and Barrett discuss how combining data-driven technology with proven coaching methods can further accelerate performance.
Don’t miss Ian’s keynote! Register for MindShare 2022
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CEO and Founder of Capital Pricing Consultants Lydia DiLiello returns for her third appearance on the show, this time to tackle perhaps the biggest B2B issue of the day – supply chain disruption. Why is it happening? Why have so many companies been caught flat-footed? What is the bottom-line impact of apathy in the face of supply issues? How long will it last? Lydia and host Lindsay Duran address these questions and walk through real-world examples of companies who are responding the right and wrong way to this global challenge. Tune in for advice on both short- and long-term pricing strategies to adopt today.
Read the blog mentioned in the episode here: How To Approach Pricing Amid Supply Chain Turmoil
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Today we tackle the common misconception that price elasticity is a B2C-only occurrence.
“I empathize a lot with the B2B practitioners that believe that B2C pricing is the only real price elasticity phenomena, just because it's more observable in B2C. And that's a certainty,” said Sanguk Han, Zilliant senior data scientist, and our guest for this episode.
While it’s harder to measure in B2B, due to a number of complicating factors discussed in the show, it’s also inarguable that the consequences of price changes ultimately play out in the B2B market. Sanguk and host Barrett Thompson go deep on the science and talk real-world examples that uncover how companies can predict what those consequences will be prior to making a price change.
Read the blog mentioned in the episode here: What Works When Traditional Price Elasticity Fails
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Today we welcome on Mike Bramble, managing consultant for commercial performance applications at Enigen. Mike introduced himself to our host Lindsay Duran by proclaiming, “CPQ is very much in my blood.”
Which made him the perfect guest for this episode’s topics, namely customer and sales rep self-service, elimination of rework, and faster, more accurate quoting in the rapidly changing manufacturing sector. Listen along as Mike and Lindsay discuss recent trends such as inflation and the rise of digital commerce, and how those trends have accelerated the urgency for manufacturers to adopt CPQ and price optimization solutions.
View the demo mentioned in the episode here: Zilliant Oracle CPQ Integration
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Do you know the true reason “why someone should buy x from you at y price?”
Our first guest of 2022 has made it his business to help B2B companies define, communicate and, ultimately, sell their value proposition for more than 20 years. Jose Palomino, president of Value Prop Interactive, joined host Barrett Thompson for a rollicking conversation about the state of B2B sales. The two go back and forth on what has changed and what hasn’t, what separates the A players from the B players, and how software can help sellers meet quota while staying true to their stated value-driven mission.
Barrett was also recently a guest on episode #75 of The Revenue Throughput Podcast. Listen to Jose’s show here: The Revenue Throughput Podcast
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Digital commerce and self-service channels may grab all the headlines, but your B2B sales team remains critical to building a satisfying customer experience, in both manufacturing and distribution. Yet it’s becoming tougher each year for sales reps to live up to that responsibility. With the so-called ‘great resignation’ upon us, how can you ensure continuity despite attrition? How can you best onboard new reps to succeed while providing customers with the service they expect?
Kerry Hudson, vice president of North America sales at Conga, has a unique vantage point on the topic, as she runs a large team of sellers that bring sales and revenue operations products to market. Kerry joined Zilliant Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Duran for a candid discussion on the people, processes and products that enable a modern B2B sales team to develop mutually beneficial customer relationships in the digital era.
Watch the on-demand webinar that Zilliant and Conga created earlier this year: “Solving for Quoting & Pricing Complexity in Enterprise B2B.”
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Inflation is the dominant trend in B2B pricing circles as 2021 draws to a close. While costs will continue to rise - by how much and for long is anyone’s guess - can you actually use this crisis as an opportunity to bring your pricing practice up a level and become more profitable?
We asked Dick Sobel, director of analytics for PricePoint Partners, this and much more on today’s episode. A pricing industry veteran and longtime friend of Zilliant, Dick brought insights to the table gleaned from past inflationary periods and shared the perspective of both the pricer and the pricing consultant. You might be surprised by the potential opportunity hiding behind the specter of inflation.
