Whether you're selling a SaaS product to other businesses (B2B) or directly to consumers (B2C), powerful sales strategies are non-negotiable.
Despite certain overlaps in sales techniques in B2B vs. B2C, such as emphasizing the product's value and building a relationship with the customer, the approach to B2B sales is significantly different from B2C sales.
In this article, we'll explore the key differences between B2B and B2C sales and how you can tailor your sales strategies for each.
What Are B2B Sales?
B2B sales happen when a business sells a product or service to another business. All sales and marketing efforts are geared towards multiple teams or decision-makers, such as the board of directors, executives, and team managers.
There are three major types of B2B sales.
Supply Sales: Supply sales denote selling goods and materials that a business needs to operate effectively. These materials vary depending on the industry and requirements. For example, it could be raw materials or office supplies like paper for daily operations.
Distribution Sales: Distribution sales refers to selling products through various channels to reach end consumers. This involves intermediaries like wholesalers, distributors, retailers, etc. For example, a drug manufacturer sells products through wholesalers to pharmacies and hospitals.
Service Sales: Instead of products, services sales refer to providing services to businesses. These could be in-person or digitally provided services, such as an agency providing SEO services to businesses.
What Are B2C Sales?
B2C sales happen when a business sells its products or services directly to the end customer. Unlike B2B sales, where there are many decision-makers, B2C sales usually involve getting a buy-in from one individual.
There are three major types of B2C sales:
Direct Sellers: Direct sellers refer to companies that sell products directly to customers. This involves building great customer experiences. For example, Apple sells its products directly via stores or its website.
Online Intermediaries: Online intermediaries connect businesses to customers looking for that product or service. They often provide many choices to customers. All customers need to do is type in a search term and get the product they need. For example, Amazon offers hundreds of choices to customers for different products like shoes, groceries, apparel, etc.
Subscription Services: Subscription services cater to end consumers by offering them monthly or yearly memberships. This includes gym memberships, Netflix subscriptions, etc.
What’s The Difference?
There are many differences between B2B and B2C sales throughout the sales funnel. Here are five of them.
Sales Cycle And Decision-Makers
B2B businesses often have a longer and more complex sales cycle than B2C. There are two reasons:
- B2B generally demands a huge investment in terms of time and money and requires more research to select the best option.
- There are multiple decision-makers in a B2B purchasing decision, where even one veto can restart the entire process.
For example, think of purchasing a Netflix subscription (B2C) as opposed to a project management tool subscription (B2B) for your organization.
Acquisition costs
In B2B sales, we often see a high acquisition cost because of a long sales cycle. However, a large investment and repeat sales often justify this cost. In B2C, the acquisition cost involves major marketing costs. Thus, the cost may vary from industry to industry, but is generally lower than B2B.
Customer relationships
B2B buyers invest in a product or service, keeping a long-term perspective. B2B sales teams often need to build strong customer relationships. This could be through multiple meetings, demos, customized content, etc. On the other hand, B2C buyers are often less loyal and may only contact retail point-of-sale.
Number of leads per salesperson
As B2B sales generally require more relationship-building, larger contracts, and a number of touchpoints, they have fewer leads per salesperson. The focus is on converting fewer but higher-quality leads. That’s why B2B companies often use tools like Instantly Lead Finder, which has advanced filters to find leads and only go after those with potential.
Meanwhile, B2C sales mostly focus on volume and are low-touch resulting in a larger number of leads per salesperson.
Decision-making differences
The motivations and decision-making paths of B2B and B2C buyers are different. B2C buyers generally make impulsive decisions or get captivated by stories that are emotional. On the other hand, B2B buyers make logical and rational decisions. That’s why B2B sales reps often focus on communicating features and benefits that would make decision-making easier for organizations.
Sales Tips For B2B & B2C Sales Professionals
Whether you’re a B2B or B2C sales professional, you can implement common strategies to close more deals. Here are five tips:
- Utilize content: Effective content can help your website rank high on search engines, generate more leads, and boost brand awareness. Depending on your industry, you can invest in blogs, ebooks, videos, podcasts or social content.
- Invest in generating social proof: 95% of customers read online reviews before purchasing. Moreover, 58% would pay more for a product with good reviews. This shows that social proof is crucial, and you need to display it on your landing pages, product pages and marketing material.
- Have a unified inbox: Instead of juggling multiple channels and inboxes, get a B2B CRM tool like Instantly Dealflow, which provides a master inbox that shows emails, SMS, calls, and tasks on one intuitive dashboard.
- Implement a multi-channel strategy: Customers have different communication preferences, even in the same industry. By utilizing multiple channels like email, social media, SMS, and meetings, you can widen your reach.
Key Takeaways
Knowing the difference between B2B and B2C sales can help you create effective strategies that increase your business's sales and revenue. These differences are not etched in stone. In some cases, the general rules may not apply, and for businesses that do both B2B and B2C, you may want to experiment to see what works best.
And remember...
Leveraging technology enables sales teams to:
- Visualize the sales pipeline
- Conduct multi-channel outreach from one platform
- Use AI to personalize messages
- Automate workflows
- Create trigger-based conditions to customize sales flow
Ensure your sales team has the tools to unlock deals; start your free trial of Instantly today.
