Many people believe that it is not important for a good seller what to trade, but in fact it often turns out that the goods are different. Depending on the specifics of the type of sales, the manager must have completely different personal qualities. To understand what caused these differences, it is necessary to delve into the definition of "sale" and study all the forms and aspects of this difficult activity.
Sellers working in the mass consumer market are similar to sprinters who care about speed and number, while corporate sales managers are much more interested in establishing long-term trusting relationships in order to maximize profits.
What is sales?
It is very important to understand the essence of this managerial and economic concept, since the volume of implementation also depends on an understanding of its nature and stages. Many experts like the following definition: sale is a set of measures to influence the client’s vision of the world in order to create in his mind and emotions the need for a certain product that he can get for his financial resources. In this case, the maximum benefit of the client and the profit of the seller should be achieved.
What does B2B stand for?
The abbreviation B2B is of English origin: Business to Business, and denotes the nature of the economic and informational impact between legal entities. Literal translation is business to business. What is B2B sales? This is a broad market segment in which sales are focused not on the end consumer, but on another business. That is, in a generalized form, the term B2B corresponds to all forms of activity whose clients are legal entities.
What is B2C marketing?
After reviewing the essence of sales to business, it's time to find out what B2C sales are. This term is also borrowed from the English language: Business To Consumer, and refers to the form of trading through direct sales to end consumers. Literal translation is a business for the consumer. This type of sales allows you to conduct business with the least number of intermediaries, which leads to increased profitability. In the system, relationships are built according to the “Business Client” scheme. Simply put, this is the sale of services and goods directly to their final consumer.
Now you need to identify the main distinguishing features of these two fundamentally different forms of conducting business sales.
Different volumes
Direct sales to consumers are often limited to a specific budget that people are willing to spend at a time. Its limit can be expressed by the amount of cash in the pocket of the consumer. Entrepreneurs, however, have much larger corporate funds at their disposal, which are limited only by the size of the organization’s turnover. Selling products to business does not occur sporadically, but in hundreds or thousands of pieces. So, buying a car for an ordinary person is a whole event that occurs only a few times in your life, while a businessman for corporate purposes can buy dozens of them, and the expenses will not be too noticeable.
Professionalism of buyers
Businessmen are professional buyers who are fully aware of what their purchase will be used for, about all its pros and cons. In addition, they can consult with independent experts. Having made a purchase decision, the entrepreneur already knows the specific parameters of the product, which are most suitable for solving his business problems. A consumer from the people may not have a serious idea, for example, about household appliances, but rely on the words of a sales consultant in their choice.
Product Technical Complexity
Selling products for business involves the high complexity of the product itself. So, every businessman has a desire to receive information about all the nuances of the work of complex equipment (communication equipment, machine tools with software, production lines, etc.), as well as the possible payback periods and profitability of its use in a particular business.
Purchase cycle duration
Unlike consumer sales, complex business products are not sold quickly. Meetings with the seller often take place in several stages, after which the buyer evaluates all the pros and cons, as well as possible alternatives, after which the contract is concluded as a logical conclusion to the process. Examples of completion of transactions taught to consumer sellers in these cases are incorrect to use.
Buyer Risk Level
Buyers from big business are at a much greater risk than ordinary consumers. And the concept of risk includes not only the amount given for the goods, but also all possible losses and profit losses from incorrect operation of the equipment in the future, up to the existence of the business structure as a whole.
Decision making responsibility
What is sales to business? This is not an easy way from the secretary to the person responsible for making the necessary decision to purchase a manager. In this case, it is necessary to clearly feel each of the interlocutors, while promoting all the positive aspects of their product. It is impossible to take the buyer abruptly, you must act purposefully and systematically.
Production demand
The complexity of the task of the seller of goods to large businesses is that he needs to calculate not only the demand for his own products, but also to monitor related markets. The demand for resources from entrepreneurs is directly proportional to the demand for their final products. And the study of gender and age structure of consumers (as in the organization of sales to the public) here can not be limited in any way.
Proximity of communication between seller and buyer
A business product sales manager often becomes a regular in a customer’s office. However, even after the signing of the transaction and the fulfillment of the obligations of the parties, the relationship between the seller and the corporate consumer is not interrupted. The selling price in this case is high, so the manager controls (sometimes over the years) the processes of delivery, debugging and maintenance of his goods. In addition, after major sales, the two parties to the agreement become, to some extent, business partners, which determines their responsibility to each other.