“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.” - Warren Buffet
In today’s world of social media, nothing's more important than your online reputation. Thanks to online search, it’s now easy to see everything from what your personal reputation looks like to what customers really think of your hospitality business. However, when it comes to your business reputation in the B2B space, things are a little different.
It turns out that trying to build an online reputation is unusually difficult. Most businesses have a company website, which supports some form of SEO ranking, or might be listed in a few trade directories...but that’s about it. The rest remains a mystery - or so it seems. Luckily, that's where working with an established marketplace like Kinnek can help overcome those hurdles.
Tools of the Trade
Traditionally, businesses in the B2B space have tried to build their reputation in one of two ways, both of which are not ideal. First, businesses try word of mouth - one business owner tells another how good or bad a certain supplier is - and the word spreads from there. Unfortunately, that’s a really tedious and ad hoc way of building a reputation. Businesses also have very little control over what’s actually being said about them.
The second way suppliers, in particular, can build a reputation is by exhibiting at trade shows, buying a booth or sponsoring a product while there. These methods seem effective but are also very expensive and generally only work if you have an established network and the funds to boot. But what if you’re just starting out or don’t have the funds to go to a trade show? Many suppliers are small businesses too!
Searches for Small Business Supplies are Growing
Luckily, Kinnek can change all of that. More and more businesses are going online to figure out who the best suppliers are. According to Google Trends, 45% of US searches in 2015 for business supplies were specifically for “small business supplies”, with the volume of queries increasing 90% relative to other types of related searches. Now those same small businesses searching for supplies can visit Kinnek, get quotes and manage all their purchasing in one place. For suppliers that means being able to reach those businesses searching for supplies with minimal effort or cost.
The best part is those benefits don't just impact suppliers on the Kinnek marketplace but the whole community too. By providing practical tools and reliable information, we help all types of companies save time and resources. That's why we built a powerful Supplier Directory with ratings, reviews, references and product gallery images across a range of industries and business needs. It means our suppliers get exposure and business customers find what they're looking for even faster.
To provide even more clarity, we’ve broken down our ratings into three different components: Product Quality, Communication and Shipping Time. Our marketplace shows those are the three most important factors small businesses take into account when they consider purchasing from a supplier.
In today’s world, many people don’t even eat at a restaurant before looking up their ratings or reviews. The same phenomenon is happening in the B2B space; Kinnek is leading the charge.
Do Ratings Matter?
We’ve seen that getting at least 4 out of 5 stars ratings and more than 5 positive reviews has a direct correlation with how businesses perceive a supplier’s trustworthiness and the likelihood they’ll purchase from them.
Supplier profiles also receive the most traffic on the Kinnek website. That means a lot of people are viewing our supplier profiles! Having a positive online reputation can therefore be a great selling point and ultimately impact your bottom line as more small businesses on the Kinnek marketplace put in a request for quotes. The inverse goes for having a negative reputation: if your reviews are bad, we see a decrease in request rates for quotes.
Sell Your Business
Be proactive. It’s important to take action early and start building your online reputation as soon as possible. Like anything of value, it takes time to build a strong reputation. The longer you wait to get started, the more time your competitors have to build a strong online presence with lots of reviews and endorsements. Happy selling!
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