To B operation methodology!

In the past year, To B has been very popular, and To B operations have also been very popular.

Starting from the second half of 2018, major Internet giants, represented by Tencent, began to adjust their organizational structures and deploy To B businesses.

At the same time, in the past year or so, the financing amount and financing frequency of To B projects have always been among the top three in the market (data source: IT Orange).

For a time, a large amount of capital, entrepreneurs, and talents flocked into the enterprise service industry.

To B comes late, but it comes with great momentum.

However, no one has much experience to draw on, and everyone is crossing the river by feeling the stones.

In such a big context, I would like to try to express in the form of text: my practices and thoughts on To B projects, business models, entrepreneurship, operations, etc., so that we can exchange ideas and work together to create value for the To B field.

It just so happens that recently some readers who are engaged in To B operations have asked me many questions about To B operations.

Therefore, I plan to write this article "How should To B operations be done?" to express my understanding and thoughts on the overall To B operations.

Next,

Let’s officially get into the topic: How to do To B operations? Goals, entire conversion process, business model, and methodology.

1. Objectives

Just like To C operations, before starting specific operations, you need to find the core goal of your product, which is the North Star indicator.

What is the North Star Indicator?

As the name suggests, it is a core data indicator that shines high in the sky like the North Star, guiding the direction of products in the complex product world.

The North Star Indicator varies for different products.

If you’re responsible for a product like BeautyCam, your product’s North Star Metric might be the number of times a user completes a photo edit.

If you are responsible for a tool-type product like Graphite, then your product's North Star Metric may be the number of user usages;

If you are responsible for the B-side operation of a product like Didi Dache, then the North Star Metric for the B-side operation of your product may be the number of orders received by drivers;

If you are responsible for a SAAS product like marketing, then your product’s North Star Metric might be the number of merchants using your product.

etc.

Although it seems like a simple question, only a few people can think clearly about it in real life.

I once saw a particularly extreme example. A few years ago, there was an entrepreneur in the decoration business. He heard that community operation was very popular, so he started recruiting people to do community operation. During the process of community operation, the entrepreneur asked his colleagues in community operation to think of various ways to increase the activity of the community.

Anyone with a little business sense knows that this is unreliable.

For decoration business, what is the North Star indicator?

It’s the profit, it’s how much money you make.

For a low-frequency consumption business like decoration, what is the relationship between building a group and the North Star indicator? What is the significance of building a community? In particular, what is the significance of increasing community activity?

It's meaningless.

Therefore, it is important to find the North Star indicator for your business. Without a clear goal, no matter how effective the execution is, it will essentially increase costs.

2. The whole process of conversion

Once you’ve found your business’s North Star Metric, the next thing to do is:

Sort out the entire conversion process, sort out and organize the key nodes in the entire conversion process.

What is the entire conversion process of To C operations?

I think you should think of: AARRR model, acquire users - improve retention rate - increase activity - obtain revenue - self-propagation.

Similarly, To B operations will also have such a full conversion process.

The whole process of To B operation transformation is:

Acquire customers – Paid conversions – Customer service.

here,

Taking a marketing SAAS product as an example, I will explain in detail the thinking logic of the entire To B operation process.

1) The company started to conduct ground coverage by forming a ground promotion team to attract new customers;

2) After ground coverage, it is conversion, and the converted merchants begin to register and use the company's SAAS products;

3) Start training merchants while they are using our products and answer their questions;

4) After merchants have used the product for free for a period of time, we will start to guide them to pay;

5) After the merchant pays, provide them with various service supports;

6) The merchant feels good about the product when using it, and when the renewal period comes, the merchant pays again to purchase the enterprise service;

The above is my thinking logic for the entire process of a To B business operation.

The thinking logic of the entire process of To B operations is a common thinking method in the To B field. To B products with different business models will have different focuses in operations and corresponding practices will also be different.

How is it different?

I won’t go into detail here, I will explain it in detail in the next module of the article.

3. Business Model

There are many To B products with different business models.

There are SAAS type products, including: general SAAS and industry vertical SAAS.

There are sales and marketing products, including: CRM, customer service, enterprise marketing, inventory management software, etc.;

There are information security products, including: network security, data security, cloud security, application security, security software, etc.

There are cloud computing products, including: cloud communications, cloud storage, cloud security, etc.;

There are vertical industry informationization products, including agricultural informationization, transportation informationization, education informationization, retail informationization products, etc.

etc.

There are so many types of To B products. Here I divide all To B products into four types of businesses.

The first type of To B business is a “platform-type” business.

What is a platform business?

The core business logic of the project is to help enterprises connect the supply and demand sides of the business.

For example: B2C businesses like Meituan that connect users and merchants; and Taobao that connect users and merchants.

For example, B2B businesses like Yimutian, which connects agricultural product suppliers and agricultural product buyers; and Youyouyouche, which connects auto repair shops and auto parts suppliers, are both platform businesses.

The second type of To B business is a “tool-type” business.

What is a tool-based business?

It is a business that provides enterprises with products that can efficiently solve their clear needs.

For example: DingTalk, which provides office systems to enterprises; Tencent Cloud, which provides cloud computing services to developers.

For example, in its early days, Pinduoduo provided merchants with a tool for group buying, and merchants used this tool to connect with users who liked discounts.

The third type of To B business is "hardware-based" business.

What is a hardware business?

It is the business of providing physical hardware to enterprises.

For example: providing large-screen hardware to enterprises; providing automatic dishwasher hardware to restaurants;

For example, the business of providing ticket checking hardware systems to scenic spots and the business of providing food ordering hardware systems to catering companies are both tool-type products.

The fourth type of To B business is “service-oriented business”.

What is a service business?