In addition, host Barrett Thompson quizzed Dick on how to “close the pricing loop” with data-driven analytics and the best way to approach discount management.
www.zilliant.com
On today’s episode, we bring back Zilliant SVP of Products & Science Pete Eppele to discuss our latest product innovation, Real-Time Pricing Engine™. Pete and host Lindsay Duran describe the history of pricing engines inside B2B companies and explain why they are being overwhelmed by the increased volume of pricing requests and demand for dynamic pricing.
Zilliant Real-Time Pricing Engine is a robust API service that can serve as a company’s pricing system of record with the ability to perform complex calculations on demand, including external data lookups and automated negotiation. Listen to hear about how this offering complements a company’s existing ERP to deliver dynamic prices and product recommendations to any commercial system.
Read the article mentioned in the episode here:
What is a Real-Time Pricing Engine?
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Zilliant Vice President of Customer Success Nathan Rabold returns for his second guest appearance on the podcast, this time going deep on a topic near and dear to his team’s work: effective change management.
Sometimes overlooked, this foundational process makes the difference between success and disappointment for any major B2B commercial transformation. Years of pricing and sales implementations have honed the Zilliant approach to change management, and Nathan explains each of Zilliant’s eight drivers of benefit that are crucial to each project.
Listen to learn why getting organizational change right is particularly important given the recent market turmoil caused by tariffs, COVID-19, inflation and supply chain disruption.
Watch Nathan’s on-demand webinar: “Accelerating Value with Effective Change Management”
Register for MindShare Europe
www.zilliant.com/podcasts
Ardent Mills is North America’s largest flour milling company, feeding approximately 100 million people every day by way of its 40 processing plants and 2,400 essential workers.
Ryan Almos, strategic pricing leader at Ardent Mills, joined us on this episode to discuss the dynamics of the food production industry, his team’s role in enabling sales, and how the company has simplified its pricing approach.
Register for MindShare Europe
www.zilliant.com/podcasts
Register for MindShare Europe!
We are thrilled to be back in person for MindShare Europe, the industry’s top B2B pricing and sales conference, on 30 November in Paris, France. In this episode, Zilliant Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Duran interviews Vice President, EMEA Michel Safi about what attendees can expect from the event.
Hear about the three customers that will be speaking, plus the partner-led sessions and the Zilliant product demonstration that will be featured. There will also be plenty of opportunities for networking face-to-face throughout the conference and at the welcome reception on 29 November.
Limited space is still available so don’t hesitate to register!
Register for MindShare Europe
www.zilliant.com/podcasts
We welcome Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Enterprise Architect Prashant Garg, who specializes in Quote-to-Cash, to the show to talk all things manufacturing and CPQ. Given the recent industry upheavals and the scramble to digitize commercial processes, Garg and host Barrett Thompson describe the urgency of CPQ, how advanced price optimization fits in to a full solution and what advice they give customers on how to navigate future disruptions in the industry.
Learn about how both manufacturers and their customers achieve financial, experiential and process-driven benefits from modern CPQ.
www.zilliant.com/podcasts
Returning guest David Moss, partner at pwc, drops by to dispel a common myth about revenue growth management: it’s not just applicable in consumer markets. In fact, the concept is widely relevant for B2B companies, who thrive on analytical insights into sales and marketing every bit as much as their B2C counterparts do.
In this episode, David describes the six pillars of successful revenue growth management in B2B, and how each is enhanced by a combination of pricing/rebate management software and business strategy.
www.zilliant.com/podcasts
We welcome to the show Mark Stiving, host of the fantastic Impact Pricing podcast, to pick his brain about the B2B subscription pricing model. Mark literally wrote the book on this topic – the upcoming “Win Keep Grow” – so it’s a must-listen for anyone looking to shift all or part of their traditional business to subscription.
Mark and host Lindsay Duran discuss why subscription pricing is on the rise in B2B, as well as the many advantages and potential challenges involved in embracing a subscription strategy. Learn why it’s such a colossal business model and culture shift, and how those that grow revenues fastest are always actively managing the three revenue buckets (acquisition, retention, expansion).
Pre-order “Win Keep Grow” now.
www.zilliant.com/podcasts
Rebates – every B2B company offers them or other off-invoice credits in some form or fashion. This is because they are a great way to incentivize customer behavior and drive loyalty in your brand. But they also tend to create massive headaches for accounting, sales, pricing and product management teams due to a status quo of manual rebate management.
