The 7 Key Differences Between Business-to-Business

The 7 be given Differences Between commerce-to- work and consumer marketing by Robert W. Bly When asked if he could write an effective contract mail package on a complex electronic find carcass, a well-known direct answer copywriter replied, No problem. It doesnt involvement what the everywherelap is. You be shoping to people. And people ar pretty oft the same. Hes wrong. Yes, there argon similarities. But there atomic number 18 similarly differences in covering to business and professional emptors vs. the general public. In fact, here be cardinal key factors that pit business-to-business marketing isolated from consumer marketing . The business purchaser wants to buy. Most consumer advertising contributes people products they expertness enjoy but dont really need. How many subscription promotions, for example, sell publications that the reader truly could non live without? If we subscribe, we do so for entertainment not beca role the information offere d is essential to our day-to-day activity. But in business-to-business marketing, the web site is different. The business buyer wants to buy. Indeed, all business enterprises must routinely buy products and services that friend them stay profitable, competitive, and successful.The proof of his is the existence of the acquire agent, whose bushel function is to buy things. 2. The business buyer is sophisticated. contrast-to-business copy talks to a sophisticated audience. Your typical reader has a high interest in and understanding of your product (or at least of the problem it solves). Importantly, the reader normally knows much about the product and its use than you do. It would be folly, for example, to believe that a few days spent reading about mainframe computers bequeath educate you to the level of your target candidate a systems analyst with six or seven years experience. This realization makes business-to-business writers somewhat more grim than their consumer c ounterparts. ) The sophistication of the reader requires the business-to-business copywriter to do a direful amount of interrogation and digging into the market, the product, and its application. The business audience does not respond well to slogans or oversimplification. 3. The business buyer pass on read a dance orchestra of copy. The business buyer is an information- mark offker, constantly on the lookout for information and advice that asshole help the buyer do the job better, increase profits, or advance his career. Our prospects are turned off by colorful, advertising-type sales brochures, ranges the marketing manager of a ships lodge selling complex systems software products to large IBM data centers. They are hungry for information and respond better to letters and bulletins that explain, in middling technical terms, what our product is and how it solves a particular data-center problem. Dont be afraid to write long copy in mailers, ads, and fulfillment brochures. Prospects will read your message if it is interesting, important, and relevant to their needs.And dont hesitate to use informational pieces as response hooks for ads and mailers. The offer of a free booklet, report, or technical guide can still pull well despite the glut of reading matter clogging the prospects in-basket. 4. A multistep buying process. In consumer direct response, copywriters fees are geared toward producing the package an work up mailing that does the bulk of the selling job for a publication, insurance policy, or other mail order product. But in business-to-business direct marketing, the fancy of package or control is virtually non-existent.Why? Because the grease ones palms of most business products is a multistep buying process. A vice president of manufacturing doesnt ramble on a coupon and order a $35,000 machine by mail. early he asks for a brochure. Then a sales meeting. Then a demonstration. Then a 30-day trial. Then a proposal or contract. Thus, it is not a single piece of copy that wins the contract award. Rather, it takes a serial of letters, brochures, presentations, ads, and mailers combined with the efforts of salespeople to turn a cold lead into a pay customer. 5. Multiple buying influences.You dont usually consult with a team of experts when you want to buy a fast-food hamburger, a soda, bottle of shampoo, or a pair of shoes, do you? In most consumer selling situations, the leverage decision is made by an individual. But a business purchase is usually a team effort, with many players intricate. For this reason, a business purchase is rarely an impulse buy. Many people influence the decision from the purchasing agent and company president, to technical professionals and end-users. Each of these audiences has different concerns and criteria by which they judge you.To be successful, your copy must address the needs of all parties involved with the decision. In many cases, this requires separate mailings to many d ifferent people in spite of appearance an organization. 