B2B Sales Models: How to Align Them with Your E-commerce Strategy

In our previous article we looked at what makes B2B e-commerce different from B2C. The next question is practical: who sells to the end customer, and who controls the price? The answer depends on your sales model, and so does the way your B2B portal should work.
Below are the four sales models we see most often among manufacturers and distributors, with the advantages, challenges and portal setup for each.

The manufacturer sells through its own legal entities or regional offices. Many large manufacturers work this way, especially in Europe, because they want full control over sales.

Advantages

• Full control over customer relationships. The manufacturer owns every contact and every deal.
• Market feedback first-hand. Customer needs reach the company directly, without a dealer filtering them.
• Faster reaction. Service and product issues are fixed without a middle link.
• Control over the brand. No risk of a dealer damaging the brand with poor service.
• Healthier cash flow. No need to give distributors and dealers the long payment terms they usually ask for.

Challenges

• Higher fixed costs. Sales staff, vehicles, offices and warehouses are all on the manufacturer.
• Different expertise. A great manufacturer is not automatically good at sales and marketing.
• More financial risk. With no dealers, all sales costs stay with the manufacturer, which hurts in a downturn.

How to set up the B2B portal

• Storefronts: one website per market (for example, the EU) or per group of regions (for example, the Middle East). Prices and online ordering can be public or visible only after login.
• Pricing: one standard price list per market or region.
• VIP customers and intermediaries: individual discounts assigned directly to the customer account.
• Orders: placed directly with the manufacturer or its local legal entity.

The manufacturer has no direct sales team. Its sales people build the brand and support dealers or distributors, who are assigned by country, region or postal code. The manufacturer keeps control of the public retail price, often through a minimum advertised price (MAP) policy.

Advantages

• Simple financial model. The manufacturer manages only retail prices and dealer discounts.
• Lower fixed costs. No in-house sales team or sales infrastructure.
• Focus. The company concentrates on product development and the brand.
• Faster regional expansion. A dealer network opens new markets quickly.
• Transparent pricing. One public retail price can be advertised without conflicts between dealers.
• Added value from dealers. Dealers often add their own services, up to turnkey solutions.
• Less room for corruption. With public prices, there is little space for side deals.

Challenges

• Limited contact with customers. The manufacturer mostly sees customers through marketing and occasional complaints.
• Dependence on dealer skills. A dealer can be strong in one industry or region and weak in another.
• Brand dilution. Dealers sell several brands, and yours competes for their attention.
• Reputation risk. Poor dealer service reflects on your brand.
• Long payment terms. Dealers, and especially distributors, negotiate long payment terms, which slows your cash flow.

How to set up the B2B portal

• Storefronts: one website per market, since the manufacturer controls prices.
• Pricing: one retail price list per region.
• VIP customers: dealers need the right to assign discounts to their VIP customers.
• Orders: customers order on the manufacturer's website, and the order is routed to the dealer for their region. The dealer is notified immediately and issues the confirmation and all documents.
• Integration: two-way exchange with the dealer's ERP, or limited portal access where dealers update order status themselves.
• Dealer websites: the manufacturer can offer dealers ready-made templates for their own pages.

The manufacturer sells directly in some markets, usually the most developed ones, and through distributors in others. To keep its own channels from competing with each other, it controls the base retail price everywhere.

Advantages

• Control where it matters most. The manufacturer keeps direct relationships in its key regions.
• Flexibility. Each territory gets the approach that fits it.
• Consistent prices. A controlled retail price prevents undercutting between channels.
• Best of both. Direct control in some markets, dealer reach in others.

Challenges

• More complex sales management. Running direct and dealer channels at the same time adds work.
• Channel conflict. Different price structures across markets can clash, and customers compare.
• Uneven customer experience. Direct markets often get better service than dealer markets.
• Nervous dealers. Dealers know that the better they grow a market, the more likely the manufacturer is to take it over. Many keep a plan B.

How to set up the B2B portal

• Storefronts: one website that takes orders for both direct and dealer regions, separate portals for each distributor, or both.
• Pricing: manufacturer-controlled retail prices in direct regions.
• VIP customers: special prices managed across both channels.
• Orders: direct orders are processed in-house, dealer orders are routed to the right distributor.

The real difference between the models comes down to two questions: who sets the retail price, and who owns the customer.

In direct sales (Model 1) the manufacturer controls both, and pays for it with the highest sales costs. With dealers and fixed retail prices (Model 2) the manufacturer keeps the price but hands the customer to the dealer, and sales costs drop. When dealers set their own prices (Model 3) the manufacturer gives up both and gets the simplest setup, at the price of a blurred brand from region to region. The hybrid model (Model 4) keeps the price everywhere and the customer only in direct markets, which works well but is the hardest to run.

The portal has to follow the same logic. Direct sales need customer-specific prices and direct orders. Dealer models need orders routed to the right dealer and connected to their systems, or a login-only portal with net prices. A hybrid model needs all of it in one system, without the channels getting in each other's way.

There is no best model, only the one that fits your goals, resources and markets. Direct sales give you full control but need the biggest investment. Dealer models cost less but give away part of the customer relationship. A hybrid model is flexible but demands careful price and channel management.

Whatever you choose, one thing no longer works: hiding prices and sending PDF quotes by email. B2B buyers expect to see their price, order online and track the order. The model decides who sells, and the B2B portal should support that model rather than force you into another one.

Atlaya was built with all four models in mind: storefronts per market, customer-specific and dealer pricing, orders routed to dealers by region, and two-way integration with ERP and CRM systems. See what is inside the platform.