B2B Sales and Challenges That You Can Face doing them

B2B Sales and Challenges That You Can Face doing them

Are you having any questions on what B2B sales is, how they differ and the difficulties you can face doing it? Well, here you are, this piece will help clear the air and tell you all.

When the acronym B2B is whispered, all that comes to our minds is Business to Business. B2B sales refer to a model where companies or salespersons market and sell products and services to other businesses. In B2B, for businesses to save money and time, they work very hard to streamline the process and also ensure their purchase is based on logic and not personal emotions. As a marketer, to develop your B2B sales strategies you have to understand the organizational buyer, how they operate, what is their organization’s procedures, what is their role and what is important to them.

B2B sales differ from the B2C sales in that they sell only to other businesses rather than consumers. They involve a team of professional buyers or top-notch executives and managers who are very good at what they do. This requires marketers/sellers to up their professionalism and be very committed to the sale, in order to convince the clients that they are a trusted consultant, can provide an adequate solution and that the solution will add value to their business. This generally makes B2B sales more complex than the B2C sales. In addition, decisions in B2B take place on more than one level and is usually upwards to the top management, making the process and the cycle longer, lasting months or even years. Finally, B2B sales clientele often want to be educated and provided with expertise about the product so as to make wise decisions while in B2C this is not usually the case

Different types of B2B sales

B2B sales are classified into several general types that help and aid the marketer in developing his strategies. They include:

• Selling products that meet business’s needs — These goods are also referred as facilitation goods and they are aimed at helping a company achieve its objectives through assistive and supportive roles. Examples include copiers, computers and other office equipment. This sale involves the same approach as a B2C process, the only difference being that more cost will be involved due to bulkiness and complexity of the products. Longer approval also makes the sales cycle longer.
• Selling entering and foundation goods — This involves the sale of components and products that a business will use in manufacturing its own products. Entering goods are the products that are used in the manufacture of a product and which become part of the other product. On the other hand, foundation goods are used in the manufacturing process but do not become part of the final product, for example, buildings and offices
• Selling of a service — In B2B, products are not only confined to physical products. Services can also be involved. Examples include services offered by auditors, tax consultants, tax accountants or even technical computer consultants.

Difficulties you can face doing B2B sales

Challenges exist in all businesses without a doubt. Doing B2B sales is not always easy. It is considered to be more challenging than B2C. Irrespective of how prepared you are as a marketer there are challenges that are facing today’s reality. Some of the identified ones include

1. Securing enough budget — As a marketer securing enough budget to help you draw in clients, win them and help you hit your goal is very hard especially for small and startup businesses with small marketing spend. This limits one’s ability to attract, reach and engage all key stakeholders.

2. Getting past the Gatekeeper — Most of the buyers are trained in every way possible to get the best deals and see-through salespersons. They are able to manipulate trick and wrangle a better price from you on the product if you are not carefully making the whole process a challenge.

3. Identifying the Right Technologies for Your Needs — Staying up to date with the latest technology means you have the latest tools to connect you and your clientele and handle issues like video-driven web, mobile audiences, marketing messages and email marketing. You have to be up to date with online media, social media, website and much more and integrating all these techniques in B2B becomes a challenge to many

4. More decision-makers are involved in the process — Before the buyers commit on the sales they must consult and the decision process is passed upwards making the sales cycle longer and slower. There are no impulse sales here and the sellers must be prepared and versed in all aspects

5.Increased competition — In business, there is always someone else with similar products and services forcing their way to grab your client by offering better market conditions, lower prices, better quality, better image and service for their products. This influences the level of repeat buyers and also becomes a challenge as clients are not normally loyal and can switch sides if you are not keen on showing them that you have the adequate solution to add value to their business.

6. Everyone is extremely busy — This makes communication between the players a challenge as reaching prospects and clients becomes a problem. Everyone being busy also makes the decision-making slow which prolongs the sales process to months or even years

7. Globalization of content and marketing — serving diverse markets is not as easy as it sounds because markets might differ and what is working for one may not work for another. The language barrier makes B2B Sales harder to achieve in this setup as people have diverse languages all across the world.