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Developing Business to Business (B2B)

7/28/2020

Building on the community contributions made at “Elm” to activate the values of partnering with the entrepreneur community, and in line with the current crisis, Elm has established a series of regular and virtual webinars. In this 22nd webinar titled, “Developing Business to Business (B2B)” we hosted Eng. Mazen Alzamil, who explained the distinction between Business to Consumer (B2C) and B2B, the classification of targeted companies, and the distinctions that must be taken into consideration when targeting B2B.

B2B vs. B2C

Every now and then, a number of new business model terms are developed; creating wide confusion about their exact definition and meaning. Two of these terms that must be distinguished are B2C and B2B. The first term, B2C, refers to delivering a final product, whereas the latter, B2B, refers to trading within the business sector among companies.

The following presents details on B2B.

Classification of Targeted Companies

Targeted companies can be classified into three categories:

Sales of supply chains and beneficiary companies: such as raw materials, consumables, spare parts, etc.

Sales of wholesale/distribution: companies that purchase from larger companies and distribute among sales points.

Sales of tech services: such as apps and digital services.

To what extent the business operation within B2B is profitable?

Statistics indicate that the volume of business exchange, in the technological field, within B2B, is expected to reach 1.8 trillion dollars by 2023. This is three times more than the amount expected to be generated within B2C, which is estimated at 600 billion dollars by 2024. One example of the huge volume of business exchange among companies is when Apple purchased processors for its devices and batteries from Samsung. Such activities indicate that companies can benefit from each other in business.

Distinctions to be taken into consideration when targeting B2B

When targeting B2B, it is important to take into consideration some terms that will contribute to developing an appropriate business model that aligns with B2B. These terms are:

  • Company added value: what distinguishes the company’s product from other products.

  • Account-based marketing: a strategy that directs the product to a particular group of targeted customers.

  • Sales empowerment: a regular process that provides a sales team with the resources necessary to make more deals.

  • Sales operations: concern with the tools requested by the sales manager in terms of pricing readiness for expected deals, and recognition of expected deals that change into long-term contracts.

  • Customer relationship management is a system that helps companies improve their relationships with existing customers and to acquire new customers within a short period of time.

  • Account managers: these managers manage the relationship with customers.