By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan
Note: This is an updated version of the article I wrote a few years ago for a Vancouver-based marketing agency.
Do you know why lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars are classified as "Big Cats" (Pantherinae), but cheetahs, lynxes and pumas, although they are just as big as lions, leopards and jaguars, are classified as "Small Cats" (Felinae)?
Now, sit down, hold on to your hat and get surprised.
The difference is in the ability to roar.
Big cats have a special kind of throat, equipped with a U-shaped hyoid apparatus, that small cats don't have.
That doesn't mean big cats are better than small cats, but definitely vocally quite different.
And this is what we can tell about the difference between B2C and B2B business development.
In one approach, you can roar to your little heart's content from a higher mountain top using a more powerful bullhorn and the B2C market can handle it.
Have you noticed how products and services can be successfully promoted through hype-infested and pretty pushy sales and marketing methods? And the B2C market forgives even sizeable lies.
But if you sell in the B2B arena, you'd better not go beyond quiet meowing or you scare buyers away.
But that quiet meowing must be properly dialled in to draw the right prospects' attention, keep their interest, fuel their desires and spur them into action. There is no point in merely roaring louder and louder, hoping someone eventually pays attention.
And while if you were a cat, it's your voice that would determine your size, but in business development, your voice only determines whether you serve the B2C or B2B market.
So, in this sinfully sumptuous literary masterpiece, we're comparing some of the buying habits of B2B buyers and B2C shopper.
So, on that note, let's start with a little...
B2B buyers are buyers because they have business problems that they want to get solved. It means, they search the horizon for solutions with an intent to buy.
They have budgets, authority and deadlines by which they have to get their problems solved or else...
By contrast, for B2C shoppers, unless it's a serious emergency, buying is a social experience called shopping.
They may or may not have intent to buy. In most cases, they are just looking and checking the market.
They may or may have budget and authority to buy what they want, and definitely don't have deadlines. They can buy whenever they feel like.
Let's rewind a bit here.
In B2C buyers, you can observe typical crowd behaviour. Just look at their Facebook posts and tweets.
In his book, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, French social psychologist, Gustave Le Bon concludes that in a crowd environment, the crowd's overall smartness is closer to the dumbest person's smartness than the smartest person's smartness.
Why is this important?
B2B buyers have some advisors (the proverbial crowd) who advise them what to buy, but those advisors are subject matter experts. Imagine a B2B buyer for a hospital who wants to buy a new MRI machine.
Besides the economic buyer, the buying team is likely to consist of a physicist, a hardware expert, a medical device maintenance technician, a software expert, a radiation specialist nurse/technician and a radiologist doctor. And maybe some others.
Who do B2C shoppers have in their corners?
Their friends, relatives, cats, dogs, budgies and social media connections. They all are laypeople about the products B2C shoppers want to buy.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
The reason why B2C shoppers need less information than B2B buyers is because their admirers' opinions make up for missing information.
With B2B buyers, there is no crowd, so they need lots of "deep" content to make their decisions.
Unlike B2C shoppers', B2B buyers' decision-making process is slow, so sellers have to learn how to pace the distribution of content. This is one area where a highly automated inbound marketing system with valuable content can make a huge difference.
B2C shoppers need minimum content to make purchasing decisions; B2B buyers need lots of content properly paced and dispensed during the buying cycle.
More than anything, B2B buyers seek hefty ROI and effectiveness in their purchases.
By effectiveness, I mean buyers can buy what they need, and then they can effectively get their new purchases integrated into their operation, so the new purchase can start earning its keep.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
You can see whole families (B2C) go on shopping sprees and six hours later return home... empty-handed.
Nevertheless, the shopping spree was highly successful because everyone enjoyed it. They had a happy meal at McDonald's and a coffee at Starbucks.
B2B buyers seek expertise in sellers and effectiveness in sellers' ability to deliver the purchased products or services.
One of the main reason why B2B buyers seek effectiveness is because on average, as per the Corporate Executive Board (Owned by Gartner), there are 5.4 buyers in the typical B2B buying process, and it can be hard to keep so many buyers happy at the same time.
