Business to Business (B2B) portals are the most innovative trading tool in the world. Nowadays, majority of international traders use B2B portals apart from conventional trading models. Yet the companies which are listed in the portals do not give much importance for presenting their company profile with right details. If necessary care is given to this end, the companies can guarantee desired results. Important points one should take into consideration while signing up are the following:
. Register with an e-mail id one ‘often’ uses.
. Select the correct type of one’s business. For example: Exporter, Importer, etc.
. Contact address should have all the details including phone numbers with international codes, website, etc.
. Contact person’s name, preferably of the person who has signed up.
. Company description should be a well thought out one, and should have professional touch, to give added value to one’s company and its business activities.
. Choose appropriate sector- i.e. if one is in the agri-business sector and have various related businesses of the respective sector, then one can use the broad-based term agri-business as one’s company’s sector. But if one is in a specific sub-sector, one should choose that particular sector to get maximum business inquires from interested members.
. Mention time frame for dispatching one’s products or services.
. Mention minimum or maximum acceptable amount of one’s trade deal, according to one’s type of business.
. Acceptable time delay on payments also should be made available as added information.
. Choose incoterms which can give full protection against payment.
. Regions or countries one can be part of the trade.
If one is already a member and one’s company profile needs changes, the profile should be updated as and when required including contact information, company description, etc. And after creating or updating one’s profile, one should start looking for profiles of one’s business interest and should try to contact them through available tools; mostly it would be limited to the portal which one has been registered. But if one wishes to take one’s business communication beyond the topical portal, one may be prompted to become the premium member.
Yet within most portals, one could send message to other profiles; through this channel one should try to make contact. If one is a free member, one has to be satisfied with limited access. Most of the members whom one would have contacted, in all likelihood would desist from responding because one is with a free status and there are many crank users these days whom which misuse B2Bs. Therefore, recipients fear that even after prolonged negotiations, chances of striking a deal would be a distant one.
Even if one becomes a paid up member of these portals, instead of waiting for the promised inquiries by the portals, one should take pro-active measures to invite interest in one’s products or services by other related businesses in the database. Thus, one can improve one’s chances of doing business through B2Bs faster than one would have imagined. If one takes the services of top B2B portals and use it/them in the right manner researches show that businesses have immensely benefited not just by deriving few business opportunities, rather one was able to establish a long-term business relationship with their clients.
