Prime Day data shows the B2B and B2C convergence is real
Brian opened with breaking news from Amazon Prime Day, which drove a record $14.2 billion in US online sales, 11% larger than 2023. The question B2B companies always ask is whether consumer shopping events affect their business. Brian shared data from a B2B manufacturer running a mature Amazon program.
3x the volume, almost 4,000 units in a single day, $43,000 in sales in one day. And this is a mature Amazon program. Seeing this kind of jump on Prime Day, fascinating. B2B company.
Brian Beck, Master B2B
An HVAC manufacturer just getting started on Amazon saw an even larger lift, nearly 20x their normal daily sales during the two-day event. Andy noted that Amazon Business revenue figures, already in the tens of billions, likely undercount the true B2B volume on Amazon because many business purchases happen outside the Amazon Business channel. The convergence of B2B and B2C buying behavior is not a future trend. It is already visible in the data.
The biggest impediment is not budget or talent
The main topic came from a question Brian and Andy posed to their LinkedIn audience: what is the largest impediment to setting priorities for your digital strategy? The results were striking. Budget constraints came in at only 12%. Team and hiring was also 12%. Shifting corporate priorities, including changes in leadership direction, hit 30%. But the clear leader was lack of alignment in the organization at 45%.
Andy pointed out something about those four options.
These are all internal impediments. In theory, the most difficult part about setting a digital strategy and setting your priorities should be not knowing exactly what customers want done in what order.
Andy Hoar, Master B2B
The Jeff Bezos approach, which Brian cited at the start of the discussion, is to be customer obsessed rather than competitor obsessed. The best companies start with customer needs and work backwards. But the poll showed that B2B teams are mostly blocked by internal coordination, not by uncertainty about what customers need.
Leadership is on board and budgets are available
Master B2B research reinforces that the blockers are not at the top of the organization. According to a recent study, 94% of respondents reported CEO support for digital initiatives. When asked whether their company provided sufficient financial resources to achieve technology investment goals, nearly 90% said yes. The executive buy-in and the funding are there. What is missing is alignment on how to use them.
The gap between perceived and real alignment
Brian shared data from a Harvard Business Review study of 500 employees, managers, and executives. When asked whether they felt strategically aligned, 82% said yes. But when the researchers had participants write out the details of that alignment, only 23% were consistent with each other.
Andy added context. Senior executives tend to report higher alignment than rank and file employees. The captain of the ship says things are working fine, but below deck the water is leaking. Closing the perception gap requires intentional action, because without it, silos emerge and departments drift apart.
Resistance to change and the failure to communicate the future state
Research from the Entrepreneurs Project found that the number one barrier to digital transformation is resistance to change. Brian hears this constantly from practitioners fighting the fight inside their companies. Andy offered a reason why.
One of the reasons why resistance to change is so high is because the senior executives have done an ineffective job of persuading the organization about the benefits of the new reality.
Andy Hoar, Master B2B
People are not inherently opposed to technology. They adopted smartphones and new TVs without resistance. The difference is that they could see the value and were not afraid of being displaced. When executives assume everyone understands why digital is better, and fail to explain how the transition benefits each person, employees default to self-protection.
Trust is the foundation
Brian presented a framework from Product Plan on overcoming alignment challenges. At the base is trust: a belief that the team is capable and well-intentioned. Without trust, people wonder whether the VP of ecommerce is pushing digital for personal credit, or whether the CEO has the organization’s interest at heart.
Above trust is shared understanding: clarity on the plan and the why. Then comes partnership, which includes shared KPIs across the organization. At the top is cohesion, where the organization realizes its full potential. The research warns that without intentional action to maintain cohesion and alignment, silos emerge.
Metrics and KPIs define the shared reality
Andy emphasized that trust alone is necessary but not sufficient. People need to know how everyone wins. If bonuses are based on company performance, employees focus on making the company successful. If bonuses are based on individual metrics, employees focus on their own results, and cohesion never arrives.
The practical takeaway is that B2B companies setting digital priorities should start by defining metrics that everyone shares. Customer urgency and importance, measured objectively, should drive what gets done first, second, and third. The most sophisticated companies also maintain a list of what they will not do, which removes mystery and lets everyone focus on what matters.