As you know, B2B sales are sales that are carried out between legal entities.
In this article, we analyze the nuances and features of the B2B sales funnel, transactions, technologies, and stages of the process. Artem Elisov, Commercial Director small business email list of Kompleto, shared his experience.
Types of B2B Sales
Depending on the division method, the following types of B2B sales can be distinguished.
By object of sale
Sale of goods
It, in turn, includes:
-
- Sale of goods for the implementation of production and economic activities (PEA) of the enterprise. For example, cement for a construction company.
It is important to understand that the company you would like to make your client is already buying these products from someone else, because without them it will not be able to carry out its commercial activities.
Within the framework of such a B2B sale, competition the legal profession and artificial intelligence can occur in the following aspects: the choice of solution (for example, plastic or metal) and the choice of company (the reliability of the supplier directly affects the buyer’s profit).
Important
if the example is relevant to your situation, you should pay attention to what percentage of the cost of your product is included in the cost of the client’s product. As practice shows, if it is higher than 20%, then you need to strengthen the additional value of the offer (i.e. the product) from the position of how much the value of the potential client’s product will increase if he switches to your raw materials, so as not to compete only on price.
- Sale of goods for administrative and management activities. Of course, we are talking about paper, pens and other consumables.It is worth considering here that the decision on such a purchase is usually make by the secretary, if there are no tenders.Since secretaries are not spending their own mobile lead money, and these expenses make up a small part of the company’s cost structure, the determining factors in choice are the range and service, it is easier to place an order in one place, and you always want it to be deliver ” yesterday”.
- Resale product. This is when a product is simply resold without any additional actions. When working under this scheme, it is worth paying attention to your competitiveness and evaluating the offer as objectively as possible according to the following criteria: the presence of a limitation in the form of a minimum order volume, assembly and shipment time, discounts on order volume, the possibility of providing a deferred payment, marginality, unique properties of the product and its quality, demand for the product, awareness of the company and brand, additional marketing materials.Why? To find the sagging areas and strengthen them.
Selling B2B services
This type is divid into sales:
- services related to the PCB business. For example, logistics services, warehousing and the like.By analogy with sales of PCB products, it is important to understand that B2B companies are already using these services, the only question is how: in-house or outsourced.
- services for administrative and management functions and commercial activities. These include financial, legal and other types of services that do not affect the enterprise’s PCB.
Here the product can be classified as a “vitamin”: a potential client enterprise can work without receiving this type of service, but it will be less competitive
- services in the digital sphere. In the age of business digitalization, almost every company uses IT and digital services. Therefore, the direction should be allocat to a separate cluster, including various SAAS services (for example, Bitrix24 or 1C), custom development and digital marketing services. Cases and experience in the potential client’s niche are important for successful competition in the field. Accordingly, the seller must be an expert who not only provides a service, but sells a solution to a specific problem (or pool of problems) of the customer.
Complex B2B sales
This is a kind of symbiosis of goods and services: it often happens that manufacturing companies enter the market for large, multi-component orders, and companies specializing in service enter into contracts for the production of private label goods (PL).
Let’s say you are a manufacturer of fire alarm sensors, and there is a large facility for which you want to become both the supplier of equipment and the contractor for its installation, commissioning, and subsequent performance testing. This will be a comprehensive B2B sale. If you decide to install sensors under your own brand, you will order their production under your own brand with certain parameters.
Important: Complex sales = Expert sales. It will require deep knowledge of the product and its application, perhaps even an emphasis on application to a certain industry. This is one of the reasons why good sales people work long hours in B2B companies, and the market itself is small.
In this case, the client will not tell you directly that he is not interest in such a product and does not need it: sometimes he will not even be able to formulate a precise request. Therefore, the stage of correctly identifying needs in complex B2B sales is the most important.