Today, Zilliant Director of Product Management Brian Hirt joins the show to walk through the challenges and opportunities inherent in rebate management for each of these B2B personas. Brian and host Barrett Thompson share observations and points of view from their extensive work with distributors and manufacturers, before introducing a better way to inject science into rebate creation and automation into tracking and managing off-invoice incentives.
Sign up for our August 19 webinar that goes deeper on the topic and includes a demo of Zilliant’s new rebate management capabilities: Streamline Rebate Management across Pricing, Sales and Finance
www.zilliant.com
Back for the second time, Zilliant Business Solutions Consultant Vishal Asatkar joins us to share his eye-opening insights in the world of food service distribution. When we last had Vishal on, he focused on the challenges facing food manufacturers in the middle of a pandemic. Now he sheds light on the turbulent distribution side of the equation as the pandemic recedes and demand spikes back to pre-COVID levels.
Listen as Vishal and Lindsay Duran take you behind-the-scenes of a rapidly changing industry: from ride-alongs with district sales representatives to eCommerce pricing decisions that are becoming ever more prevalent. Find out how the important relationships between sales reps and operators are evolving and how highly complex pricing and sales strategies can be executed more quickly and accurately.
Read the blog mentioned in the episode here: Next-Gen Pricing and Sales Strategies for a Volatile Food Service Distribution Industry
www.zilliant.com
Just over a year ago, we had Capital Pricing Consultants CEO & Founder Lydia DiLiello on the show to trade ideas for pricing in an unprecedented pandemic. Whereas back then the concern was avoiding a race to the bottom, the opposite challenge is now raging through B2B pricing departments. With the pandemic receding, how can companies keep up with surging demand, wildly rising costs and, concurrently, low inventories across the board.
Listen as Lydia and Lindsay Duran discuss how they are advising clients in this tumultuous time, and why those that have invested in a pricing and eCommerce infrastructure are ahead of the game.
www.zilliant.com
We are joined by the “Godfather of Zilliant” Pete Eppele, senior vice president of products and science, to explore the concept of next-generation price optimization. Pete explains how the pandemic shined a light on the need for more advanced science and faster, more specific pricing capabilities as more B2B companies adopt eCommerce.
Learn about the history of Zilliant’s innovation in the optimization space, the difference between true optimization and rules-based technology, and how events of the past year have influenced the Zilliant product roadmap.
Read the articles mentioned in the episode here:
An Introduction to Price Optimization - https://resources.zilliant.com/blog/an-introduction-to-price-optimization
Zilliant Announces Next-Generation Product Innovations to More Intelligently Power B2B Commerce - https://www.zilliant.com/pressreleases/zilliant-announces-next-generation-product-innovations-to-more-intelligently-power-b2b-commerce/?
www.zilliant.com
We are joined by author and pricing evangelist Stephan Liozu on the eve of the release of his new book, Pricing: The New CEO Imperative. Liozu has spent the better part of two years interviewing C-Suite executives, pricing consultants and software vendors around the globe to curate this first-of-its-kind tome. The book represents a collective effort by the key players in the pricing profession to articulate the value of pricing to the C-Suite.
Host Lindsay Duran interviews Liozu about the writing and curation process, Zilliant’s chapter on the massive opportunity in B2B to increase profits and reduce margin leakage, what the future holds for the pricing function and much more.
Get Pricing: The New CEO Imperative on paperback or Kindle. Connect with Stephan Liozu on LinkedIn or at www.stephanliozu.com.
www.zilliant.com
Zilliant General Manager of Commercial Excellence Barrett Thompson welcomes distribution guru Ian Heller of Distribution Strategy Group and The Wholesale Change Show on for his first B2B Reimagined appearance. The topic du jour is distribution sales: how the game has changed, how sales teams must evolve to win digitally and why good old-fashioned relationship selling will never be fully replaced.
