Business to Business Marketing

For many people marketing is only relevant in the B2C (business to consumer) sector. This is where companies sell their services and/or products to the man in the street. But is that true? Where does this leave those of you that sell to other businesses?

B2B (business to business) marketing plays a very different role and is, in many ways, much simpler. While B2C marketing is trying to reach “everyone” this is not the case in the B2B marketing. Here you have a finite target segments, which are usually easier to identify, although not as easy to convert!

Sales and marketing efforts to another business has advantages but does not come without its fair share of challenges too. For example in the B2C sector you don’t have to work out how to get around gatekeepers, receptionists, secretaries or other staff who have been instructed to block your access to decision makers. This hurdle is an important one to be navigated in the B2B sector.

Before you starting thinking about actual marketing activities you need to do three things:

First: Give careful consideration to clarifying your target market clearly. It is important that everyone in your organization is clear on who they are talking to and, of course, why. Remember you want to group people together that have similar problems so that you can provide solutions to their particular needs.

Second: Ensure you know who, in the target organisation, is actually the decision-maker, who rubber stamps decisions and who the potential gatekeepers are. Without prior understanding of these roles, and who plays them, you will waste time and money on woo’ing the wrong person, only to find yourself and your efforts undermined.

Third: Spend a bit of time looking critically at your database. Usually B2B companies deal with a small number of potential clients so you should have an existing database of information available to you eg potential client names, contact people and contact information (email, contact numbers etc). Once you’ve compiled and sorted the information prioritise the list so that you and/or your sales team have a clear call cycle strategy to work from.

There are two key marketing tools that you will find the most effective in business to business marketing. These are Direct Marketing and Personal Selling. Don’t underestimate the value of these, they will reward you handsomely if you implement them effectively.