Revolutionising the game: How Schneider Electric is dominating end-to-end digital sales in the electrical industry

This post is sponsored by Schneider Electric, and empowered by Tassanarom Goodier, regional digital sales director (East Asia and Japan), at Schneider Electric (pictured).

In the past, B2B companies in the electrical industry were often perceived as very traditional and conservative to embrace digital strategies. However, the pandemic accelerated the pace of digital evolution across many organisations in the industry to rethink the way they operate and interact with customers.

Despite the complexity in terms of broad product portfolio and organisation, Schneider Electric has stayed resilient and successfully adopted digital sales strategies to maintain a competitive edge in this era.

We stand apart by privileging partners and cultivating an open partnership ecosystem, fostering an innovative brand. With this, we are dedicated to driving digital excellence across our value chain and elevating the digital sales capabilities of our partners and customers.

With a strong focus on a customer-centric approach, we place ourselves in the shoes of our valued partners and customers to ensure an impactful and delightful experience.

We integrate the two disciplines of digital marketing and digital sales to deliver a seamless and consistent customer experience across all touch-points, enhancing the entire buying journey.

While digital marketing focuses on building brand awareness and generating demand, digital sales focuses on converting marketing leads into paying customers by leveraging virtual sales and eCommerce.

Maximising customer engagement and increasing conversion with the synergy of virtual sales and eCommerce in the pre-sales process

It is crucial to identify the right customer audience and ensure that the company has a consistent presence in terms of brand and product awareness across all channels.

The company deploys both inbound and outbound lead generation approaches, with an emphasis on creating valuable and personalised messages. Alongside this content on social media and other online platforms, Schneider Electric has recently integrated virtual sales to reach untapped customers.

However, once potential customers are attracted, maintaining their attention and increasing conversion rates can be challenging. To overcome these hurdles, virtual sales can act as a platform to effectively bridge the gap. It offers an opportunity to follow up with potential customers and streamline the buying process by utilising a personalised and consultative approach.

To deliver this superior value, we extend these collaborative disciplines to partners and customers by offering dedicated resources and expertise to guide them throughout the journey, while also providing comprehensive training and hands-on assistance.

Our digital sales journey has been characterised by a culture of collaboration and interaction with partners and customers, fostering co-creation that drives sustained success. We have seen a great success in both Schneider Electric Thailand and Schneider Electric Korea where digital sales organization exists.

For example, Schneider Electric Thailand strategically employed paid media to direct prospects towards LINE platform for registration, therefore broadcasting personalized push content with promotions and nurturing leads by virtual sales team. The journey then drives them to our e-Shop (se.com) for a conversion into sales transactions.

In addition, Schneider Electric Korea has been recognised for its outstanding performance and exemplifying the success of virtual sales and eCommerce integration for an industrial-focused campaign. This was a co-marketing campaign with top distributors in Korea to promote industrial automation products using virtual sales to drive leads to partner's eCommerce channels.

Together with partners, we have achieved a seamless integration of marketing and sales efforts. Each media touch-point was intricately linked to a dedicated campaign landing page on se.com, seamlessly guided potential customers towards a direct inquiry section which was managed by the virtual sales team.

By providing personalised and human interaction to the digital buying experience, our team successfully closed deals in collaboration with distributors.

Unlocking the full potential of virtual sales and eCommerce for post-sales engagement

The ultimate goal for Schneider Electric is to provide a seamless end-to-end experience from the first touch-point to beyond the final purchase. Therefore, it is crucial not to overlook the importance of post-sales engagement.

There are several factors to consider that can add value to the business beyond an exceptional customer service, providing a competitive edge. It is imperative to strengthen and nurture the customers through training and education, a customer loyalty programme, as well as establish pivotal components for upselling and cross-selling.

Moreover, as customers are increasingly expecting personalised experience, the company should continuously improve the effectiveness of targeted marketing campaigns and tailored recommendations. Businesses should leverage big data to identify areas of improvement in the customer journey, thereby enhancing the bottom line for the digital sales business.

For instance, Schneider Electric Thailand plans to establish customer retention strategies within LINE platform to maintain continuous communication with customers, fostering stronger relationships and further enriching the end-to-end customer journey.

“An end-to-end and seamless digital sales strategy can help businesses reach and deeply engage with the customers,” said Tassanarom Goodier, regional digital sales director (East Asia and Japan), at Schneider Electric.

“It is very important to have cross-functional collaborations to optimise the customer journey, ongoing support and engagement. Our foremost aspiration is to deliver supreme value and establish ourselves as a trusted partner in creating a sustainable business.”