Join us for a spirited conversation that covers:
- Changing sales strategies and culture within wholesale distribution
- The delineation between digital “shopping” and “buying” and why reps must shepherd both
- How operations, marketing and pricing teams can equip sellers to succeed
- Prediction on the future of distribution sales
- …and much more
Bookmark our events page so you can sign up early for Zilliant’s July 15 webinar with Distribution Strategy Group, “State of Distributor Customer Shopping and Buying.”
www.zilliant.com
Zilliant General Manager of Commercial Excellence Barrett Thompson welcomes Steve Stessman, vice president of business development at KBMax, to the program. On the agenda today? Digital transformation and innovation in B2B eCommerce for manufacturing companies. Steve’s long-time focus has been helping manufacturers leverage technology to deliver a real-time, consistent experience from the shopping cart to the shop floor.
Learn how B2B companies are innovating in digital commerce through personalization, customer empowerment and choice, while ensuring product configuration and dynamic pricing capabilities deliver maximum benefit to both the buyer and seller.
Read the blogs mentioned in the episode here:
Why Dynamic Pricing Matters in B2B eCommerce
How B2B Manufacturers Solve the Configured Pricing Puzzle
www.zilliant.com
Today we are joined by Accelalpha’s Devang Bhavsar. In his role as Partner, CX & ERP Practice, Devang is focused on helping companies make it easy for their customers to do business with them. As digital commerce becomes dominant, “customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator,” he predicts.
Listen to hear how B2B companies can develop a better and smarter CX through a combination of strategy and tools such as CPQ, price optimization software and more. You’ll learn how Zilliant is working with Accelalpha to provide a seamless integration between Oracle CPQ and Zilliant pricing solutions.
Watch the joint Accelalpha-Zilliant webinar referenced in the episode here: Adapting to the New Digital Normal: Next Generation B2B Pricing and Sales Strategies
www.zilliant.com
Today we are joined by PwC Consumer Markets Pricing and Profitability Practice Leader David Moss, for a timely conversation on pricing strategy amidst an impending inflationary period. David brings decades of consulting experience to our discussion, sharing strategies forged in the crucible of the 2008-2012 joint environment of inflation and recession.
Listen to hear the latest concerns and approaches David is seeing among his client base regarding inflation and the short-term and long-term tactics he recommends for both market leaders and followers. You’ll learn how PwC consulting services combine with Zilliant pricing software to bring clients a comprehensive strategy-to-execution solution to quell inflationary pressures.
Download the joint PwC-Zilliant whitepaper referenced in the episode here: Take Pricing to the Next Level
www.zilliant.com
Today we are joined by PwC Consumer Markets Pricing and Profitability Practice Leader David Moss, for a timely conversation on pricing strategy amidst an impending inflationary period. David brings decades of consulting experience to our discussion, sharing strategies forged in the crucible of the 2008-2012 joint environment of inflation and recession.
Listen to hear the latest concerns and approaches David is seeing among his client base regarding inflation and the short-term and long-term tactics he recommends for both market leaders and followers. You’ll learn how PwC consulting services combine with Zilliant pricing software to bring clients a comprehensive strategy-to-execution solution to quell inflationary pressures.
Download the joint PwC-Zilliant whitepaper referenced in the episode here: Take Pricing to the Next Level
www.zilliant.com
Today we are joined by Salesforce Sr. Director of Product Management, Quote-to-Cash Solutions Erwan Kerebel for a breakdown of challenges, opportunities and reimagined solutions within the Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) space.
Kerebel outlined three focus areas for manufacturers: faster quote turnaround times, accurate pricing, and precise payment terms and product selection at the time of quote. Historically, manufacturers have relied on silos of people, processes and systems to manage the quoting process. The systems tend to be “duct-taped” together over time, with point solutions and spreadsheets falling short of achieving these three aims.
Listen to learn how Salesforce CPQ and Zilliant pricing solutions combine to provide the backbone for faster, more accurate and more relevant price quotes, while at the same time knocking down silos within an organization.
To attend Kerebel’s breakout session at Zilliant MindShare 2021, register here: MindShare 2021
Download the joint Salesforce-Zilliant whitepaper referenced in the episode here: The Importance of Faster, Smarter Pricing in CPQ
www.zilliant.com
We welcome two guests from our strategic partner Acumen Solutions, Manufacturing Industry SME Gary Brown and Engagement Director Kyle Dreyer, to take the pulse of the modern manufacturer during a time of intensifying change.
