Why is it difficult for To C operators to do To B?

A few days ago, at a private meeting of an offline class, a classmate asked a question.

He has been working on to C software systems and has accumulated a lot of experience. He found that many companies also needed such a system. He wanted to package his capabilities and experience and sell them to these companies. He asked me what he should do to quickly open up the market?

I said, if you want to expand the market quickly, you can't do it by yourself. You should form a team to help you, and this team should be composed of people with rich sales experience from companies like SAP, Huawei, Microsoft or IBM.

He said, can’t it be sold online? Isn't this more convenient and you don't have to do it so heavy.

I said, since you have been working on to C products for a long time, you may not know much about the to B industry.

Next, I will talk about my understanding of to C and to B and what the differences are between them. I hope it will be of some inspiration to you.

1. The essential difference between to B and to C

First, the essential difference between to B and to C is the decision-making process.

What's the meaning?

to B is for businesses, and to C is for individuals.

A business's purchasing decisions are not made by one person, but by a process.

When you buy cosmetics, you basically don’t need to discuss it with your husband. When you buy an expensive TV for your home, you can discuss it with your husband and make the decision.

The process is very simple, and one person can make the decision. At most, two people can discuss it verbally. There is no approval process between the two of you, you don’t need to report to each other, you don’t need to submit an application or sign, it’s not that complicated.

But to B is different.

Any company with more than dozens of employees needs to have an approval process.

If an employee wants to buy something, after submitting an application, he needs the approval of the department manager and must report to the financial manager or even the general manager for approval.

If the company is larger, it will have a special purchasing department that is responsible for finding various things that the company wants to buy. We may even hold a bidding conference, announce to the public that we want to purchase a batch of things, and ask the whole society who is interested in supplying us.

This requires price comparison among at least three companies, and there will also be supervisors to check whether the products of these three companies meet the quality requirements.

After the quotations are submitted, a jury within the company will rate the three companies based on their reputation, products, technology, etc.

After the scoring is completed, it will be reported to the company's deputy general manager or vice president for approval. If the amount exceeds a certain amount, it may also need to be reported to the general manager for approval.

So you see, many people may be involved in this decision.

If you are not buying a specific product, but looking for a solution or doing a project, it will be more complicated.

The bids for such projects are often hundreds or even thousands of pages long, bound into volumes, and then sent to the bidding center in boxes to be reviewed by a variety of expert judges.

From this we can see that the biggest essential difference between to C and to B is the complexity of the decision-making process.

This classmate said to me, why do I feel that it is not that complicated? Maybe it’s because our company is more efficient, so I decided to do it.

I said that's because you are the boss of the company.

When you are the boss of a company, it is very easy for you to decide this matter, because when it comes to you, it is already the final decision.

Your subordinates tell you that they want to buy this thing. Have you ever told them that this looks good and asked them to compare it, find a few more options and evaluate it again?

He thought about it and said that he seemed to have said something similar.

I said that as long as you said this, your decision-making process has become very complicated.

Before your subordinate gives you the plan, he and his subordinates may have gone through several rounds of comparisons among several companies, and finally decided that one was good and showed it to you.

If you ask him to go back and look for it again, he will carefully select a few suppliers to talk to after he returns. The supplier will come to meet with him every day, one review meeting, two review meetings, and after many review meetings, he will finally give you three plans to decide.

Finally you said let’s go with A.

You think this is a simple matter, but in fact the following process is quite complicated. As the saying goes, leaders just talk and subordinates run around. You don't think it's complicated, it's just that you haven't experienced it personally.

2. Different complexity of decision-making process leads to different results

So, what will the different complexity of the decision-making process lead to?

From a seller's perspective, your approach will be completely different.

When it comes to C, consumers may only need 15 seconds of impulse to buy something.

But when it comes to B, there is almost no impulse. With such a long decision-making process, all impulses are eliminated.

If you want to convince him, you can only rely on reason, emotion, relationships, and many other factors, and make a comprehensive assessment before making a decision.

At this time, if you want to influence users, you can’t just rely on the product’s packaging, appearance or 15 seconds of impulse. Instead, it depends on a strong sales team to manage the user's entire decision-making process.

To manage the process, you need more contacts, and not just contacts with one person, but you need to have some appropriate contacts with every decision maker.

3. Different delivery cycles

There is a second very important difference, but it is not as important as the first one, which is that its delivery cycle is usually very long.

to B will generally purchase products very carefully. Of course, sometimes it is relatively simple, such as buying a printer, which can be purchased through just one procurement process.

Some projects are more complicated. For example, your product is to put a system into other people's companies for their employees to use.

You know, before you put it in, people already have a system to complete their work, but its efficiency may not be as high as using your system.

What is this like?

It's like getting a new heart. The original heart may have some problems, but it still works and is still connected to the blood vessels, just not perfectly.

The system you sell him today is equivalent to selling him an artificial heart.

He needs to cut open your body, take out the original heart, replace it with your artificial heart, and then connect the blood vessels. This is a very complicated process and may even be very dangerous.

Therefore, for many B2B businesses, the delivery process is lengthy and complicated.

It is not as simple as buying a cane and starting to use it.

4. To B is not only about products, but also more importantly, services

So there are two major characteristics between to B and to C. The first major feature is that its decision-making process is particularly complex. Second, for many important projects, the delivery process will be particularly lengthy and complicated.

These two things combined almost determine that to B will be very heavy.

Therefore, the capabilities required for to B and to C are also completely different.

What abilities are needed to C?

To C, there is almost no need for anyone to persuade him, so there is no need for heavy offline persuasion work, nor is there any need for complicated offline interactive work.

The most important ability of to C is that the product itself is good-looking and attractive.

So people who do to C business have special faith in the product. They believe that as long as they make a good product, who would not like it?

If I improve the quality of my products by 10%, my sales will increase by 50%.

But to B is different. For to B, you have to dispel the user's doubts and ensure that every step of the replacement can be carried out smoothly.

to B is not only about products, but more importantly, services. The essence is product plus service, and in many cases service is even more important than product.

Why do we often say that it is more difficult for people who do to C to do to B?

Because when doing B2B, he not only needs to have insights into consumers' usage, but also insights into the decision-making process of purchasing products. Sometimes he even needs to serve users like his parents.

This is the only way to do it well, which is difficult for many people who do to C to understand.

5. Combining sales and service teams

The product you want to make is actually very good. It is actually very good if you use your own abilities and this system to provide it to others. However, you must understand the huge difference between doing to B and to C.

So my advice to you is to first build a stronger sales team to help you manage the complex decision-making process of B2B.

Secondly, you need to build a strong service team to ensure that when your system is used in other people's bodies, the heart transplant process is safe and effective.

A strong offline sales team plus a strong service team are the basis for doing this well.

If you say this is too complicated and you don't want to do it, then you can learn from SAP.

It has a large number of partners, some of whom are doctors who help him perform heart surgery, and some of whom are a large group of agents who help him with sales. These people together form a complete to B ecosystem.

Of course, you can also build these two capabilities yourself, or purchase them from outside.

In short, these two abilities are indispensable for doing B2B business.

Source: Liu Run (ID: runliu-pub)