Welcome to part one in a series by our Head of Sales, Emil Lissborg, on B2B sales and the real price of postponing digitalisation. We start where many companies lose ground without realising it - in the buying experience itself.
It’s easy to assume that competition is about price, assortment or brand.
In my experience, it’s often about something much simpler: how easy it is to actually buy from you.
Many B2B companies I meet have strong products, skilled sales teams and loyal customers. Yet they lose deals they never even knew existed. Not in negotiations. Not on price. But much earlier in the process - when a customer googles, compares suppliers and decides who is worth contacting.
Today, 75% of B2B buyers do most of their research online before speaking to a salesperson. This is no longer news. And still, I see many companies relying entirely on the customer to reach out.
The problem with that mindset is that the loss is invisible.
No one calls to say, “We chose someone else because your buying experience was too difficult.” They simply go elsewhere, and you never know.
What makes this even harder is that manual processes can work “well enough” for a long time. Orders get handled, customers are reasonably satisfied, sales teams work hard. But underneath, a cost is building, one that’s difficult to see in any report.
Imagine a company with 500 million SEK in revenue. If friction in the buying experience causes 5–10% of potential orders to disappear to a competitor who is easier to buy from, that’s 25–50 million SEK per year in lost revenue. Losses that never show up in a P&L.
And that’s not all. Sales and customer service spend time on administrative tasks instead of building relationships and driving business. The organisation becomes dependent on key individuals rather than scalable systems. Growth slows because every new business opportunity requires manual effort.
The biggest risk isn’t making the wrong digital investment. It’s waiting too long to make one at all.
Not because digitalisation is a goal in itself - but because your customers have already changed their behaviour. They expect to search, compare and place an order without having to call. If you don’t offer that, someone else will.
The question is no longer if you should digitalise B2B sales. The question is how long you can afford to wait.