B2B stands for business to business and is the term used to indicate one business which makes its money by selling its products or offering its services to other businesses. There are a huge amount of businesses that service only other businesses, then there are those who are hybrid and apply to individual consumers as well as other businesses.
Think about internet security software, printer ink suppliers, etc. If you’re thinking about pivoting your business to be able to serve other businesses as well as individuals, you’ll be opening up to a whole new world of potential profit. With that said, it can be quite difficult to navigate.
Finding The Right Data Is Hard
When you’re selling to an individual consumer, it’s easier to find what they’re looking for and how they’ll go about finding it. When you’re selling to a business it isn’t always that easy. You need to find the decision maker, understand what problems the business faces and work out a bespoke way to solve them using the products or services which you provide.
There are multiple ways to learn and understand B2B intent data but the key point is to find the right data for you. It would be a waste of time and money to go after the wrong decision maker or after people who won’t be interested in what you’re offering. Get the data and detail right first and use it to target properly.
You’ll Be Offering Different Product Levels
If you’re selling to individual people, along with businesses, you’ll find that your order levels vary wildly. It means you’ll be getting single orders from individuals and mass orders from businesses. It applies to both digital and physical products. You and your team will need to be able to pivot from one kind of order to the next.
Business orders can be pretty huge too so make sure you have the inventory or the staff on hand to fulfill these larger orders. One huge order that you’re not expecting can completely knock out all of your inventory meaning other customers won’t be able to buy the product, leading to annoyance and disappointment which can result in reputational damage.
Consider A Consultation
There are a lot of businesses out there who offer consultation, as well as really good freelancers. There are those who can consult on sales regarding B2B businesses. This might be really useful if you’re not dealt with B2B before.
They can open your eyes to the industry and give you some hints and tips on best practice along with real industry experience. Finding the right consultation can be tough, try to look into their reviews or some case studies of them being able to grow a business by expanding into B2B. It’s just about getting as much information as you possibly can and asking someone to consult on your proposed changes to your business can help.
Your Content Might Need To Change
If your content is completely written from the point of view of an individual end user, you might need to change a few things around. If you’re targeting other businesses, you need to start putting out content onto your website and social media channels that aims to pull them in.
Doing this will help you start ranking for keywords which are pertinent to businesses, not individuals. You need to consider this as part of your long term plan. If you’re a hybrid it can be hard to focus on both personal and business but it’s certainly doable.
Think About Selling In Different Streams
If you want to start selling to businesses, you might need to chop and change where you’re actually selling. You need to sell where businesses look. It all depends what kind of business you’re going to target. Some businesses shop on Amazon so setting up on Amazon FBA or thinking about using FBA management might be right for you.
Others might look for digital services or solutions on linkedin. It’s important to really think about exactly where it is you want to market your services to other businesses. If you get it wrong, a huge amount of effort and money might be poured into the venture only for you to realize you’ve made a mistake.