Host Lindsay Duran leads the conversation, which covers the need for customer-centricity for B2B and B2C channels, workforce transformation, supply chain disruption, raw material cost increases and an accelerated push to eCommerce.
Listen to learn how manufacturers are responding to these hurdles amid a global pandemic and future-proofing their business for a post-pandemic environment. For more information on Acumen Solutions, visit www.acumensolutions.com or reach out to contact@acumensolutions.com.
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Former client and longtime friend of Zilliant Pat Curtin joins host Rick Chappell, senior vice president of services and customer success, to share exciting news about his new pricing consultancy as part of a wide-ranging conversation about the steps needed to pave the way for a successful pricing initiative.
From executive alignment, data issues, competing projects and the jumble of business systems that need to speak to each other, the pair get their hands dirty dissecting the complexities that stand in the way of pricing transformation, ultimately arriving at a set of best practices that have been proven to move the needle for clients.
www.zilliant.com
In this episode, we are pleased to host SAP Principal Solution Manager, IBU Wholesale Distribution Susanne Adam to take the pulse of trends, challenges and opportunities in global distribution businesses.
The threats of the past year and change have been well-documented, and Susanne offers us a front-row seat to a wide range she’s seeing out in the field, including increased eCommerce competition, marketplace strategy, supply chain and governmental restrictions, and the changing role of sales in a digital world.
Each challenge creates an opportunity, and Susanne shares some dynamic outside-the-box use cases wholesale distributors are adopting to drive services value with all-in-one Total Solutions.
You can find the joint Zilliant-SAP whitepaper mentioned in the episode here:
Enabling More Profitable Pricing in Wholesale Distribution
www.zilliant.com
Paul Demery, editor at Digital Commerce 360, joins host Barrett Thompson for a candid chat about the urgency thrust onto B2B companies to sell online in a pandemic-induced paradigm shift. Listen to learn why eCommerce pricing must be dynamic and how to accomplish a consistent, real-time pricing strategy across owned eCommerce platforms as well as third party marketplaces. We wrap up the show with a recent case study of how dynamic price optimization is paying dividends for a global building products manufacturer.
You can find the resources mentioned in the episode here:
Roofing Supplies Manufacturer Takes Pricing to New Heights
Terreal Improves Prices While Maintaining Market Share
www.zilliant.com
Mike Hockett, managing editor at Industrial Distribution, joins our first episode of the new year to share findings from the publisher’s recent 2020 survey and talk about what lies ahead for industrial distributors in 2021. Listen to hear about the surprising cost-cutting measure distributors have undertaken during the pandemic and why many had a digital wake-up call in 2020. Mike and host Lindsay Duran also project the most in-demand product categories in 2021 and tackle the big question: to compete with or partner with Amazon Business?
You can find Mike’s work here:
Industrial Distribution
www.zilliant.com
Business Solutions Consultant Tim Mohnke returns for a follow-up episode on auto parts/aftermarket manufacturing. How has the electric car trend changed the game for auto parts suppliers? How can they navigate tariffs, which are expected to continue for the foreseeable future? How can suppliers avoid “winner’s remorse” when it comes to negotiating long-term contracts with customers? Listen in to get his take on these burning questions and more.
Download our infographic:
Avoid These Aftermarket Margin Pitfalls
www.zilliant.com
Zilliant Chief Marketing Officer Lindsay Duran and Senior Director, Solutions Consulting Vishal Asatkar have logged many hundreds of miles visiting customers and prospects together over the years. The pair teams up again for an intensive look into the factors that drive total margin in the food production industry – the volatility of cash crops, the delicate balance between price and cost, and the differences between contract business vs. spot business. Duran and Asatkar also provide a peek behind the curtain into how this highly essential industry is adjusting on the fly to a global pandemic.
To read the blog post mentioned in the episode click here:
How Food Producers Win With Zilliant Campaign Manager
www.zilliant.com
SAP’s Jonathan Burdette joins host Barrett Thompson to dissect THE compelling event of 2020 for B2B manufacturers: a forced transition to digital commerce due to COVID-19. Whereas traditionally sales reps walked the factory floor to build relationships, understand what equipment is working and what isn’t, and how best to position new deals, selling has now fundamentally shifted to the digital realm. How do manufacturers adjust when most of their pricing processes are just as manual, with trillions of transaction dollars calculated in Excel? Listen to this lively conversation to learn how leading companies are designing exceptional eCommerce experiences featuring vetted, transparent prices to serve a new generation of buyers and salespeople. The discussion closes with some educated predictions for the future of eCommerce adoption for B2B manufacturers. (SPOILER ALERT: There’s no time left to waste!)