6. furrow products are more complex. Most business products and their applications are more complex than consumer products. (For example, clients I now serve include a commercial bank, a manufacturer of elevator control systems, a data bear upon training firm, a database marketing company, a mailing list broker, a general contractor, and a semiconductor manufacturer. Business-to-business copy cannot be superficial. Clarity is essential. You cannot sell by fooling the prospect or hiding the identity of your product. half the battle is explaining, quickly and simply, what your product is, what it does, and wherefore the reader should be enkindle in it. In high-tech direct mail, the key is to educate the prospect, put Mark Toner, who manages the advertising program for Amano, a manufacturer of computerized time-clock systems. With a product like ours, most customers dont even know of its existence. In short, in business-t o-business marketing, the rules are different. In the months to come, well explore ways to increase response and profits in this exciting and challenging marketplace. Business buyers are expression for personal eudaemonias by Robert W. Bly In a column titled The 7 Key Differences Between Business-To-Business And Consumer Marketing, I described the six key factors that set business-to-business marketing apart from consumer marketing. They are The business buyer wants to buy. The business buyer is sophisticated.The business buyer is an information seeker who will read a lot of copy. Business-to-business marketing involves a multistep buying process. The buying decision is often made by a committee and not by an individual. Business products are generally more complex than consumer products. Recently, I have theorize a seventh principle which I would like to add to the list The business buyer buys for his companys benefit and his own. There are two parts to this principle. allows take them one at a time. The Business purchaser Buys For His Companys BenefitThe business buyer must acquire products and services that benefit his company. This means the product or service saves the company time or money, makes money, improves productivity, increases efficiency or solves problems. Lets verbalise, for example, that you sell a telecommunications network and your direct advantage over the competition is that your system reduces monthly operating expenses by 50 percent. If a prospect is spending $40,000 a month for your competitors network, you can replace it and provide his company with the same level of service for whole $20,000 a month.The company benefits because it saves $240,000 a year in communications be more than $1 million in a five-year period. Yet, despite this tremendous benefit, you find that prospects are not buying. They seem interested, and you get a lot of inquiries. But few sales are closed. Why? Because in do-gooder to buying for his compan ys benefit, the prospect also buys for himself. The Business Buyer Buys For His Own Benefit The second part of principle 7 is that, sequence the buyer is looking to do right by his company, he has an fit (if not greater) concern for his own well-being and selfish interests.Although the idea of economic system $240,000 a year with your telecommunications system is appealing to your prospect, his thought process is as follows Right now I have an AT&038T system. Your system sounds good but I dont know you or your company. If I switch and something goes wrong, I will be blamed. I may even get fired. My boss will say, You shouldnt have gambled on an unproven product from an unknown vendor why didnt you queer with good ole reliable AT&038T? He will say this even though he approved my decision. So to be safe, I will stick with my current system ven though it costs my company an extra $240,000 a year. After all, Id rather see them spend an extra $240,000 a year than me lose my $60,00 0-a-year-job This play-it-safe mentality is barely natural, and it affects buying decisions daily in corporations throughout the country. Data processing professionals are fond of saying, Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM. Buying IBM ensures the prospect that no one can criticize his decision, even if brand X is the better choice from a business and technical point of view.A incorporated pension fund manager, writing in Money magazine, noted that no money manager ever got fired for losing money invested in a blue-chip stock. A different example, but the principle remains the same. The Business Buyer Is For Himself Concern for making the safe, acceptable decision is a primary motivation of business buyers, but it is not the only reason why business buyers choose products, services and suppliers that are not necessarily the outstrip business solution to their companys problem. Avoiding stress or misadventure is a big concern among prospects.For example, a consultant might off er a new system for increasing productivity, but it means more paperwork for the exaltation department and especially for the head of the shipping department. If he has anything to say about it, and thinks no one will criticize him for it, the head of shipping will, in this case, work to sway the committee against engaging the consultant or using his system even though the current procedures are not efficient. The department head, already overworked, wants to annul something he perceives as a hassle and a headache, despite its contribution to the greater good of the organization.Fear of the unknown is also a efficacious motivator. A middle manager, for example, might vote against acquiring desktop publishing and putting a terminal on every managers desk because he himself has computer phobia. Even though he recognizes the benefit such technology can bring to his department, he wants to avoid the pain of learning something he perceives to be difficult and frightening. Again, perso nal benefit outweighs corporate benefit in this situation. Fear of loss is another powerful motivator. An advertising manager in a company that has handled its advertising in-house for the retiring(a) decade may esist his presidents suggestion that they retain an outside advertising agency to handle the companys rapidly expanding marketing campaign. Even if he respects the ad agency and believes they will do a good job, the ad manager may campaign against them, fearing that legal transfer in outside experts will diminish his own status indoors the company. In these and many other instances, the business buyer is for himself first and his company, second. To be successful, your copy must not only promise the benefits the prospect desires for his company it should also speak to the prospects personal agenda, as well.