What does it take to build a modern B2B commerce practice that actually reflects how your business operates? For manufacturers coordinating dealer networks, distributors managing regional pricing, and enterprises selling through resellers and franchise partners, the answer is rarely simple. Contract pricing, layered account hierarchies, and legacy systems that were never built to talk to each other show up everywhere serious B2B commerce happens — and when the technology doesn’t match how the business actually runs, the friction shows up in manual ordering, fragmented reporting and slow digital adoption.
B2B Builders Club launches August 17 to solve exactly that problem. It’s a commerce leadership community — built by VTEX — for the digital, sales, marketing, procurement, finance and technology leaders modernizing complex B2B operations to meet the real needs of their business.
A community built around real B2B decisions
B2B Builders Club is a community designed for commerce leaders as a place to compare notes with peers solving the same architecture questions, hear unscripted conversations between industry leaders, and get a weekly read on where the field is actually moving. Members get access through quarterly think-tank webinars, a regular series of video Commerce Conversations, a weekly industry newsletter, and in-person gatherings built for working through hard decisions side by side.
First up: “Sales reps are hunters, not order takers”
The Club’s first Commerce Conversation tackles the sales rep question head-on. Host Emeka Nwosu, who leads VTEX’s B2B practice, puts a deliberately provocative thesis to guest Howard Blumenthal, founder of Blumenthal Commerce: that reps should earn full commission when a customer orders online, even if they never touched that order, because the relationship they built is the reason the order exists at all. It’s the kind of difficult conversation happening in sales-driven B2B organizations everywhere, and the two don’t mince words as they discuss.
The conversation doesn’t stop at compensation, though. Blumenthal and Nwosu dig into what fills a rep’s time once routine reorders move to self-service — whitespace hunting, win-back, wallet-share expansion — and the buying-pattern signals that turn hunches into plans. They take a candid look at the culture problem, too: how do you get a 25-year veteran rep, whose identity is built on being the person customers call, to embrace a buyer portal instead of quietly working around it? And of course they dive into the AI question, challenging organizations to honestly assess whether they’re ready for that technology.
The conversation continues at an invite-only retreat in Kohler, Wisconsin
This October, an invitation-only group of 25 B2B Builders Club members will gather for a two-day working retreat in Kohler, Wisconsin. They’ll be joined by the Club’s advisory council to work through the architecture decisions that don’t get solved in a webinar chat window, and create the foundation of collaboration on which the Club is designed to thrive.
How to join
B2B Builders Club is open to digital, sales, marketing, procurement, finance and technology leaders at manufacturers, distributors, or any B2B organization wrestling with complex pricing, multi-tier accounts and channel partnerships. Membership includes access to Commerce Conversations, quarterly webinars, the weekly newsletter, community gatherings, and eligibility for invitation-only events like the October retreat in Kohler.
Source: https://www.retaildive.com/spons/a-new-community-for-the-people-modernizing-complex-b2b-commerce/827937/