To access the joint whitepaper mentioned in the episode click here:
Reimagine Commerce with Zilliant & SAP
www.zilliant.com
This week marked the official launch of Zilliant’s newest product, Zilliant Campaign Manager™. An exciting evolution, this 100% cloud-native SaaS solution takes the insights generated by Sales IQ™ to the next level by unlocking self-service capability and providing the flexibility to scope, refine and execute campaigns with closed-loop reporting.
Director, Product Management Brian Hirt joins the show to discuss the out-of-the-box and custom action types that make the possibilities virtually limitless with Campaign Manager. Listen in to hear how this new Zilliant offering closes the strategy-to-execution gap!
Register for our Nov. 19 Campaign Manager webinar to learn more.
www.zilliant.com
Even before COVID-19 changed everything, distributors in the electronic components industry were dealing with seismic shifts. The dawn of 5G, the explosion of IoT and the ever-shortening product lifecycle combined to create complex business challenges and new opportunities to capture. The pandemic put many plans on halt, as supply chains in Asia and then Europe were drastically disrupted. With a second wave of COVID-19 seemingly imminent around the globe, what will that mean for supply chain, pricing and inventory strategy?
Steve Wilkins, head of pricing solutions at Standav Corp, joins the show to examine these hurdles and dish on reimagined solutions for the industry’s new normal.
How does your company stack up against Zilliant’s Global B2B Benchmark Report? Click here to find out in our fully interactive experience.
www.zilliant.com
This episode features a lively preview of Zilliant MindShare 2020, the premier B2B pricing and sales conference, which is going virtual for the first time on Oct. 27-29. Event MCs Barrett Thompson and Rick Chappell joined the show to explain how though the format may be new, the customer stories, thought leadership and product innovation deep dives remain as valuable as always.
MindShare lands at a critical hinge point for B2B distributors, manufacturers and services companies. The global pandemic has changed the way business is done and the resulting recession has put intense pressure on pricing, costing and sales processes. The unexpected pandemic only adds to the complexity that businesses were already planning for when the year began. You don’t want to miss this timely event. Get ready for it with this primer podcast and don’t forget to reserve your virtual seat!
Register for MindShare
www.zilliant.com
You’ve probably heard the old adage: “We can get it done right, we can get it done fast or we can do it for cheap.” For high-tech manufacturers and technology providers, the same concept applies to their quoting and offer creation processes. Most can consistently do a good job of delivering quotes with 1) speed, 2) accuracy or 3) completeness… sometimes two of the three. But it seems at least one side of that triangle is sacrificed when pricing and quoting tools lack data-driven guidance. Zilliant Business Solutions Consultant Todd Pate stops by to explore a new approach fueled by data science that is helping companies automate negotiations (speed), consistently offer the right price (accuracy) and identify cross-sell opportunities (completeness).
Find the on-demand webinar mentioned in this episode here.
www.zilliant.com
Dr. Steve Laborda, chief executive officer of ValueBizBooster, joins our show to discuss the importance of commercial excellence in the specialty chemicals distribution industry. Laborda and host Barrett Thompson diagnose the biggest challenges facing these businesses, including increased complexity, changing relationships along the value chain, and the eCommerce revolution. Traditionally these distributors were seen as simple logistics providers, whose main role was to extend the reach of manufacturers to small and midsize customers. In the last 10-20 years, many have differentiated themselves with value-added services and tailored solutions that sometimes compete with their own suppliers. This complexity creates a challenge for sales teams that have to deal with inconsistent and misaligned market pricing. Learn how leading chemical distributors are using data science-driven tools to reach commercial excellence in this dynamic environment.
