Portals · by profile
Guided selling: the B2B sales portal where reps negotiate inside the rules
In complex B2B, the rep spends much of the day quoting instead of selling. Assisted Selling is guided selling on the rep's digital negotiation table: the Assisted Selling Platform (Sales Hub), with the customer, the margin and the rules in plain sight.
In short
Guided selling is the B2B model where the sales rep leads the order together with the buyer, instead of just taking it down. On CWS Platform it runs in a B2B sales portal, the Assisted Selling Platform (Sales Hub): rep and buyer in the same Real-Time Shared Cart, with credit and margin in plain sight, and every discount inside the Commerce Rules Engine approval limits.
- Rep and buyer negotiate in the same Real-Time Shared Cart, in real time. Source: sales rep software on the Sales Hub.
- Every discount requires a Reason Code and follows the approval limit by profile. Source: business rules engine.
- The reorder goes to self-service, and the rep keeps the complex negotiation. Source: B2B customer portal.
- At Imdepa, the portal led to 3x more customers activated in three years, without growing the team in the same proportion. Source: Imdepa case.
Putting the rep inside the channel, not competing with it, is one of the criteria in the guide to choosing a B2B ecommerce platform.
From order-taker to governed negotiator
The rep's role evolves through four stages: attendant, facilitator, governed negotiator and consultant with AI. The Sales Copilot does the behind-the-scenes work: account ranking, margin and inactivity alerts, and builds the quote. The Customer Intelligence Panel brings up the customer's context in one click.
Freedom to negotiate, on rails
The rep moves price, terms, freight and composition on the spot, and every concession goes through the same Commerce Rules Engine rules: Approval Workflows, Pre-Submission Guardrails, Discount Stacking Prevention and Reason Codes. The company gains speed without losing control of margin.
For the commercial director
Every discount has an author and a justification, approval limits are by profile, and account ranking shows where the team wins and where it leaves margin on the table. Governance without taking away the freedom to negotiate.
The salesperson joins the same negotiation
The buyer's storefront with the salesperson's service bar on top, and the recent-conversations panel showing the order the customer typed two minutes ago.
- One screen, two rolesThe salesperson's bar opens over the buyer's own storefront, not in a parallel system that syncs afterwards.
- The customer arrives identifiedThe session carries who is on the other side, so price and terms are already that customer's.
- The conversation sits next to the catalogThe order written in plain text and the part to be added live on the same screen, with no alt-tab.
This is the proof that assisted selling and digital selling are not two products. The salesperson does not open a CRM on the side: they step into the same storefront, with the customer identified and the conversation next to the catalog.
In real production · Imdepa
At Imdepa, the same machine that processes the simple transaction frees the rep from about 70% of the time spent on processing, redirecting it to proactive consulting. The portal led to 3x more customers activated in three years, without growing the team in the same proportion.
"O valor real não é a receita que se vê nos números. É a operação que você consegue sustentar com o mesmo custo de estrutura. Crescemos 3x em clientes sem contratar 3x mais vendedores."
Paulo R. S. Pereira, Digital Sales Coordinator at Imdepa · read the case
Seller configurations, from least autonomy to most4
Seller autonomy is a configuration, not a culture. An operation starts at the first level, with no margin risk, and moves up as the team gains confidence, without changing platforms.
- Attendant
- Zero pricing autonomy. The seller builds the order and runs the conversation, and the price is whatever the engine derived. It is where an operation starts when it wants no risk at all.
- Facilitator
- Low autonomy, typically freight only and within a narrow band. It serves the transition: the seller gains a real lever, and product margin stays untouched.
- Negotiator with thresholds
- Governed autonomy over price, freight and terms, with mandatory justification and a block before an unviable order exists. This is the level where the platform starts to look like a risk desk.
- Consultant with AI
- The greatest autonomy, with the Sales Copilot alongside suggesting the next offer and anticipating what would not pass. The agent queries the same rule that constrains the human.
The journey is dual, and both run on the same core3
What changes between them is who is in front, not the engine behind. When they are two systems, the portal's price and the seller's price drift apart, and the buyer learns not to trust the portal.
- Self-service
- The buyer identifies themselves, sees the table for their own profile, gets automatic campaigns applied and closes on their own. The trail is browsing and order history.
- Assisted
- The seller identifies the customer and receives credit, outstanding items and history before building any proposal. They adjust price and freight within their threshold, and each adjustment requires a justification.
- The same cart
- The two meet in the same cart: the seller joins a negotiation that started self-service, or sends the link for the buyer to finish. There is no handover between systems because there are not two systems.
Frequently asked questions
Does the CWS Platform take the rep out of the equation?
No. The Assisted Selling Platform (Sales Hub) gives the rep a better tool: seller and buyer in the same Real-Time Shared Cart, with context and approval limits. Some operations run 100% through it.
How does the manager control the discount each rep grants?
Through Approval Workflows applied by the Commerce Rules Engine, with approval limits by profile and a mandatory Reason Code, so every concession has an author and a justification.
What does the rep see about the customer?
The Customer Intelligence Panel brings up the customer's history, credit and context in one click, and account-based access ensures each rep sees only their own base.
What is guided selling in B2B?
It is selling where the rep leads the order together with the buyer, negotiating price, terms and composition, instead of just keying in what the customer asked for. On CWS Platform this happens in the Assisted Selling Platform (Sales Hub), with rep and buyer in the same cart and every concession inside the approval limit of the rep's profile.
What is a B2B sales portal?
It is the portal where the sales rep sells, not only where the buyer orders. On CWS Platform the rep opens the customer's context in one click, shares the same cart with the buyer in real time and grants discounts inside the approval limit of the profile, while routine reorders go to the B2B self-service portal.
What is the difference between guided selling and B2B self-service?
In guided selling the rep negotiates with the customer; in self-service the buyer places the order without waiting for anyone. Both run on the same core and the same rules: the reorder goes to the B2B customer portal, and the rep keeps the complex negotiation and the relationship.