Although today Black Friday is somewhat considered a holiday (on the consumers’ side, of course), it’s history is not that long as it might seem. Black Friday is the informal name of the Friday following the Thanksgiving Thursday, being first associated with shopping in the mid-20th century. We won’t elaborate on the historical aspects of the chronicle here. However, we’ll mention that the main idea behind this phenomenon derives from the number of days off surrounding Black Friday (mainly in the US), which results in more customers visiting stores. Today, the tradition of alluring people to buy stuff on this day with various sales has expanded in the entire world.
However, this article does not address consumers. It calls for businesses such as manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to shed some light on the ways to generate B2B leads and increase sales on Black Friday.
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Consolidate existing business relationships
Regardless of whether you are a manufacturer, wholesaler or a retailer, showing that you care for your ongoing collaboration and future business partnership is key to increase the other side’s trust in your company. Black Friday leads to empty shelves. Showing how you can and are willing to help get ready for the event and face emptied stocks, of course by coming up with valuable offers, will definitely add a point to your business karma. Delivering true value and showing personal involvement will underline your responsibility and have an impact on the future willingness of your business partners to continue the collaboration with you.
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Find new business partners
Offers regarding refilling retailers’ empty shelves or intermediaries’ initiative to do so can likewise address new business agents. We do not suggest hereby that you should replace your business relationships with totally different ones. We’d rather advise seeing Black Friday as an opportunity to diversify and/or expand what you already have on tap or find new ways to deliver your product to consumers, either - by adding new business partners to your existing ones.
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Enter markets with new products
#2 on this list does not have to be limited to existing categories of products delivered by new suppliers or sold to consumers by new retailers. Black Friday, as well as event-induced empty shelves, can be the perfect timing to launch something new on the market, especially considering the upcoming holiday season. If you are a retailer exploring new goodies that you could gladden your consumers with, or you are looking for one who would agree to set aside some space for what you have on offer, this may be your time.
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Expand to new locations
Similarly, you may be looking for new importers or exporters, new delivery agents, new points of sale or suppliers from a different location. Maybe there is a specific market that you’ve always wanted to enter. Or maybe there is a certain source you were long willing to explore. Black Friday is the perfect timing for that. If you are a manufacturer or wholesaler and after doing your homework research you see ways to conquer a new market, you can come up with an advantageous offer to local wholesalers or retailers, with higher-than-usual chances that your product will be sold to consumers on Black Friday and holiday season. If it is the other way around, you may find a wholesaler or producer and negotiate terms that would lead you as well as your new business partner to a win-win situation.
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Increase revenues
Regardless of whether you are planning to sell or buy locally or internationally, trade with current or new business partners, purchase or deliver existing or new goods, Black Friday is the time to increase your revenues. As we’ll argue a bit later in this article, you do not have to make or seek discounts. Value is key, and the more you give or get, the higher your revenues can be. However, if you do decide that a sale is your best choice, you can benefit from it in the same way B2C companies do on Black Friday.
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Overcome your competitors
Consequently, you can seize the opportunity to get products that your competitors don’t have or start a partnership with distribution channels your competitors do not know about or are not considering to explore. At least not in the Black Friday’s light. Be it better products, conditions, markets or deals, each of these can help you easily overcome your competitors while being the first one to get them!
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Tweak your existing offers and freebies
If you already have offers or ongoing campaigns, you can simply adjust for the event the messages these are delivered by. It will definitely bring in a breeze of newness and refresh the interest of your B2B partners, or even attract ones that you haven’t worked with before and who’d perceive your campaigns as freshly launched. Same with freebies you may have on tap - simply adjust them in a way that would make them seem as if created intentionally for Black Friday, and you are up-to-date.
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Add value, not discounts
Black Friday discounts are quite a common practice for B2C companies. However, these might not be as good an idea for B2B. Of course, it depends on the case and the type of business you are in. But we’d highly recommend looking into ways to make a value proposition instead of cutting off prices. Black Friday is the opportunity to show your special care, out-of-the-box thinking and professionalism, rather than follow the crowd in slashing your prices.
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Build hype to prepare for the holiday season
Plenty of businesses run tons of campaigns linked to the end-of-the-year holiday season. Black Friday offers are less common for B2B, and you can use that to your greatest advantage. You can send all your offers tied to that less usual event for B2B, rather than be yet another company who makes seasonal promotions. Stand out of the crowd, don’t join it.
How to Get Ready for B2B Black Friday Fast?
Black Friday is an extremely busy time of the year. To be more specific, Black Friday marks loudly the beginning of the season for exhausting amounts of working hours for a wide range of companies, B2B and B2C. Hence, the seasonal rush may result in lots of lost opportunities, as well as missed fruitful partnerships and revenues.
Retailers are already busy enough with all the preparations needed to face crowds of enthusiastic customers willing to spend their money. With all the errands to run, tasks to accomplish and things to make sure of, finding new suppliers - be it wholesalers or manufacturers - may not be retailers’ top priority. Yet again, data can help all. Fast.
If you are (working for) a retailer, hence have no time to find new business contacts at this point in time, a company database will come to the rescue. High-quality business directories, e.g. Global Database, provide advanced segmentation tools, that in literally no time will help you get lists of manufacturers or wholesalers.
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Of course, it works the other way around too. Be there to help retailers to fill their shelves right in time for the event, or immediately after so that they could continue their activities flawlessly. Moreover, sometimes retailers may wish to refill shelves with totally new products, and if you are entering a new market, this could be the perfect opportunity and timing.
In the example provided with the image below, we assumed that we need to look up all active distributors located in Manchester, UK. Simple as it sounds, the above-mentioned criteria were selected with the available filters and, being a matter of just a few clicks, we got a full list of 634 companies that meet these requirements.
Once you apply the required filters, the resulting lists are shown within seconds and you can start contacting these leads immediately.
On the other hand, you can invest a little more time in studying their profiles to bring your messages’ personalisation to the highest possible level. When you study a company’s full profile, you can figure out the weaker points that your product can cover, as well as understand how exactly to make your proposition in a way that would present your product or offer in the most advantageous light. This is yet another highly attractive aspect of any company intelligence database, as it allows you to skip or at least shrink the part of the business negotiations where everyone has to explain the needs and possibilities. In such a way, conversion on both sides can be achieved faster, which is highly appreciated at this time of the year.
To sum up…
Both B2C and B2B companies can benefit from the opportunities brought by Black Friday. This event can and should be the foundation for fruitful business relationships, and missing that chance will definitely result in uncollected revenues. Regardless of your activity type - producer, wholesaler or retailer, Black Friday is the time to seize the moment and harvest results on the long-run.
