Where Should Companies Start When Digitalizing Their B2B Sales Process?

Before digitalizing the B2B sales process, the company’s sales model should be clearly understood.

Not every B2B company sells in the same way.

Some companies operate through dealer networks, while others work directly with corporate customers. In some businesses, quotation is at the center of the sales process, while others focus more heavily on ordering and inventory management.

The digital structure should reflect the company’s actual sales model.

Otherwise, the result may be a visually strong system that does not fit naturally into daily sales operations.

Which Questions Should Be Asked About the Sales Model?

At the beginning of the project, questions may include:

• Are sales made directly to customers, dealers, or distributors?

• Do all customers see the same products and prices?

• At what point do sales representatives become involved?

• Is there a quotation process?

• Will orders be placed directly or require approval?

• Are customer-specific price lists used?

• Are there account balances, payment terms, or corporate payment conditions?

• Is the product catalog public or available only to logged-in customers?

• Do customers need access to documents, invoices, or order tracking after the sale?

The answers to these questions shape the direction of the digital product.

In B2B sales, customer accounts, pricing, product visibility, and order workflows are often closely connected.

One of the most important areas in B2B digitalization projects is the customer structure.

Who will sign in to the system? Which information will they be able to access? Which actions will they be allowed to perform?

In some companies, each customer is represented by a separate company account.

In others, several users may belong to the same customer account.

Companies operating through dealers may also have different roles such as dealer administrators, dealer employees, regional managers, or sales representatives.

How Should the Customer Account Be Structured?

In B2B systems, a customer account is often different from an individual user account.

Several users may belong to the same company account.

The purchasing team may create orders, the finance team may track invoices, while an administrator may view the entire order history and pricing structure.

For this reason, the account architecture should be planned from the beginning:

• Company account

• Users connected to the account

• User roles

• Permission levels

• Products users can view

• Prices users can view

• Order history

• Document access

• Approval workflows

This becomes even more important for companies with dealer networks.

Our guide on where companies should start when building a dealer portal provides a more detailed look at this structure.

A B2B product catalog may work differently from a traditional e-commerce catalog.

Not every customer may see the same products.

Some products may only be available to selected customer groups.

Certain products may have minimum order quantities or package-based purchasing rules.

For this reason, the product catalog should not be treated simply as a place where products are listed.

The catalog is the digital representation of the company’s sales strategy and operational model.

Which Fields May Be Needed in a B2B Catalog?

The product catalog may include:

• Product name

• Product code

• SKU or barcode

• Category

• Subcategory

• Technical specifications

• Product images

• Stock status

• Minimum order quantity

• Case or package information

• Delivery time

• Dealer- or customer-specific price

• Discount rate

• Technical documents

• Certificates

• Usage or installation documents

Technical documents, product codes, variations, and inventory information can be particularly important for manufacturers and distributors.

Customers do not evaluate the product only visually. They also consider how it fits their operations, purchasing rules, and delivery processes.

We also cover how product and inventory structures can be planned in How Should Inventory and Order Management Be Planned for an E-Commerce Website?.

Pricing is one of the most sensitive areas of B2B sales.

A simple structure where every customer sees the same price is often insufficient.

Prices may change according to dealer level, customer group, purchasing volume, region, special agreements, or seasonal campaigns.

Possible Pricing Structures

A B2B digital sales system may support scenarios such as:

• Customer-group-specific pricing

• Dealer-level pricing

• Product-specific custom pricing

• Category-based discounts

• Quantity discounts

• Case- or package-based pricing

• Regional pricing

• Seasonal campaign pricing

• Pricing based on commercial agreements

• Custom pricing after quotation

A B2B sales system cannot be planned effectively until this structure is clear.

Pricing affects the product page, cart, quotation flow, orders, admin panel, and integrations.

In B2B sales, price is more than a number. It is one of the core data points carrying the customer relationship, sales strategy, and operational rules.

Our guide on how to plan a B2B e-commerce website provides a broader look at pricing, customer groups, and order workflows.

Not every B2B sales process moves directly into an order.

For some products, the customer first requests a quote, the sales representative finalizes the price, and the order is created afterward.

In other structures, customers may place orders directly.

Some orders may also require approval.

For this reason, quotation and order workflows should be considered separately.

Possible B2B Sales Workflows

The digital system may support one or more of the following:

• Direct ordering

• Quote requests

• Quote-to-order conversion

• Sales representative approval

• Manager approval

• Bulk orders

• Repeat orders

• Excel order uploads

• Minimum-order-value rules

• Orders based on account balance

• Deferred-payment orders

The appropriate structure depends on how the company sells.

For example, a distributor selling standardized products may benefit from direct ordering.

A manufacturer operating with project-based sales may need a quotation-first workflow.

Order Status Should Be Visible to the Customer

After placing an order, B2B customers want to follow what happens next.

Being able to see whether an order has been received, approved, prepared, shipped, or delivered makes after-sales communication easier.

Possible statuses include:

• Request Received

• Quote Being Prepared

• Quote Sent

• Order Received

• Awaiting Approval

• Preparing

• Ready for Shipment

• Shipped

• Delivered

• Cancelled

These statuses should work consistently across both the customer interface and the admin panel.

When digitalizing the B2B sales process, the project should not focus only on customer-facing screens.

The admin panel used by sales, operations, finance, and management teams is also at the center of the system.

The admin panel is where customer accounts, price lists, quotations, orders, documents, payment statuses, and reports are managed.

Which Modules Can Be Included in the Admin Panel?