Find the blog post mentioned in this episode here.
www.zilliant.com
When it comes to the ability to set prices that are market-driven, rather than cost-driven, specialty chemicals manufacturers consistently rank among the lowest in B2B. Because of the unique amount of transparency and raw material cost-driven pricing structure, manufacturers in this sector are usually contractually obligated to take prices up and down in line with publicly available commodities indices. Further complicating things, historically the approach to building up to a price has been done by brute force – through spreadsheets, PDFs and tracking down contracts stored in multiple locations. Barrett Thompson and Mick Naughton discuss a better way, driven by data science, to automatically update component cost factors, recalculate formula prices and quickly deliver updated prices that follow contracted guidelines.
To access the whitepaper mentioned in this episode, click here.
www.zilliant.com
Modern Distribution Management (MDM) is the leading information resource for executives in the wholesale distribution business. MDM’s annual reports and periodic surveys provide an unparalleled snapshot into the distribution market, including pricing and sales trends, market share data and deep industry analytics. MDM’s VP Sales, Analytics & E-Business John Gunderson joined Zilliant CMO Lindsay Duran for a candid conversation about the mounting challenges facing distributors in 2020. They discuss the extreme pricing pressure B2B companies are under, the panic selling trend caused by market distress and exacerbated by remote work and much more. Tune in to learn why now more than ever it’s crucial to put pricing guardrails in place to fight panic with data-driven guidance.
To access the MDM Spotlight video mentioned in this episode, click here.
www.zilliant.com
The Configure, Price and Quote (CPQ) market has exploded in recent years, as businesses embrace smarter technology to empower their sales reps to build better offers and close more deals. Zilliant has teamed up with Oracle, a market leader in CPQ, to infuse scientific price guidance, price segmentation and dynamic, real-time price-setting capabilities into Oracle CPQ. Joining us from Oracle for this roundtable to discuss the integrated solution and the benefits customers enjoy from our partnership is Ellen Beres, senior principal product manager; Ekta Paliwal, senior product manager; and Neil McHugh, strategic ISV partner manager.
www.zilliant.com
The role of a traditional B2B field seller, and the sales process itself, has fundamentally changed in a post-pandemic world. With buyers and sellers transitioning to remote work, B2B eCommerce on a meteoric rise and Zoom calls replacing shop floor visits, companies have adapted on the fly with varying levels of success. Brian Hirt has spent years developing SaaS products that use data science to help sellers make better, more profitable decisions. He joins the podcast to explore how field sales is blending with inside sales, the disadvantages and new opportunities available in a digitized sales environment and why many aspects of the new normal are here to stay, even beyond the pandemic. He even makes the case for how doing business virtually is like cracking an egg with one hand – you’ll have to listen to get it.
www.zilliant.com
Find the link to the “The Future of B2B Sales Amid COVID-19 Disruption” blog post mentioned in this episode here
Auto and heavy-duty truck parts distributors operate in a “pizza delivery model,” in which the goal is to be the first call on a garage’s list and to be able to deliver in 30 minutes or less. These distributors service many independent garages and must maintain inventory, get parts there fast and continuously build strong relationships to keep getting that first call. Above all, their parts must be priced rationally and consistently. On the manufacturing side, parts supercession creates immense complexity, as companies try to manage the lifecycle and price points of millions of SKUs. Zilliant Business Solutions Consultant Tim Mohnke joins the podcast to talk through these examples and more while offering reimagined pricing solutions. A veteran in both the spare parts and pricing consulting industries, Tim provides a unique perspective that is increasingly valuable in our current recessionary period, which is creating an increased demand for spare parts. www.zilliant.com Find the link to “Considerations for Automotive & Truck Parts Distributors in a Digital World” mentioned in this episode here: https://resources.zilliant.com/b2b-industry-insights/considerations-for-automotive-truck-parts-distributors-in-a-digital-world-keywords?utm_source=website&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=auto_distribution
Rate setting in the shipping and transportation industry hinges on striking a delicate balance between all the factors that drive rate: Mode, origin, destination, time of year, capacity, and more. In this episode, Zilliant General Manager of Commercial Excellence Barrett Thompson and Zilliant Senior Director of Solutions Consulting Jay Foulkrod discuss how technology can play an assistive role in finding pockets of opportunity in this industry that’s rich with opportunity and complexity. Listen now to learn how rates are set today and a reimagined approach to setting smarter, more varied rates that win more business and do so profitably. www.zilliant.com Find the whitepaper mentioned in the episode here: https://resources.zilliant.com/whitepapers/part-1-driving-margin-operational-benefits-for-shipping-providers
Zilliant Chief Technology Officer Sham Chauthani joins the podcast to talk about cloud-native B2B solutions – what they are, why some that claim to be cloud-native are really not and, most importantly, how they drive better business outcomes. Shams details the role a microservices, cloud-based architecture plays in a business as it grows and evolves. Stay through the end for specific pricing and sales use cases that are solved via cloud-native technology.