But they know that whichever seller can do that, that seller is most likely to take care of their needs after the sale as well.
B2C shoppers shop for what they want and for enjoyment; B2B buyers buy for what their companies need and for solving specific problems.
While B2C shoppers by what they want using their own money for their own personal use, B2B buyers buy what their companies need using their companies' money for their companies' use.
That creates a major distinction in buyers' attitudes.
B2B buyers have no emotional ties to the money they spend, so they can make more rational decisions.
B2C buyers are emotionally tied to, well, entangled in their money and how hard they've earned it, so
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
If you sell in the B2B arena and some of your salespeople are from the B2C world, make sure you train them in B2B sales, so they can avoid the mistakes of selling on heavily emotional basis.
If possible, make sure your salespeople have both product expertise and the business savvy to explain how the product can offer a healthy ROI for the organisation.
B2C shoppers use more emotion and less intellect in their buying decisions; B2B Buyers use more intellect and less emotion.
There are two main types of marketing: Image marketing and direct response marketing.
For B2B buyers, education-based, results-accountable direct response marketing is the best approach. The reason is that B2B buyers are under time-pressure to solve expensive business problems, so whenever they come across something that looks like a possible solution, they act on it.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
Image marketing is mainly used by big corporations that sell mass-produced commodity items for the B2C market and that don't mind that a large percentage of their marketing investment is wasted.
In the B2B world, especially SMBs use direct response marketing because they want to track and monitor their results.
Good B2B marketing is quality content embedded into an education-based, results-accountable direct response marketing campaign.
Imagine that your content is a letter with your message and the campaign is the envelope and the delivery process that delivers your message to your market.
B2C shoppers of low-priced and mass-produced items respond well to image marketing; But B2C shoppers in search of expensive items (home, car and professional services) respond better to direct response marketing.
In most cases, B2C sales are based on simple transactions. Mind you, they could be more than transactions, but many B2C sellers believe it's not worth the money and effort investing in the required expertise and infrastructure.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
Stanford professor of psychology, Walter Mischel, proved that point of gratification in the late 60s and early 70s in his marshmallow experiment.
The difference between transaction and transformation is how you sell. Transactional selling is all about, "Here is your stuff, give me my money". Transformational selling focuses on the long-term improvement in the client's condition.
According to Corporate Executive Board (A Gartner company), there are 5.4 buyers in B2B transactions. All right, only five. I don't know how to handle the 0.4 buyer.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
The five B2B buyers evaluate offers from five different perspectives. Yes, their perspectives may converge somewhere in the distance, and there is some overlap at the beginning, but at the moment of trying to sell to them, their foci, concerns and interests are quite diverse.
One of the biggest headaches of B2B companies is that the average annual salesperson attrition is about 25%, and when one A-player leaves, several A-players follow suit, leaving the company high and dry only with the mediocre bunch of the sales force.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
B2C salesperson attrition costs little, so losing salespeople is no big deal. Losing B2B salespeople can be a small financial disaster for the company.
The main reasons for B2B salespeople to quit are capped compensation on large deals, not believing in what they sell and prospecting (lack of marketing-driven lead generation and nurturing programme).
The really expensive part of this problem is that, in many cases, departing salespeople are followed by their clients and there is nothing management can do to prevent this.
Even when you buy cream for your staff kitchen, you do it because you know that, as a result of enjoying their cups of coffee, your people will enjoy their work more and perform better and your firm becomes more profitable.
So, the purchase is totally self-centred. And you know that if you want to achieve a certain end, you have to nurture the means to that end.
Business owners know that the better they treat their people, in return, their people will better treat their firms' clients, so repeat and referral business is highly likely to go up.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
Austrian School economist and sociologist, Ludwig Von Mises, described investment this way...
B2B buyers compare their investments to the future return they expect on those investments.
In the B2C world, most purchases are impulse purchases, including houses and cars. Return on investment doesn't really come into the picture.
Edward Bernay's book, Propaganda, nicely explains why people spend their money the wat they do.