The business you provide to enterprises that requires manpower to complete the service is called service-oriented business.

For example: advertising services provided by advertising companies, human resources services provided by human resources outsourcing companies.

For example, businesses like Weimeng and Youzan, in addition to providing SAAS products, also provide a series of operational services.

The above classification is not absolute, not unique, nor standard.

I emphasize again,

The above classification is not absolute, not unique, nor standard.

What is the operational methodology for each type of To B business?

Next, I will talk about them one by one.

4. Platform business

How should platform-based business operations be operated?

You can refer to the following thinking logic: acquire customers - customer service - paid conversion.

Here I will use the Meituan platform as an example to talk about my thinking logic on how to sort out platform-based businesses and how to operate them:

1) Acquire customers

Acquire customers through online and offline methods.

Ways to acquire customers online include: obtaining leads, disseminating content, advertising, etc.

Offline customer acquisition methods include: ground promotion, conferences, distributors, offline activities, etc.

After the platform acquires customers, that is, after the customers start to register accounts on the platform, it enters the next stage.

2) Customer Service

In the customer service link, the issues to be addressed include:

Get merchants to start using the platform through online or telephone communication, and provide operational guidance to help merchants make money through the platform;

Through incentives such as a 10 yuan rebate on the user's next order, and a 20 yuan rebate on transactions over 100 yuan, and by building a customer growth system such as the establishment of Meituan University and offline training, we increase customer activity and retention.

etc.

The core goal of customer service is to help customers succeed and enable them to make money on the platform.

3) Paid conversion

The problem that the platform needs to solve in this link is to make money. There are three ways for the platform to make money: taking commissions; selling advertising and other value-added services to companies; and third-party payment.

This method of giving tips does not require the operator to do much, just do a good job in customer service. After the customers make money, they can naturally give tips.

Selling advertising value-added services to companies requires follow-up by sales staff.

The third party pays the bill, and sales expands the third party that is willing to pay.

The above is my thinking process on how a platform-based business operation should be done.

5. Tool-based business

How should tool-based business operations be carried out?

You can refer to the following thinking logic: acquire customers - customer service - paid conversion.

Here I will use DingTalk as an example to talk about my thinking logic on how to sort out tool-based businesses and how to operate them:

1) Acquire customers

More ways to acquire customers are through online brand communication, advertising and other means, while offline sales are more focused on large customers.

2) Customer Service

After acquiring users, they begin to use DingTalk products, and during the use process, the customer service department begins to intervene.

The main problem that the customer service department solves when it intervenes is to help customers solve various problems in the process of using tools, as well as to help customers use tools better and improve the efficiency of customer team collaboration.

3) Paid conversion

Generally, most types of tool products are free + value-added services, or free for a period of time, and you need to pay after the trial period.

Therefore, there are two conversion paths to convert customers to pay.

First: After the trial period, directly convert online and carry out online conversion through the idea of ​​productizing conversion strategies.

Second: If the online conversion is not successful, by checking the background data, after a certain point in time, sales follow-up can be made for direct conversion.

The above is my thinking process on how a tool-based business operation should be done.

6. Hardware Business

How to operate hardware-based business?

You can refer to this thinking logic: acquire customers and pay for conversion - customer service.

Here I will take the ticket checking hardware system of the scenic spot as an example to talk about my thinking logic of sorting out hardware-based businesses and how operations should be done:

1) Acquire customers and convert them to paid accounts

Customer acquisition methods come from both online and offline sources.

Online customer acquisition methods include: Baidu SEO, e-commerce website sales, etc. After obtaining sales leads online, sales will follow up to convert customers, sell hardware, and generate revenue.

Offline customer acquisition methods include: direct sales, developing distributors, offline activities, participating in industry exhibitions, etc., and selling hardware directly to customers to generate revenue.

2) Customer Service

After selling the hardware, you need to solve the customer's installation, debugging, maintenance and other problems.

Some hardware companies will have their own installation, debugging, and maintenance teams to follow up on services.

Some hardware companies will connect with other service providers in the industry chain and let other service providers provide subsequent customer service.

The above is my thinking process on how a hardware business operation should be done.

7. Service-oriented business

How to operate a service-oriented business?

You can refer to the following thinking logic: Acquire customers - Customer service - Paid conversion

Some service businesses must receive money first before they can provide services to an enterprise, such as companies that provide human resources services or companies that provide agency operation services.

Some service-oriented companies must provide customer service before they can receive money. For example, some vertical marketing SAAS solution comprehensive service providers need to find ways to help customers successfully make money before they can share commissions from the turnover.

Here I will take a company that does catering marketing SAAS as an example to talk about my thinking logic on how to sort out service-oriented businesses and how to operate them:

1) Acquire customers

Acquire customers through online methods such as events, brand promotion, and SEO.

Acquire customers through offline sales through channels, distribution, BD, etc.

2) Customer Service

The enterprise product is a marketing SAAS, so it is particularly important to provide an overall service + product solution.

The most important role that operations need to play at this time is to train merchants on how to use products;

Help merchants to manage user operations, help merchants to increase user growth, and ultimately help merchants achieve business growth.

When it comes to customer service, practitioners with experience in C-end user growth and user operations will do a better job.

3) Paid conversion

The charges at this time may be basic fees for software and hardware and service fees, or they may be commissions based on sales of goods helped. Depending on the specific situation and cooperation with different types of merchants, the charging method will be different.

The above is my thinking process on how a service-oriented business operation should be done.

Finally, I want to say: what I said may be wrong. After all, to solve the problem, we still have to go back to the specific products and specific scenarios to think about it in order to get effective answers. However, I hope that this thinking logic on how To B operations should be done will be helpful to you.

Author: Cucumber Morning News

Source: Qinggua Media