In my experience when consulting clients who have companies that serve other companies, that is, that do not directly serve the end customer. I have found that there is a great deal of confusion in developing their business models and marketing plans.
Often their strategies are designed in such a way that they appear to be aimed at an end consumer, and they fail because they did not know how to articulate the offer consistently, the communication bridges and their messages.
If we analyze a consumer in a simplified way, and in isolation, we will observe that there are certain conditions:
- It is he who values the product.
- It is he who will enjoy the product.
- It is he who will pay for the product.
And let’s look at an example. A 37-year-old woman is looking to buy a dress for her sister’s wedding. What does she do? First she does some research on the Internet, visits Pinterest to see the models she likes, and possibly then goes to the websites of the stores that come up for her in Google search.
She will then decide whether to go to the physical stores to see the dress options or simply make the purchase from an online store. And the customer may or may not shop at the same place again.
On the other hand, in the business-to-business market, or B2B, the process is longer, more complex and stable, because the analysis and decision making is done by teams, by a group of people with different approaches and interests on the same product.
Thus, the production engineer will require that the part he needs meets certain quality and supply specifications. The purchasing manager will make sure that the price and payment conditions are advantageous. The company director may be looking at the company’s reputation, its track record, and what other companies it has done business with.
If you are in a company and have done business searches, you will see that it is different from when you search for goods or services for yourself.
However, reaching a B2B decision can take anywhere from a single meeting to months or years, depending on the dynamics of each company.
The advantage of industrial businesses is that they tend to be solid and longer term.
How to do B2B marketing?
The advantage that the Internet offers us is that we can inform interested parties of the qualities and advantages of the B2B products or services that the company offers.
But my suggestion is not to use the techniques for consumer marketing, which tend to appeal more to emotions, with very attractive images and texts that push to almost immediate action.
Reason has a greater weight in B2B decision making, and in any case the emotion sought is the security and tranquility of a harmonious operation.
1.- To have a well-defined communication system in accordance with the times.
And I am not necessarily referring to a logo, but rather to the set of elements that communicate to visitors, prospects and customers.
When a person enters a company’s website, the Internet user creates an impression by seeing how the company talks about itself.
- How clear and useful is the information?
- How you resolve doubts in advance.
- How smooth the navigation is.
- How to facilitate contact.
- What is your reputation and track record.
It is common to see companies that, in their haste to sell, neglect how they develop their marketing tools, digital or printed, and do not reflect on the fact that it is quite possible that this first impression determines the possibility of doing business.
2.- Use the best means to be found.
Google published its book ZMOT, Winning The Zero Moment of Truth, several years ago, in 2011, in which it states that people no longer go to stores first to compare different product offerings, but that their first analysis is online.
This reinforces the previous point: creating a presence on the Internet is vital for any business today, and it is your responsibility to open up the possibilities of being found, understood and provoking interest.
And one point in particular, the site must be optimized for search engines (SEO Search Engine Optimization) because otherwise it will be more difficult to be indexed by Google, Bing or Yahoo!, and complicate to be found not only by the company name, but by the products or services offered.
However, in the network, having a website is not necessarily the only action to be taken.
Dependiendo de cada empresa, lo podrían complementar con:
- Google My Business.
- Business networks, such as LinkedIn, YouTube or Xing.
- Local or specialty directories.
- Blog.
- , etc.
- Email campaigns
3.- Understand your customers’ needs.
This point could have been the first, because in a good B2B marketing plan, it is the first thing to do: profile the customer or prospect, and understand what their wants or needs are.
And it would seem obvious that this analysis should be done prior to any marketing or sales effort, but sometimes it is not done.
It is taken for granted. Big mistake.
You have to understand why people need or want a product or service, and how their lives are better by buying and using it.
To translate it into a strategic document to guide marketing and sales actions.
I recommend Alexander Osterwalder’s Value Proposition Canvas for this process.
Alexander is the creator of the Business Model Generation system, or canvas, which is now widely used in consulting firms and universities.
Conclusion The B2B strategy, business model or marketing plan has its own process. Business-to-business logic has its own dynamics that do not resemble the kind of impulses that lead a person, a consumer, to make a purchase.
