We’re more than happy to introduce some speakers of our upcoming E-commerce Berlin Expo 2022.
Today, we decided to invite Fabian Nösing from notebooksbilliger.de for a virtual cup of coffee to talk about “Long time no see: Wie NBB.com mit langen Sales Zyklen umgeht?” topic. Enjoy!
You’ve been working at notebooksbillinger.de AG since September 2017 – Where and how did your journey with notebooksbilliger and the customer centric department begin?
At the beginning of 2021, I moved from my position as Assistant to the COO for IT and Marketing to the Customer Centric Marketing department in order to increase together with an outstanding team the customer focus at NBB.com.
What do you like the most about your current position at your company?
Working with very smart and ambitious people and challenge the status quo every day. Combined with the freedom to test ideas quickly and pragmatically.
Your EBE presentation is titled “Long time no see: Wie NBB mit langen Sales Zyklen umgehen?” Can you share a little more about what you’re going to cover?
As an e-commerce company, you always have slightly different hurdles to overcome depending on the product range, target group and the associated customer journey. For us, we have found that we have the hurdle of having very long sales cycles on our core categories. I think everyone can confirm that they don’t buy a new notebook every 3 weeks.
In my presentation, I’m going to talk about what points we’re addressing to try to overcome this hurdle. To do this, you have different pillars, such as conversion rate optimization, personalization, CRM but also onsite monetization.
But I don’t want to spoil too much here.
Is there really such a problem with sales cycles in e-commerce?
I wouldn’t call it a problem. It’s just that, as always, every business model faces its own individual challenges. An FMCG e-commerce certainly has no problems with a long sales cycle, but it does have other challenges, such as brand or product loyalty.
How can we make the client return to us more often than once every four years, however? Can you somehow compel them to do so?
Breaking the sales cycles of certain products is difficult. Therefore, it is a good idea to build up a suitable cross and upsell assortment. Furthermore, the area of customer relationship management should be mentioned here. Give customers a reason to enter into a relationship with your company.
Would you agree or disagree with the following statement: “Not every industry is easy when it comes to marketing.” Is it difficult to sell in the electronics industry, where the sales cycle is longer than, for example, in FMCG?
I would disagree. Every industry has its own obstacles. It’s always about how creative you are to overcome them.
How can you build an efficient customer relationship despite long sales cycles?
This has become much more difficult in the last two years due to the adjustments made by DSGVO and TTDSG. Let’s take a look at two factors here: The first is how satisfied the customer was with the purchase. A lot counts here, such as usability of the site, payment method portfolio, delivery time, service, returns management and more. This can be measured and also optimized through various key figures. Because only if the customer is satisfied with his first purchase, he will consider entering into a long-term customer relationship.
The second point I would mention is the consent to direct marketing channels like newsletters and push notifications. Based on the purchase data and testing, a good optimization can be set up here in the area of 1 to 1 automations. The advantage here is that the customer actively agrees to enter into a relationship with the company. Whether this relationship will last in the long term and generate revenue depends on the work with data, testing and personalization you do.
Do you use email marketing as a key marketing strategy at your company? If yes, what trends can you identify?
Email marketing is a pillar of our marketing mix. But it is one of the most important channels when we look at customer relationship management.
There are many trends in the market such as AR/VR or interactivity for mails. But for me, the biggest leverage is still in the area of personalization and relevance for the customer.
The growth of your company’s Instagram profile is quite impressive. Is it part of the success?
Our Instagram profile is a part of our customer relationship. Here we communicate at eye level with our customers and try to update them again and again with tips, tests and buying advice. In the future, however, we will roll out additional formats here in order to become the first point of contact for content about consumer electronics on social media.
What would be your best advice for a person who wants to pursue a career in customer-centric marketing? Where should we look for knowledge?
That’s a very good question. I would like to answer it in a more general way. In the end, no matter if the titel is Head of.., Director… or C…, we’re all just cooking with water and we all started from scratch. If you’re really up for something and get stuck into it, show commitment, don’t let setbacks get you down, and learn from others, then you’ll be successful.
So if you want to start in Marketing then search for a company that is very good at it and learn from the people working there, start reading blogs and papers around that topic and listen to podcasts about it. You can learn so much out of the experiences others have made.
Hungry for more e-commerce tips?
Register for free ticket to see Miro’s speech —> click here
