Major Difference between B2B and B2C sales

What is your business model – B2B sales or B2C sales? What is the difference between B2B and B2C sales? Can businesses operate on both models at the same time? 

For any business, creating a sales strategy is one of the most important and challenging tasks. After that challenge is overcome, failing to follow that strategy can develop even greater challenges. 

Even if you have great leaders, excellent talkers, and dealmakers, it can be hard to achieve your goal without a planned sales cycle. Before you can determine what is the best strategy for your business, you have to know the difference between B2B and B2C sales and which category your business falls into. 

Your sales strategies will differ depending on the business model you operate on and the audience you cater to. 

In this article, we will outline the major differences between B2B and B2C sales. 

Difference between B2B and B2C sales

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Lead Pool 

The main differentiator between B2B sales and B2C sales is the company’s lead pool size. Lead pool size plays an important role in sales strategies. When it is about B2C sales, you target millions of people to buy or use your goods or services. For B2B, the lead pool size shrinks and it is more limited keeping in mind specific requirements. 

Product Knowledge 

The sales team must be aware of every fact about the product they are selling. This factor remains the same for both B2B and B2C sales. Both B2B and B2C sales teams must be fully aware of their products at all times. 

They must know all the advantages and the disadvantages to effectively convey the same information to their prospects. Knowing and understanding the competitors is also important. 

Now what differentiates them here is the consumer’s understanding of them. B2C consumers more often have knowledge of products your business sells, as they may have researched or heard of something similar. 

Whereas in B2B sales, where the audience is limited, a sales team must establish themselves and their products in the minds of their target audience. Hence, in B2B sales, it’s even more important to have a thorough understanding of the business offering.

Related: Some of the best B2B sales activities you must know

Number of Decision-makers 

In B2C sales, primarily there is just one decision-maker involved. But in B2B sales, there are multiple decision-makers involved like stakeholders, managers, etc. B2B companies’ offerings are mostly on the pricier side and often are not limited to individual consumption. 

Expected Response 

Businesses that operate on a B2C sales model emphasize heavily building lasting and loyal relationships with customers. It’s an emotional connection that they seek to establish. B2C sales is about gaining customer loyalty and making them use your product or service frequently. 

The same is true for B2B sales but the consumers here are businesses and businesses do not tip towards emotional factors. Business decisions are highly rational, unlike the audience of B2C businesses, whose decisions are primarily emotionally driven. 

Decision-making Process 

A B2C sale is characterized by a quick and, in some cases, impulsive decision-making process. The tendency is for people to buy based on habits or when they are in the mood. Their decision is influenced by word of mouth, advertisements, or habits. 

B2B sales involve a lengthy decision-making process. There are many people decision-makers involved, the seller has to convince each one of them in most cases. Sales teams may have to go through a lot of phone calls, follow-ups, meetings, and more to close the deal. This may take a lot of time, sometimes months. 

Length Of Business Relationship 

Business relationships of B2C businesses are looked upon as one-off transactions. The focus has to be right there at the time of buying. Outside the transaction, the needs and loyalty change. 

This is somehow different in the case of B2B sales, the complete purchasing decision is an investment for both seller and buyer. The B2B sales team puts their time and effort to meet the requirements of a consumer. B2B is never a one-time transaction, but it needs consistency, support, and upgrades. 

Conclusion

The best model depends on the type of business you are in. What matters here is the level of relationship your business seeks to build with your target audience.

In order to build stronger relationships with customers or keep in touch with them constantly, businesses need to make an effort to keep the engagement going. An effective sales management tool can help businesses manage their customer communications.

NeoBiz, a free sales management app, helps sales teams to stay connected with customers on the go. With everything from managing all customer information to engaging them on the go, NeoBiz can enhance a business’ sales process tremendously.