www.zilliant.com
Find the real-time market pricing video mentioned in this episode here.
While it’s true that hospitals and laboratories have seen unprecedented demand spikes for certain products throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for some major revenue-driving inventory has completely disappeared. Zilliant Vice President of Customer Success and Support Rick Chappel and Mick Naughton, a sales director with over 13 years of experience in the medical and life sciences space, talk through this peculiar scenario and the commercial repercussions happening as a result. They also address supply chain disruption leading to cost increases and the exceedingly important role of eCommerce in the era of social distancing. Listen to this lively chat to learn concrete strategies distributors in this industry can adopt to mitigate the pain of uneven demand and retain margins without committing the sin of price gouging. www.zilliant.com Find the whitepaper mentioned in this episode here.
In this episode, Lydia DiLiello of Capital Pricing Consultants joins host Lindsay Duran to untangle the curious times B2B companies currently face. How can you protect margins in the age of COVID-19? How do you avoid price wars and a race to the bottom? How do you react to a situation for which there is no roadmap? Lydia and Lindsay share advice for customers struggling with wild swings in costs and demand cycles (SPOILER ALERT: Don’t arbitrarily discount!), and why any financial change must be accompanied by a shift in your value proposition. Then they explore the ways in which companies that have invested in process, software and strategy are positioned to come out of the pandemic much stronger than their competition. www.zilliant.com Find the whitepaper mentioned in this episode here.
In this episode, Zilliant’s chief scientist Jon Higbie joins host Lindsay Duran to share his experience working with companies on both the buy-side and sell-side of the advertising world. Jon tells us why this ever-changing industry is ripe for disruption in the areas of data management, unified sales processes, and optimized rate-setting. He talks about how the coronavirus pandemic is exposing inefficiencies and accelerating the timetable for a data-driven digital revolution. Jon and Lindsay wrap up the discussion with reimagined pricing and sales strategies that media and advertising companies can deploy today. www.zilliant.com Find the whitepaper mentioned in this episode here - https://resources.zilliant.com/whitepapers/taming-the-wild-west-of-ad-buying-and-selling
In this episode, Nathan Rabold stops by to share his experience working with industrial parts and equipment manufacturers as a customer success director at Zilliant. Nathan and his team help customers adopt best practices for applying data science to the myriad internal and external complexities they face every day. Listen as Nathan and host Lindsay Duran discuss the go-to-market intricacies for industrial manufacturers and how they can respond more quickly to tariffs, embrace complexity, market-align customer agreement lines, and turn around quotes faster with scientific pricing. www.zilliant.com
In this episode, Paul Kedge is our expert on deck to share his experience both as a customer success manager at Zilliant with many building products distributors, but also as the head of pricing of the plumbing and heating division at Travis Perkins, the United Kingdom’s largest building merchant. Listen as Paul and Lindsay discuss the complications and dynamics of pricing, issues responding to boom and bust economies, the complexities of customer agreements, and how to balance margin targets across the business. www.zilliant.com
In this, the first episode of B2B Reimagined, we welcome special guests Barrett Thompson and Brian Hirt to the podcast to discuss trends, challenges and opportunities unique to B2B electrical products distribution companies. Brian Hirt served as the marketing director for a large, U.S.-based electrical products distributor where he was responsible for pricing and promotion, in addition to his traditional marketing duties. Barrett Thompson has built and delivered optimization and pricing solutions to Fortune 500 businesses in diverse vertical industries including building materials manufacturing and distribution, industrial components manufacturing, and many more. http://www.zilliant.com Visit http://www.zilliant.com/electricalplaybook to access the whitepaper mentioned by Barrett.