A B2B sales system may include modules such as:

• Customer accounts

• Dealer or customer groups

• User and role management

• Product catalog

• Price lists

• Discount rules

• Quote requests

• Order management

• Approval workflows

• Document management

• Account balance information

• Announcements

• Sales representative assignments

• Reporting

• Integration settings

The panel should be designed according to how the company actually works.

Sales teams may focus on quotations, while operations teams manage orders.

Finance teams may monitor payments and invoices.

Management users may focus on overall performance.

You can explore this topic in more detail in which modules should be planned when building an admin panel.

In a B2B sales process, customers need access to more than product and order information.

Invoices, delivery notes, technical documents, price lists, contracts, warranty documents, account statements, and payment statuses can all become part of the customer experience.

When these documents are shared through different channels, they can gradually create an additional tracking workload.

A digital system brings this information together in one place, making the process easier for both the customer and the company.

Which Information Can Be Shown to Customers?

A B2B customer portal may include:

• Order history

• Quote history

• Invoices

• Delivery notes

• Technical documents

• Product catalogs

• Contracts

• Account statements

• Payment status

• Due-date information

• Announcements

• Campaign information

• Support requests

This gives customers a strong reason to return to the portal regularly.

The system becomes more than an order-entry interface. It becomes the digital center of the customer relationship.

Our guide on what a customer portal is and how companies can use it provides a broader look at this structure.

If the B2B sales system needs to work with the company’s existing software, integrations should be planned from the beginning.

Product information, inventory, pricing, orders, invoices, customer balances, and customer records may come from different systems.

Common Integrations

B2B sales projects may require integrations with:

• ERP

• CRM

• Accounting systems

• E-invoicing

• Inventory systems

• Shipping or logistics systems

• Payment infrastructure

• Email services

• SMS services

• File storage

• Analytics tools

The most important decision in the integration plan is determining which system acts as the primary source for each type of data.

Will product information come from the ERP or be managed in the portal?

Which system will provide the price lists?

Will orders created in the portal be transferred to the ERP?

Will account balance information be displayed to the customer?

We explain how these connections create value in more detail in what API integration is and what it offers companies.

When digitalizing a B2B sales process, including every possible requirement in the first release may initially seem attractive.

A stronger starting point is to prioritize the areas that customers and sales teams will use regularly from the first day.

What Can Be Included in the First Release?

A first version may include:

• Customer login

• Customer account

• Product catalog

• Customer-specific pricing

• Quote request or order flow

• Order status tracking

• Document sharing

• Basic admin panel

• Sales team tracking screen

• Basic reporting

Later phases may introduce:

• Advanced pricing rules

• Detailed account information

• ERP synchronization

• Sales representative performance

• Campaign management

• Advanced reporting

• Mobile applications

The purpose of the first release is to move the core value of the sales process into the digital environment.

Once real usage begins, it becomes easier to see which modules create the most value.

We also cover which information should be shared during the first meeting for a custom software project in What Information Should Be Shared in the First Meeting for a Custom Software Project?

Once the B2B sales system is live, looking only at the number of orders is not enough.

The system should generate information that helps sales teams and management make decisions.

B2B Sales Data That Can Be Tracked

• Number of active customers

• Portal logins

• Product views

• Quote requests

• Quote-to-order conversion

• Number of orders

• Average order value

• Performance by customer group

• Sales by dealer

• Most viewed products

• Most ordered categories

• Orders awaiting approval

• Cancelled requests

• Document downloads

• Sales representative performance

This information makes the B2B sales process more measurable.

The company can understand which customers are active, which products attract interest, which quotations convert into orders, and where the sales process begins to slow down.

At Codezone, we approach B2B sales digitalization as more than an online ordering interface.

Customer structures, dealer relationships, pricing, quotation workflows, order management, document sharing, admin panels, and integrations should all work within the same sales system.

We begin by understanding the company’s sales model and customer relationships.

From there, we structure the product catalog, pricing model, user roles, quote-to-order workflow, admin panel modules, and data integrations together.

This approach creates a strong digital system where customers can access the information they need more easily, sales teams can manage the process more effectively, and the company can make its sales operations more measurable.

For companies looking to digitalize their B2B sales process, the first step is understanding the existing sales model correctly.

Customer and dealer structures, product catalogs, pricing, quotation workflows, order management, document sharing, admin panels, and integrations should all be evaluated together.

A well-planned B2B sales system allows customers to access products, prices, quotations, and order statuses more easily.

On the company side, sales, operations, finance, and management teams can work in a more structured way using the same data.

Digitalization in B2B sales is more than opening a new sales channel.

It is a strategic digital product process that makes the sales operation more visible, manageable, and easier to develop over the long term.

What Does It Mean to Digitalize the B2B Sales Process?

Digitalizing the B2B sales process means managing customer accounts, product catalogs, custom pricing, quotations, orders, documents, payments, and reporting through a web-based system.

Is a B2B Sales System the Same as an E-Commerce Website?

They share some similarities.

However, customer groups, custom pricing, quote requests, dealer relationships, account balances, and approval workflows usually play a more significant role in a B2B sales system.

Which Modules Can Be Included in a B2B Sales System?

Customer accounts, product catalogs, price lists, quote requests, order management, document sharing, admin panels, reporting, and integration modules can all be included.

Can a B2B Sales System Integrate With ERP?

Yes.

Product, inventory, pricing, order, invoice, account balance, and customer data can be planned to work together with ERP or accounting systems.

Are All B2B Features Required in the First Release?

No.

The first release can prioritize core areas such as customer login, product catalog, pricing visibility, quote or order workflows, document sharing, and a basic admin panel.