What's the advantage and disadvantage of B2B and B2C
Nafis
9 replies
There have some pros and cons in both business models.
In short, B2C involves selling to a person once you’ve learned their demographics, likes and dislikes, budget, etc.
But for B2B - can be difficult. Companies may have many layers of bureaucracy.
what do you think? I'd love to hear your story!
Replies
Fernando Cordeiro@fernando_cordeiro2
I've been trying B2B for half a year with little success.
A product-led approach on B2B is hard. Your buyer persona and your user persona are usually misaligned which makes inbound communication hard. The fact there are so many stakeholders, with different needs, on B2B makes them very conservative in their choices: they are more likely to get a product that doesn't solve their use cases because flashier companies like Google and Airbnb are using it rather than buy a product custom-made for their use cases but with "unsexy" customers.
The sales-led approach is much more practical like @greg_ludvickson1 mentioned.
Share
From your descriptions, it sounds like you have a clear preference lol.
Both require the salesperson to be knowledgeable on the customer as well as the product. Though this should be obvious. If you have a good salesperson who listens to their potential customers, then either model can be successful.
I've done both and I like B2B much more. Companies are all about the bottom line. They usually think in terms of, "How much will this cost?" and "Does it do what I need it to do?" I find it's pretty easy to get through to them on that level. If you're a startup there are of course extra levels of consideration for your customer (e.g. trust, reliability, etc), but a good, cheap product should sell easily. They might even buy from you if you're only mediocre at sales.
I found B2C much more personal. You have to connect with them on an emotional level and almost become their friend. In my first sales gig, years and years ago, I was pitching politics to small donors. You can probably imagine how intimate things can get when you're talking about LGBT rights or bullying in schools. This is a pretty unique experience and not really applicable to other sales jobs.
@greg_ludvickson1 well, I was just sharing my experience ;) anyway indeed in B2C you have to have a close relationship with your consumers although it's also true for B2B, but the emotional attachment you talked about for B2C it's really a solid point on marketing and sales.
Hi Mizra,
I've spent most of my career focused on B2B and I'm never going back.
The benefit of B2B outweigh anything in B2C. Namely:
- You can reach product validation much quicker. You only have to get a handful of enthusiastic willing buyers before you know you're on to something.
- On that note, user feedback seems to come much quicker for B2B companies. You can get direct feedback about what aspects of the product need tweeking.
- Easier and Cheaper to establish sales. Higher price points mean ceteris paribus you can get to $1mil ARR much quicker.
Well, I think one of great advantageous of B2B is that you can get references. If they are well-known companies, it might be easy to contact to another prospects. But it could be hard to be viral, compared to B2C I guess.