The B2B sphere is what few know, althoughAnyone who has ever looked through the vacancy announcements read these words: “A manager needs a manager in the sales department of a large company, experience in the B2B sphere is required for at least a year, and wages are high.” And such ads are printed more and more often. What caused the popularity of such employees? Is there really such a big and rich market behind these three mysterious letters?
B2B - what does it mean, what are the features of workin this sector? Why do the companies working in this field require exceptionally experienced specialists, and the remuneration of labor here is higher than in other industries? Let's see.
We study terminology
We can say about B2B, which is a sphere in which only legal entities work. The buyer further uses the product for their own needs, production or provision of services to the public.
Can you say about the B2B sector, what is corporate sales? Rather yes than no. The line between them is very blurred, and almost no one divides them.
Работа в В2В весьма специфична, требует особых methods in the development of marketing activities and the conduct of the negotiation process. It requires increased attention to the selection of personnel in the sales department.
Is this the market
Want to understand whether your company belongs to the B2B sector? Try to analyze the activities of the following items:
the customer buys the product as a raw material;
the client uses the product as a means of production (machine tools, packaging, tools, stationery, cars);
the client uses your services in the process of producing his own product (transportation, consulting, recruitment, IT, marketing);
- The client is an enterprise and consumes your product for its own needs (building materials, fuel, electricity, furniture, printed publications).
If at least one of the points relates to your business, it can be argued that the company is working in the field of B2B.
Who is my partner
Very often confused markets B2C and B2B.What is it, what is the fundamental difference? The last abbreviation stands for "Business to Consumer" ("business to consumer"). That is, the partner of the legal entity in this case is the final 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?
На рынке В2В средняя цена контракта значительно higher than B2C, and buyers are much more discriminating and competent. In each of the sectors, communication with the consumer takes place according to its own specific pattern and requires its own, unique approach. These circumstances dictate various methods of motivation of salespeople, staff recruitment and even the organization of the working day of employees.
Solve and solve
The way of making a decision on the purchase of goods is the main difference between the B2C and B2B markets. What it is and what it is eaten with is easier to understand by considering a simple example.
Imagine that the same person buysphone, 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 fairly quickly, based on reviews in popular magazines, the prestige of the model and ergonomics. The seller has little impact on the selection process, since the communication time is short, and the buyer comes to the point of sale with the already established opinion.
But if the same person plays the roleresponsible for the procurement of telephone stations in the enterprise, the main factors affecting the selection process will be reliability, warranty, price of service, the ability to upgrade or expand the network in the next few years. In addition, several more employees will take part in the decision making (IT-specialist, supply manager). Here, the seller and buyer communicate at the professional level, negotiations are held for at least several days, and the selling party can have a significant impact on the final decision.
The above example clearly showed howsimple relationships in the B2C sector. After analyzing it, we can say about B2B sales that this is a highly intellectual work that requires the manager to have a thorough knowledge of his own product and a lot of experience in active sales. At the same time in B2C transactions are quite simple.
One or two
An enterprise can operate both in the same market,and two at the same time. For example, travel companies, lawyers, dry cleaners, cleaning agencies, auto, railway or air transportation work with both legal entities and individuals. In their case, sales are divided into two areas for the correct application of sales technology.
There are enterprises that occupy onlyB2B market. What is it or who is it? First of all, producers of raw materials, industrial blanks, industrial equipment. That is, those goods that the ordinary citizen simply does not want to buy, because they will not be able to use them in the future.
B2B and media
All players in the B2B market sell exclusivelyprofessional products. Among the media are publications issued with the aim of providing information needed in the process of work. For example, specialized accounting journals, as well as on issues of management, logistics, medicine, construction and others. As a rule, they all target a specific profession or industry.
How to serve you?
Regarding the goods needed by the business, everythingvery clear and understandable, but the question arises: B2B services, what is it that companies need? They use the services of carriers, lawyers, medics, insurers, cleaners, as well as business coaches and consultants, narrow specialists in industries related to the production process. Very often, contracts for the provision of services that are seasonal in nature are concluded. For example, cleaning the roof of snow, landscaping.
Choosing a seller
It is believed that a good seller "and the damn baldwill sell ”, as well as an excellent manager will be able to quickly organize any team. This is claimed by almost all business coaches and popular sales skills acquisitions. But is this true when we consider selling B2B?
That this completely isolated work genre wasalready described above. Working with a business, providing services to corporate clients is quite difficult. And to the manager increased demands.
Recruitment specialists say that a good B2B seller is a person:
possessing high skills of a “universal seller”, that is, knowing and successfully applying technology and sales psychology;
possessing extensive professional knowledge in a given area (product knowledge) or sufficiently intellectually developed to study it thoroughly in the shortest possible time.
If we draw an analogy with the game of chess, thenA manager who sells the goods or services of his company to another business should masterfully play long batches. In the corporate segment, the sales cycle can be very long, and the seller’s work is not limited to only fragmentary, short actions (cold calls, commercial offers, preparation of meetings and presentations). He must have a strategic mindset, think through the game a few steps forward and be prepared for unexpected scenarios.
Personnel Management
The right approach to managing a department is one ofkey factors for successful sales. As already mentioned, in the B2B sector people work in a slightly different format, and, accordingly, the approach to the leader of such a team should be special. In this market, one cannot mindlessly transfer successful management and motivation experience in other industries. For example, in FMCG companies, the manager reports on the number of meetings and calls, his remuneration depends on it. And rightly so, because in this area the seller "legs are fed." But when a product is sold to another enterprise, the number of "cold" calls is not decisive, besides it is 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 thisestablished over the years directions. But times are changing, and, most likely, they will soon be replaced by new markets, for example С2В and С2С. In them, some people will act as sellers, providing various services.
The population of the planet is growing every year.Almost every resident has a handy means of communication (telephone, Internet). Contact with another person who owns the right product is not difficult. And entrepreneurs, developing the sphere of information technologies, only contribute to the emergence of such contacts, creating convenient and safe for communication sites in the network.
An example of the above would be an internationalOnline auction e-bay, where anyone can put up for sale the items at his disposal. The organizers of the site thought out an effective system of points and ratings, which helps to find the best seller and secure the deal. Such sites, which are local in nature, are open in many countries. And there are resources to facilitate the exchange of things, the organization of joint wholesale purchases. Or you can borrow the necessary items from another person.
That the company received a confident and stableprofit increase, for each client you need to organize your own, special approach. Therefore, a thorough analysis of partners, planning future transactions and analysis of already accomplished ones are the key moments of the successful work of the selling company.
