The B2B sphere - few people know what it is, although everyone who has ever looked through the ads for current vacancies has read similar words: pay is high. And such announcements are printed more and more often. What is the reason for the popularity of such employees? Is there really such a capacious and saturated market behind these three mysterious letters?
B2B - what does this mean, what are the features of working in this sector? Why do companies working in this area require exceptionally experienced specialists, and why is wages here higher than in other industries? Let's find out.
Learning terminology
B2B - what it is, the decoding of the abbreviation will help to understand. Behind it are the words "business to business", which means "business to business" in English.
One can say about B2B that this is an area in which only legal entities work. The buyer further uses the product for his own needs, production or provisionpublic services.
Can we say about the B2B sector that these are corporate sales? Rather yes than no. The line between them is very blurred, and almost no one separates them.
Working in B2B is very specific, it requires special methods when developing marketing activities and conducting the negotiation process. It requires increased attention to the selection of personnel in the sales department.
Is this the right market
Want to find out if your company belongs to the B2B sector? Try to analyze the activity on the following points:
- customer buys product as raw material;
- customer uses the product as a means of production (machines, packaging, tools, stationery, cars);
- client uses your services in the process of producing their own product (transportation, consulting, recruitment, IT, marketing);
the customer is an enterprise and consumes your product for their own needs (construction materials, fuel, electricity, furniture, printed matter)
If at least one of the points applies to your business, it can be argued that the company is working in the field of B2B.
Who is my partner
Very often people confuse B2C and B2B markets. What is it, what is the fundamental difference? The last abbreviation stands for "Business to Consumer". That is, the partner of a legal entity in this case is the end consumer, a simple person who purchases a product (service)for personal use. Managers and ordinary employees of sales departments must distinguish between these two areas (B2B and B2C). What does this mean, how does it affect the workflow?
In the B2B market, the average contract price is much higher than in B2C, and buyers are much more selective and competent. In each of the sectors, communication with the consumer follows its own specific pattern and requires its own, unique approach. These circumstances dictate various methods of motivating salespeople, recruiting staff, and even organizing the working day of employees.
They decide and decide
The way to make a decision to buy a product is the main difference between B2C and B2B markets. What it is and “what it is eaten with” is easier to understand by looking at a simple example.
Let's imagine that the same person buys a phone, but is in two opposite situations. In the first case, he is a simple buyer, and the phone will be used as a means of personal communication. The decision is made quickly enough, based on reviews in popular magazines, the prestige of the model and ergonomics. The seller has little influence on the selection process, since the communication time is short, and the buyer comes to the point of sale with an already formed opinion.
But if the same person acts as the person in charge of purchasing telephone exchanges in the enterprise, the main factors influencing the selection process will be reliability, warranty, service cost, the possibility of upgrading or expanding the network in the next few years. ToIn addition, several more employees (IT-specialist, supply manager) will participate in the decision-making. Here, the communication between the seller and the buyer takes place at the level of professionals, negotiations are ongoing for at least several days, and the selling party can have a significant impact on the final decision.
This example clearly showed how simple relationships are in the B2C sector. After analyzing it, we can say about B2B sales that this is a highly intellectual work that requires a manager to have a thorough knowledge of his own product and extensive experience in active sales. At the same time, transactions in B2C are quite simple.
One or two
An enterprise can operate both in one market and in two at the same time. For example, travel companies, lawyers, dry cleaners, cleaning agencies, auto, rail or air transportation work with both legal entities and individuals. In their case, sales are divided into two directions for the correct application of sales technology.
There are enterprises that occupy only the B2B market. What is it or who is it? First of all, manufacturers of raw materials, production blanks, industrial equipment. That is, those goods that an ordinary citizen simply does not want to buy, since he will not be able to use them in the future.
B2B and media
All B2B market players sell exclusively professional products. Among the mass media, these are publications that are issued in order to provide information necessary in the process of work. For example, specialized accounting journals, as well as dedicatedissues of management, logistics, medicine, construction and others. As a rule, they are all aimed at a certain profession or industry.
What can I do for you?
Regarding the goods needed by the business, everything is very clear and understandable, but the question arises: B2B services, what is it that businesses need? They use the services of carriers, lawyers, doctors, insurers, cleaners, as well as business coaches and consultants, narrow specialists in industries related to the production process. Very often, contracts are concluded for the provision of services that are seasonal in nature. For example, cleaning the roof from snow, landscaping the territory.
Choose a seller
It is believed that a good salesman "will sell a bald man", just like an excellent leader, will be able to quickly organize any team. Almost all business coaches and popular manuals for acquiring sales skills claim this. But is this true when we consider B2B sales?
That this is a completely separate genre of work has already been described above. Working with businesses, providing services to corporate clients is quite difficult. And there are increased demands on the manager.
Recruiters say a good B2B salesperson is a person:
- possessing high skills of a "universal seller", that is, who knows and successfully applies the technology and psychology of sales;
- having extensive professional knowledge in a given area (product knowledge) or intellectually sufficientdeveloped in order to thoroughly study it in the shortest possible time.
If we draw an analogy with a game of chess, then a manager who sells goods or services of his company to another business must masterfully play long games. In the corporate segment, the sales cycle can be very long, and the work of the seller is not limited to fragmentary, short actions (cold calls, commercial offers, preparation of meetings and presentations). He must have strategic thinking, think through the game a few steps ahead and be ready for unexpected scenarios.
Human Resources
The right approach to department management is one of the key factors for successful sales. As already mentioned, people in a slightly different format work in the B2B sector, and, accordingly, the approach to the head of such a team should be special. Successful experience of management and motivation in other industries cannot be thoughtlessly transferred to this market. For example, in FMCG companies, the manager reports on the number of meetings and calls, and his remuneration depends on this. And rightly so, because in this area the seller "feeds the legs." But when the product is sold to another enterprise, the number of cold calls is not critical, and it is also small, since the number of players in the B2B sphere is much smaller. Accordingly, the motivation system should be built in a completely different way.
New direction
It can be argued about B2C and B2B that these are well-established, worked out over the yearsdirections. But times are changing and it is likely that new markets such as C2B and C2C will soon replace them. In them, individuals will act as sellers, providing various services.
The world's population is growing every year. Almost every resident has improvised means of communication (telephone, Internet). Contacting another person who owns the right product is not difficult. And entrepreneurs developing the field of information technology only contribute to the emergence of such contacts, creating convenient and safe platforms for communication on the network.
An example of the above is the international e-bay online auction, where anyone can put up for sale the items at their disposal. The organizers of the site have thought out an effective system of points and ratings, which helps to find the best seller and secure the deal. Similar sites, which are local in nature, are open in many countries. And there are also resources that facilitate the exchange of things, the organization of joint wholesale purchases. Or you can borrow the items you want from someone else.
In order for the company to receive a steady and stable increase in profits, each client needs to organize its own, special approach. Therefore, a thorough analysis of partners, planning of future transactions and analysis of those that have already taken place are the key points for the successful work of a selling company.
