7 Proven Ways To Cut B2B Expenses & Maximize Revenue. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the world into a state of abject uncertainty. In an unpredictable market, when each penny matters, even the tiniest increment in income or reduction in expenses can drastically impact the organization’s profitability. However, by just having common-sense you don’t have to go through top-down overhaul or downsize to save costs. Frankly, it takes common sense to improve your sales funnel and your revenue bottom line. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business or a large one, the B2B market will always be competitive.
With technology becoming accessible at scale, third-party applications taking the operational weight, and with the information boom the B2B markets will become even more competitive. A report by Harvard Business Review states that the current B2B model has fatal flaws such as competitive bidding among suppliers; drives down prices, the mediocre value proposition offered by most businesses, and terrible buyer-supplier relationships. This either keeps adding the costs in your B2B expenses or reduces your realized revenues, leaving you drained of Vitamin-M(money). Your business requires a heavy dose of Vitamin M and so despite these flaws, there are tried and proven methods to remain attractive to buyers, clients, and in the industry.
Here are 7 ways to cut your B2B expenses and maximize your revenue. These processes will increase your working capital, reduce wasted costs and produce positive-growth outcomes for your company.
#1 Automate
Software is eating the world, that’s true so why not have it take a few bites out from your operational backlogs? Starting out, take massive benefit from the extensive variety of apps, programs, and software available for enterprises to use. The world is moving away from manual repetitive tasks, the workforce should be working on novel and effective solutions which go on to reduce your B2B expenses.
Ask yourself, which sections of your company can be automated by understanding your product and services and then deploy automation solutions. For example, there are various common, near-universal automation areas. Some of the examples include staff & payroll management, data entry, filing, employee timekeeping, accounting, and even calculating and paying taxes. If your business has any physical inventory, automation software can even be used to keep track of the amount, forecasting, and quality and warn you of any potential damaged stock.
You can use platforms like Capterra or G2 to analyze and study reviews in order to find the best software ready for your business. Even the highest-end, costliest software is a one-time investment and is generally more cost-effective in the long run than hiring employees to perform these tasks.
#2 Reduce B2B Production Costs
Business owners are always on the lookout to cut material costs and optimize resources for greater efficiency. Here are a few suggestions:
- Ensure that you’re receiving the most out of your manufacturing real estate. Centralize or consolidate the location required for production. By leasing unused area to another company or person—it can be as small as an office or as big as a warehouse space giving you a good cashflow in rent.
- Control, track, and regulate the operational performance of your business, in order to improve and optimize each resource. Set production parameters that indicate your performance goals and offer incentives and bonuses when those goals are met to facilitate a positive feedback loop.
You can calculate your costs on this nifty tool by DCKAP Integrator. This annual savings calculator tells you how much can you save on operations. Pretty cool, right? Give this a whirl.
#3 Organise Time Effectively
Not everything requires a meeting. Almost everything can be done via mails, some can be done on phone calls, few can be done via video calls and then you must think about having a meeting.
This optimizes productivity efficiently by lowering your cost of doing business. Remember, “wasted time = wasted dollars.”
- Utilize software such as Paymo and Toggl to follow employee time usage, time consumed on different types of business activities or projects, and billable hours.
- Establish expectations for a moderate amount of time to perform several kinds of projects or tasks. Propose incentives for meeting or exceeding those expectations.
#4 Reduce Your Financial Expenditures
Peruse your insurance plans and financial reports for places to save money.
- You can save money on insurance by comparing issuers for the various competitive rates; then propose your existing lender or insurance provider to equal that rate.
- Combine insurance plans or bank accounts; if possible. This reduces your B2B expenses in the long run.
- Assess insurance plans to ensure that you’re not in a duplicate-coverage or over-insured bleeding revenues.
- Always avoid taking on unnecessary debt. Do a meticulous cost-benefit examination and expected forecasts when considering business expansion.
#5 Deploy Modern Marketing Models
You may not want to eliminate paid advertising that is working; although, it can be helpful to take a gander at some more affordable options.
- A customer e-mail list is always powerful. Start a referral or loyalty program. Any recommendation from an existing client is massively valuable in a trade than conventional marketing.
- Showcase social proof, as much as you can; everywhere.
- Network more, create partnerships, go easy on advertising. Customers are likely to choose a company with a branding that is humanized.
- Slash marketing expenses by creating more in-house content.
- Go where your audience is, more social media, and fewer hoardings. As it is, everyone is already inside during the pandemic.
#6 Build Successful Business & Client Partnerships
You’re not the only one with operational costs creeping upwards, always remember that there are hundreds of B2B businesses both large and small going through the same thing. You can create a perfect ecosystem where partnering with such businesses can help you lower your operational costs. Most of these companies require several of the same things as yours: marketing, advertising, promotion, expert product distribution, and more. Create a symbiotic relationship, deal in good faith and you’ll reduce your costs every quarter in B2B expenses.
Starting out you may ask, how to run a B2B business? Partnerships among businesses can be designed to achieve practically any task. You can operate with local stores or town organizations to expand and promote your business via flyers, banners, and a variety of other kinds of advertising. Collaborate with shipping and distribution businesses to efficiently transfer inventory.
It’s not just with other B2Bs that you’ll achieve success with, but also your clients. Forming a connection with a regularly recurring client may essentially is a method of making money and it can further save money too! Reducing the need to spend on advertising. You will also reduce significant costs linked with inventory management as the buyer will secure regular, similar purchases and you focus on the needed products rather than managing a wide variety. A single long-term client relationship can truly be worth thousands of dollars in B2B expenses.
#7 Laser Focus On Quality Improvement
Whether you’re a small business owner or large, narrowing your focus on what really matters will monumentally improve your bottom line. Your focus should be on high-quality output and services to your clients. When you limit yourself and your top talent to accepting projects and offering services you will more productive creating high-value work improving your b2b revenue.
Learn the power of subcontracting. When you’re overwhelmed with operational tasks, or that you’re unable to focus on what really matters? subcontract smaller pieces of your existing tasks. A moving assembly is better than a static one, this way you’ll be able to have multiple small tasks accomplished while you can deploy operational oversight and piece the whole picture as the tasks complete. This way you can get more projects which equal added revenue, while subcontracting equals more moderate expenses. The result is a better and healthier bottom line in your B2B expenses.
These solutions may seem like small, insignificant changes to make however these are proven practices that slowly, but surely get you positive results. Implementing them can significantly reduce your business’s operating costs in a sharp period of time.
You can also find more knowledge about successfully navigating the muddy trenches of the B2B world successfully here in our blog.
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