B2C shoppers and B2B buyers have different attitude to buying because of whose money they spend and what drives the purchase.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
Also, B2B buyers from troubled businesses and buyers from successful businesses buy differently.
And buyers from troubled businesses add huge emotional component to the purchase.
It's almost like a B2C purchase. So, they consider every little detail to the nth degree and every purchase is like pulling teeth.
But owners of successful businesses know what their businesses need to go to the next level of success, and they just buy them. Oh, and they maintain a healthy separation between personal and business finances.
While in B2C sales, decision-making takes place with the active participation of salespeople, in B2B sales, buyers make decisions behind closed doors and, in most cases, in the absence salespeople.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
After all the B2B buyers, advisors and evaluators have finished the evaluation process, they notify sellers about their decisions, and that's all. And no amount of improvement in closing techniques and objection-handling skills can help sellers.
B2B buying decisions are based partly on salespeople's actions, overall buyers' experiences right from the beginning of relationships and the buyers' companies' internal systems.
While most B2C take place in one fell swoop, B2B buyers go through a rather long journey from first contact to signed contract.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
In Lead Generation for the Complex Sale: Boost the Quality and Quantity of Leads to Increase Your ROI, author Brian Carroll reports that the sales cycle can be anywhere between nine and 36 months.
MarketingProfs' estimates are a bit more optimistic but still pretty long.
Also, SiriusDecisions reports that between 2008 and 2013, the average sales cycle has become 22% longer, typically with three more decision makers participating in the buying process.
It also means that the more buyers are involved, the more steps they go through from contact to contract and the longer it takes to reach a decision.
Most of all, B2C shoppers want to be entertained by their shopping experiences. Since B2C shopping is a primarily social event, entertainment is a significant part of it. For instance, many family shopping events end up in movie theatres and visits to the local junk food joints. Well, childless shopping sprees often end up in real restaurants that serve edible food.
Since B2B buyers are professional buyers, spending their companies' money, they have to be extra careful about purchases because if they make too many purchasing mistakes, they can lose their jobs faster than they can says Jemima Puddle Duck.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
B2C shoppers buy certain cars because they like the colour, the upholstery or the built-in stereo. B2B buyers buy certain cars after weeks or months of staring at comparison charts on fuel consumption, price, torque, power, safety- and other features.
As a B2C customer yourself, think about what sort of products you've bought over the years that you know nothing about. Many of them most probably.
B2C shoppers...
B2B buyers...
If a B2C customer wants to buy some beauty products, all she wants to know that it can turn an ugly, old hag to the proverbial Cinderella in a very short time and who else has bought it. Well, the same applies to guys too. Big promise and social proof. Some celebrity endorsements are even better.
In the B2B world, you sell to experts.
It's also important to note here that the more you treat a B2C shopper like a B2B buyer, the higher customer lifetime value (CLTV) you can get out of the relationship. You make more money and your customers will pay you gladly for the better shopping experience.
Although there is a lot of overlap between B2B and B2C marketing, there are plenty of differences that you can use as you plan your next campaign and buyer persona.
The differences are especially important if you serve both the B2B and B2C markets.
However, at the end of the day, no matter which side of the B2B or B2C divide you work in, all marketing is P2P - person to person - despite the external differences.
As the saying goes, marketing is psychology and maths. You need psychology to design your campaign and maths to track and analyse your results.
But that alone would be an irresponsible simplification of the process.
So if you're in the B2B field, now that you're clear about the differences between B2B and B2C marketing, I suggest that you read this article on Writing a B2B Marketing Plan in 10 Easy Steps.
So, let's quickly recap.
If you sell B2C...
If you sell B2B...
It's all well and good, but to apply it all, you need to know how your target market perceives your firm.
Is it a fungible IT vendor or a respected IT authority?
It's the market that hangs your brand around your neck based on the outside perception of your firm.
But you can also influence the outside perception by tweaking your firm's inside reality, that is, your culture, by consciously transforming your firm from vendor to authority.
In this peddler quiz, you can check whether your firm is more of a fungible IT vendor or a respected IT authority.
In the meantime, don't sell harder. Market smarter and your business will be better off for it.