Start networking and exchanging professional insights

Register now or log in to join your professional community.

Follow

What is B2B sales ?how is the approach different from B2C sales?are b2b sales the same as corporate sales?

user-image
Question added by amer jayyousi , Business Development Consultant , freelance
Date Posted: 2014/06/26
Mohammed Thiab
by Mohammed Thiab , Founder / Chief Consultant , MV Consulting

B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to customer) came in association with the e-business paradigm.  However, if you take this back to its origins, Even before the internet, business was in one of these forms or a combination of them.   The difference between these two modes of business is as follows 

  1. In B2B, business entities usually "know" each other to the extent that they can "trust" each other and "deal" with each other directly (or indirectly through a third trusted entity) 
  2. In B2C, the customer (consumer) is very often "unknown" and hence cannot be "trusted" automatically. Dealing with these customers(consumers) happens through trusted third parties enabling this kind of business and protecting the rights and dues of each party

From another viewpoint ... B2B may less in numbers than B2C, but the volume and value can be mcuh much more that B2C  ... Here we talk about mass markets and high volume/value business, even if profits are much much lower than B2C One more and last point here, B2B and B2C take other forms when dealing with non-profit/non-commercial sector as in the case of givernment ...

 

Here we have G2G (Government to Government)  and G2C (Government to Citizen) ... and we may still blend this with the above and get things like "G2B"  (Government to Business), B2G (Business to Government) ... etc .. etc

Mohammad Tohamy Hussein Hussein
by Mohammad Tohamy Hussein Hussein , Chief Executive Officer & ERP Architect , Egyptian Software Group

In b-2-b you know your customer(s) personally and usually thier needs do differ in some details and accordingly thier perceived value of the product(s)/service(s). I don't think that this is the same as corporate sales.

According to the above, you approach each customer in a b-2-b (e.g. software), understand his/her needs and adapt your offer accordingly. This is not that case with b-2-c (e.g. cloth cleaners) where you have a standard offer (may be with options) but is not modefiable for each customer.

Marlowie Hatulan
by Marlowie Hatulan , Banquet Manager , Radisson Blu Hotel

Great learnings Mr. Thiab. Thank you for sharing.

More Questions Like This