The B2B Buying Process Explained: Priorities and Pitfalls When Designing Marketing

This article explains the BtoB buying process.
It digs into the steps towards a purchase and the points to watch when designing BtoB marketing.

1. What is BtoB?

BtoB is short for “Business to Business” and means trade between companies.
It is a business model where a company provides products or services to another company.
BtoB customers are often fixed, so work on winning new ones uses things like
search advertising and telemarketing
— acquisition that can approach companies directly.
Because the business is done with customers that carry large capital, namely companies,
a purchase takes time but the order value is large, and the relationship often continues,
so once you have won trust you can expect steady revenue.

To understand the BtoB buying process, grasp the difference between BtoB marketing and
BtoC marketing.
BtoC is short for “Business to Customer”,
a business model where a company provides products and services to general consumers.
The diagram below explains it.

B2B business has three characteristics.

1. Many people are involved in the purchase
2. The consideration period is long
3. Switching costs are high

Each in turn.

1. Many people are involved in the purchase
In B2C, the purchase is decided by the buyer themselves, or by their family.
With a B2B product, by contrast,
the person handling the purchase rarely decides alone, however large or small the sum.
In most cases the decision sits with a senior manager who holds the authority to buy, or with the purchasing department.
On top of that, when the sum is large you need to bring the executives with you
and get approval from the person who holds the final say.

2. The consideration period is long
In B2B, a decision usually has to be checked with several people inside the company,
so the consideration period runs longer than in B2C.
Depending on the product, the up-front research, the deliberation and the explaining and aligning with everyone involved can take months,
or even years.
In B2C, by contrast, an individual does the deliberating, so the decision to buy comes quickly.

3. Switching costs are high
In B2C, people buy for reasons such as “I just liked the look of it”
or “a celebrity I like was using it”,
whereas in B2B products and services are chosen essentially on whether they will benefit the business.
A logical, rational case is expected, such as “delivery dates will be met” or “the return on cost is high”,
and the decision is made by weighing all of it together.
This high switching cost is a defining feature of B2B.

In B2B the purchase decision is checked with several people and takes time,
and it needs a rational reason that stands to benefit the business,
so it is harder work than B2C.
Once a product is adopted, though, competitors find it hard to displace,
so B2B marketing that increases orders brings with it the prospect of stable revenue.

2. The B2B buying steps

The B2B buying steps can be divided into the following six.

1) Identifying the problem
2) Listing possible solutions
3) Meetings
4) Internal approval
5) Purchase
6) Continued use

1) Identifying the problem
The B2B buying process starts with identifying the problem.
Be clear about the problem or the goal behind your B2B marketing strategy.
Problems vary from company to company, but they look something like this.
・At the current rate of progress, the annual revenue target looks out of reach
・Procurement costs have risen sharply and margins are under pressure
・Hiring has become difficult, and there are no resources to deliver the orders that do come in

2) Listing possible solutions
Next, list the possible solutions.
Take the example above, “at the current rate of progress, the annual revenue target looks out of reach”,
and work the problem through.

In this example
⇒Put money into advertising to increase enquiries
⇒Run training to lift the close rate on enquiries
⇒Add salespeople to handle them
⇒Shorten the time from order to delivery and raise throughput
⇒Strengthen the brand and raise prices
and so on. That is how you list the possible solutions.

3) Meetings
The third step is to meet the suppliers who can provide the service you need.
The points worth checking are as follows.
・Will the service solve the problem?
・Can they deliver within the timescale you want?
・Is the price within budget?
・Is the company, and the person on your account, trustworthy?

You research and compare this information in detail, and test which solution fits.

4) Internal approval
In B2B, the decision-making that leads to sign-off
often involves at least five or six people.
When the sum is large, or the problem a hard one in particular,
people from several departments and several levels become involved.
The board, the person who controls the budget, the IT department, colleagues in other departments touched by the problem:
several people each have to assess it from their own angle before internal approval goes through.

5) Purchase
Once approval is granted, the purchase itself begins.
The contract is concluded using documents such as the agreement, the non-disclosure agreement and the order form.
A kick-off meeting is often held at this point.

6) Continued use
Around a month before the contract term ends, hold a meeting with the supplier about whether to continue.
A marketing strategy is not a success simply because you set it once.
You have to run the PDCA cycle again and again. Keep testing and improving to arrive at a strategy that works.
Check whether the work delivered the results and the value that were promised,
and decide on that basis whether to continue.

3. How to set priorities when designing your marketing

Now that you understand the customer’s buying process,
at which point is it most effective to start marketing and selling?
The answer: 2) Listing possible solutions.
market to the stage after the problem has been identified, when people are researching solutions through contacts and on the web.
Seen from a marketing point of view, the flow of activity looks like this.
We recommend building your marketing activity around the moment the order is placed.

For detail on each method, see the article below.

The complete guide: the theory behind successful B2B marketing

Six ways to generate B2B leads: winning prospects through digital marketing

4. Three points to watch when designing it

There are three points to watch when designing B2B marketing.

1. Put what you produce on more than one surface
2. Think carefully before adopting MA and SFA tools
3. Marketing is there to help your own staff

We will take them one at a time.

1. Put what you produce on more than one surface
When you prepare sales material, do not stop at a PDF printed on paper.
Put it on B2B lead sites such as SlideShare, Boxil and Media Radar.

The same goes for case study collections: rather than only emailing them out, have your executives and staff share them on Twitter,
or break them up and republish them on Note, and build awareness through other channels as well.

When you create sales material, case study collections, white papers and the like,
other media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, your own website and so on:
always review whether there is anywhere else you could publish them, and make sure they can go out on more than one surface.

2. Think carefully before adopting MA and SFA tools
There are tools that hold customer status as data and, through email newsletters and inside sales,
are drawing attention as a way of winning orders: MA, which automates marketing activity, and
SFA, which turns sales activity into a database.

What matters is the premise that “the order value is high to begin with, and the leads you already hold
are too numerous for your current sales headcount to handle”..

MA and SFA tools cost more to adopt and maintain than people expect.
So before reaching for the word “data-driven”, recount your qualified leads,
judge whether your current sales set-up really cannot manage them, and adopt with care.

3. Marketing is there to help your own staff
For many B2B products, meetings still come about through an introduction from someone you know.
This is especially pronounced where the unit price is high.
Think about your marketing from the customer’s point of view, of course, but also look around inside your own company.
“If the chief executive had this kind of profile on the web, it might come up over dinner.”
“Inside sales and the field team could win more trust if this material existed on the web or as a PDF.”
“Customer success, who support people after adoption, could lift satisfaction more easily with this article to hand.”
That is the kind of thing.
Focusing on your own staff makes the next action easier to find, so give it some thought.

5. In summary

This article has looked at the B2B buying process.
Who decides the purchase differs greatly between B2B and B2C.
B2B deals almost always pass through several people, so the process from awareness to purchase differs from B2C.

In B2B marketing, therefore,
it matters that you make the case for the benefit to the business logically and rationally.
It takes time, but once you win a new customer the relationship tends to last.
In other words, doing B2B marketing and increasing orders
brings with it the prospect of stable revenue.
Use the points to watch set out here as you take your B2B marketing strategy forward.