The internet is one of the best things that has happened to B2B companies or manufacturers by providing them with the ability to carry out international business networking to either get new clients or increase exports or find suppliers to buy from. In spite of the availability of solutions on the internet like the existence of social networks, business social media and business networks there are businesses that still find it challenging to find distributors, wholesalers, or retailers abroad.
Having a distributor, wholesaler, or retailer abroad reduces the risk, cost or barriers of entry into new businesses or new markets but in a situation whereby you can’t simply Google the solution, what do you?
Online business networks such as ziliot.com and business communities offer alternatives but most of these available, well known are professional networks. These professional networks are best used for searching employment; they also have groups which you need to join in order for you to be able to connect with the communities you are interested in. On those groups you will find various options, some closed and some open. What happens on those groups have been classified as “noise” because everyone shouts “ We are looking for” and the result is that you get a few people send emails and sometimes you get contacts that are not relevant or contacts that do the same thing to every opportunity they find without settling for one. So you are back to square one.
Now, the reason I put up this post is to bring to your knowledge Ziliot business discovery network. Ziliot.com is a business discovery network where manufacturers can discover wholesalers and distributors for their products. Ziliot.com enhances the engagement experience that manufacturers need to connect with retailers, distributors, agents by providing rich features for business networking, B2B e-commerce, business opportunities and target marketing tools all in one platform. This business network provides a semi version of the company`s websites, a reason to connect on the Internet in order to increase sales possibilities and to engage with credible partners and contacts from emerging markets due to the verification of user accounts.
All you need to do is to create an account on the site, follow these steps
- Fill out your company’s profile or your entrepreneur’s profile( This is useful if you are looking for business opportunities, those who you contact can easily find out about you and the companies which you are involved in. It is much different from the way a professional network’s profile is organized; no information about academic background etc is required. On the profile page you can also add what you are looking for, this section of the site is directly connected to the feeds(social networking styled wall feeds) and to the home section of the site, so that your post will appear in a logical and categorized manner to enable search by other users.
- Brand your public page to ensure that it gives a corporate or serious looking impression. The public page is quiet similar to the Facebook’s new timeline but different because the public page is designed to offer you a web presence in case you don’t have a website and you can use the URL to serve as your website. You can brand your public page by adding videos, images, add your banners and also add products.
- Add your products to the marketplace, in order to make those who go to the marketplace to find products to discover your products. The marketplace is a B2B marketplace but with possibilities to drive traffic back to your site if you have a website. If you don’t have a website you can easily use your public page as your website to refer people to find out more information about your product.
- Add request for partners, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, franchise partners, OEM partners. When you add your request either on the status updates area (looks like Facebook’s feed) or on your profile page, these requests are properly categorized and available for discovery by those looking. It replaces the noise aspect in professional networks in the sense that instead of your post to be considered spam or unwanted, it actually serves the purpose which you wanted which is to get people who are interested to notice it.
- Go through users profiles on the site and read the information that they have posted, find out which ones are interested in your region and in your industry and contact those by using the talk to us feature available.
