What is B2B marketing?

With B2B marketing, you’re selling to an organization, which means you are actually interacting and selling to individuals within an organization that must follow buying processes or procedures to purchase your product. The end result is a buying cycle that is often longer and more complex.  Depending on the size of organization you are soliciting, there may be:

  • Multiple influencers, decision makers and approvals that need to be obtained
  • A vendor qualification process
  • Longer net payment terms
  • Complex budgeting process
  • Request for proposal to be completed by multiple competitors

With multiple influencers or stakeholders to decide and approve a purchase, your buying cycle takes more time than what is typical with B2C marketing.  Buyers are sophisticated and rational in their approach. Communications must raise awareness, educate, and ensure benefits are articulated clearly around creating value or showing a return on investment (ROI). You must also reach them using tools and methods they use and rely on – websites, mobile devices, related software/product venues, language, events, industry news, analysts they trust, and social/professional networks of colleagues they follow online.  Aside from meeting specific needs, references matter as well as implementation if the product or service being considered impacts the buyer’s customers or their larger organization.  Furthermore, some buyers may expect their vendors to complete a request for proposal (RFP) to win their business, which also adds time to the buying cycle.

Be patient and build relationships

Understanding who the key stakeholders – influencers and decision makers/approvers – are, however, takes time.  The sooner you reach these stakeholders, the shorter you can make your buying cycle.  Marketing efforts should help your sales representative target the right people to talk to within the organization, then support that relationship through sales tools such as references, white papers, collateral, articles, and analyst reports as necessary to win the sale.  With B2B marketing, your sales representative is an extension of your brand, responsible for cultivating the relationship and inspiring trust.

Are you soliciting an influencer or a decision maker?

Influencers and decision makers can be approached from slightly different angles.

  • With influencers, education, raising awareness, and trying to establish a long-term relationship should be your goal.  The idea is to turn these people into advocates that will evangelize your offering to the larger organization, sending your newsletters to others or recommending that your products or services be considered by those in their social/professional networks.
  • With decision makers, your messaging should concentrate more on creating value or showing a return on eROI.  Developing and nurturing relationships with this group is equally important as they may be willing to become references later.

Tips!

  • To open doors, find out if your prospect has a company-wide initiative or anchor event (industry event or trade show) where resources have been assigned or allocated, but not spent.  If your offerings meet their objectives, it could be your lucky day – both increasing sales and gaining more valuable contacts.
  • Sometimes groups or departments within a large organization can share budget allocations when financial resources are tight.  If another department has complementary goals to the group you may be soliciting, the other group may be able to contribute to the overall budget, ensuring your costs are covered and objectives for both groups are attained.

Discover More…

  1. Berringer, Matt. “B2B Marketing Materials to Use in 2022.” Nxtbook Media. Last modified February 24, 2021. https://www.nxtbookmedia.com/blog/b2b-marketing-materials/.
  2. Dean, Brian. “30 Crucial B2B Marketing Statistics (2023).” Backlinko. Last modified March 27, 2023. https://backlinko.com/b2b-marketing-stats.
  3. Dutton, Shelly. “Millennials Are Reshaping B2B Marketing: 3 Steps For Getting Their Attention and Business.” Business 2 Community. Last modified March 31, 2015. http://www.business2community.com/b2b-marketing/millennials-reshaping-b2b-marketing-3-steps-getting-attention-business-01195778.
  4. Kanekar, Santosh. “These B2B Marketing Trends Will Override Others in 2018.” Entrepreneur Media, Inc. Last modified March 13, 2018. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/310338.
  5. Neumeier, Mike. “Three B2B Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2022.” Forbes. Last modified April 8, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2022/04/08/three-b2b-marketing-trends-to-watch-for-in-2022/.
  6. Newman, Dan (Contributor, Broadsuite). “The 10 Essential Tips for B2B Marketing Success in a Digital Economy.” Entrepreneur Media, Inc. Last modified November 12, 2014. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244051.
  7. Schimel, Elliot. “The Key To Your B2B Marketing Strategy: Own It.” Forbes. Last modified February 16, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/02/16/the-key-to-your-b2b-marketing-strategy-own-it/#7b54b1b06813.
  8. Sloan, Josh. “Peer to Peer Marketing: Tips and Tricks to Improve B2B Sales.” Business 2 Community. Last modified May 8, 2018. https://www.business2community.com/marketing/peer-to-peer-marketing-tips-and-tricks-to-improve-b2b-sales-data-backed-02056480.
  9. Versace, Roque. “MEDDIC vs MEDDPIC vs MEDDPICC: Does It Really Matter?” Troops (blog). Last modified April 14, 2020. https://www.troops.ai/blog/meddic-vs-meddpic-vs-meddpicc.
  10. Wright, Gabrielle. “B2B Marketing Trends for More Leads and Sales in 2021.” Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Ltd. Last modified November 11, 2020. https://www.smartinsights.com/b2b-digital-marketing/b2b-strategy/b2b-marketing-trends/.

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