B2B transactions are hard sales: high transaction costs make customers have high requirements for service and product quality. To tackle the complexities of marketing work, let’s start with the basics: we’ll introduce you to the peculiarities of B2B selling and analyze techniques that will help you strike a mutually beneficial partnership.
What exactly is business to business sales?
B2B is short for business-to-business. Both parties in a B2B transaction are not individuals, but legal persons, ie companies.
An example of such a relationship is any production where components and raw materials are purchased from a supplier organization. It can be not only sales but also services: for example, the owner of an offline store might order the development of a website from an agency.
Features of sales in B2B
The goal of customized b2b sales solutions is to close a profitable deal. For example, a retail store makes a profit by purchasing merchandise from a distributor and reselling it at a premium. When ordinary people buy things, they also have the intention of seeking personal gain, but this has nothing to do with generating income.
In B2B, the buyer-seller relationship is important. Sometimes this is even more important than the quality and price of the product. When an average shopper comes to a store to buy groceries, the personality of the cashier does not influence the purchasing decision. But large B2B deals can fail if customers don’t like working with managers.
B2B transactions are not spontaneous. Usually, we’re talking large sums, so the salesperson and decision maker (DM) negotiate in several stages. This takes a lot of time and requires additional approval from leadership.
Target Audience in B2B Markets
B2B clients are commercial and non-commercial enterprises and individual entrepreneurs.
The market’s target audience can be divided into the following groups:
Industrial companies: Purchase goods for production needs. For such clients, product quality and timing are important.
Retail and Wholesale Stores: Resale merchandise. The deciding factor is price.
State-owned companies, NGOs, and other organizations are funded by the state budget. They have a wide range of activities and prefer low-cost offers.
Mistakes in B2B sales
Sales are low. Properly identifying the Decision Maker (DM) is important: if you’re negotiating with someone who has no authority to close the deal, you’re wasting time and energy.
Only emphasizes the features and benefits of the product: Customers in the B2B segment want a result: a benefit or a specific solution to a problem. So instead of focusing on the quality of the product, focus on the impact of the deal on the business.
Commercial offer with one option: Customers love choice: they can compare prices, products, and conditions. Please indicate three alternatives in the CP: from a simple solution suitable for the economic sector to a premium product.
Proprietary telecommunication: Personal meetings are more effective than phone conversations or Internet communications – hundreds of success stories attest to this.
Gaps in product knowledge: A good manager has ready answers to any question. It is best to rehearse the conversation in advance, think through possible scenarios, and understand the attributes and characteristics of the product.
Give everyone a discount. Customers who are only interested in price are the most difficult and unreliable audience to retain. The value and benefits of selling products will help build long-term business relationships.
Summing up
There is no universal sales template that is 100% likely to work. In order to secure profitable deals, you need to build an effective sales department and properly set up the process according to the specifics of your business. The main thing is to always pay attention to customer needs and problems – this will help you get timely feedback and use it as a growth point for the company.