Changing Perspectives: How B2C Companies Can Learn From Enterprise Sales Tactics
In the business-to-consumer (B2C) world, companies often fall into a transactional mindset when it comes to customer relationships. Make the sale, ship the product, cash the check - with little thought given to cultivating anything long-term. While this approach may seem efficient, it represents a missed opportunity for driving sustainable revenue growth.
On the other side of the spectrum, business-to-business (B2B) sales teams live by a different philosophy entirely. Enterprise salespeople are masters at nurturing customer relationships over time, truly understanding needs, and positioning solutions with compelling value propositions. Rather than seeking one-off transactions, the goal is establishing long-term, mutually-beneficial partnerships.
There's no reason B2C companies can't adopt some of the same mindset and sales strategies as their B2B counterparts. In fact, doing so presents numerous advantages in today's hyper-competitive landscape where customer loyalty is difficult to inspire. By borrowing some core principles and tactics from the enterprise sales playbook, B2C businesses can transform their customer relationships for the better.
Emphasize Value Over Price
In the B2B world, sales are rarely driven by price alone. Enterprise buyers don't simply choose the lowest-cost option - they evaluate total costs of ownership, return on investment projections, integrations with existing systems, and a host of other factors beyond just upfront costs. Superior value, whether through product capabilities, service levels, or other benefits, justifies premium pricing.
B2C companies, on the other hand, often fall into a "race to the bottom" by trying to undercut competitors with incessant promotions and discounts. This conditions customers to be price buyers, devalues the brand over time, and severely impacts profit margins. It's an unsustainable, self-defeating cycle.
Instead, B2C firms should emphasize their overall value proposition and the distinct benefits customers derive from their product or service. Build messaging and marketing that highlights unique features, quality, time-savings, superior experiences - anything other than just the upfront sticker price. Train customer-facing teams to convey this value convincingly.
Customers generally don't mind paying more if they genuinely believe a product or service is worthwhile. Enterprise buyers understand this, and B2C companies should embrace it as well. Find your differentiators and articulate them compellingly.
Build Relationships and Nurture Leads
In enterprise B2B sales, everything revolves around relationships. Sales cycles can last months or years as buyers are carefully nurtured every step of the way. At the core, B2B sales is about fostering trust, rapport, and an in-depth understanding of the customer's unique situation.
B2C companies would be wise to adopt a similar customer-centric approach, rather than treating patrons as disposable, one-off revenue sources. Genuine relationship-building, continuous engagement, and meticulous lead nurturing should be standard operating practice - just as it is in enterprise sales.
This could take many forms:
- Implementing loyalty programs that incentivize recurring business
- Soliciting customer input and insights through advisory panels
- Delivering personalized outreach and messaging based on data
- Adopting B2B-style lead nurturing practices like drip email campaigns
- Finding creative ways to develop human connections at scale
Not only do tactics like these translate into new sales opportunities and expanded wallet share, but they provide B2C companies with unparalleled customer insights as a feedback loop. When you build real relationships with customers, you gain a deeper understanding of their wants, needs, pain points, and what drives their decisions - immensely valuable intel.
In B2B sales, every customer is a prized asset to be nurtured. B2C companies should view their customer base through the same lens. Don't just acquire new customers and forget about them once a transaction occurs. Develop an ongoing cadence of engagement to maximize lifetime value.
Utilize Account Management Practices
Most enterprises have sophisticated account management functions in place to oversee and grow their biggest customer accounts over time. Dedicated account managers are responsible for being a trusted advisor, resolving issues, identifying new needs and opportunities, and doing everything possible to solidify and expand the relationship.
While individual B2C customers don't typically rise to such a level of importance, the underlying philosophies of account management can still apply. Every B2C customer represents a potential revenue stream to nurture and extract maximum value from over the long haul.
For example, smart B2C companies implement subscription-based membership models and loyalty programs explicitly designed to encourage ongoing customer relationships. By incentivizing recurring business and repeat purchases, subscriptions cultivate the same type of account management mindset as B2B.
Other potential tactics include:
- Dedicated inbound/outbound customer success teams
- Upsell and cross-sell programs for supplemental offerings
- Targeted winback campaigns for lapsed customers
- Segmentation to identify and handle high-value customers
In the B2B world, maximizing customer lifetime value and cementing long-term customer relationships is paramount. B2C companies should adopt the same focus. Even seemingly straightforward consumer purchases can be optimized for ongoing revenue if the proper account management-inspired strategies are employed.
Don't just think about making the initial sale. Have a concrete plan in place for continuing to nurture and extract value from each customer relationship over time. This transformation from transaction to partnership unlocks immense revenue potential.
Implement Sales Enablement and Training
In enterprise sales environments, there is typically a well-developed enablement infrastructure focused on equipping salespeople with the training, tools, and resources they need to succeed. This includes comprehensive product and solution knowledge, sales process training, conversation guides and other assets, as well as robust coaching and performance optimization programs.
Too often in B2C companies, the distribution of product information and sales training is ad-hoc at best. Customer service and support personnel frequently lack the same level of knowledge and preparation as their B2B sales counterparts.
By investing in dedicated sales enablement resources, even a B2C business can elevate its customer interactions to be more akin to consultative enterprise sales engagements. Product training, sales process coaching, and the implementation of promotional incentive structures can transform these teams into revenue growth drivers.
For example, rather than viewing inbound customer support inquiries as cost centers to be minimized, train agents to identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Implement the right competencies, processes, and incentives, and these seemingly mundane interactions become chances to expand customer relationships.
The same philosophy can extend outbound as well. Develop "power callers" who leverage sales best practices to have thoughtful, needs-based conversations with prospects and existing customers rather than simply blasting call lists with scripted pitches.
In enterprise B2B sales, everything stems from a solid foundation of training, coaching, tools, and institutional knowledge. There's no reason B2C companies can't mirror that same approach and enable their customer-facing teams to drive incremental revenue at every turn.
Adopting An Enterprise Mindset
For too long, B2C companies have operated in a fundamentally different paradigm from their enterprise B2B counterparts. Rather than nurturing long-term customer relationships built on value and trust, the standard B2C playbook revolves around relentless acquisition, price promotions, and one-off transactional engagement.
While those tactics may generate revenue in the short-term, they shortchange the vast potential of cultivating lucrative, mutually-beneficial customer partnerships over time. Enterprise sales teams have long recognized the power of emphasizing value over price, investing in relationship-building, taking an account management approach, and enablement of customer-facing teams.
By absorbing these same philosophies and best practices, B2C companies can transform their customer relationships from disposable transactions into enduring revenue engines. It requires a slight perspective shift, new processes and training, and realignment of incentives. But the payoff of transitioning to an enterprise sales mindset is the ability to maximize customer lifetime value and fuel sustainable growth.
Interested in the opposite perspective - B2C techniques for B2B businesses? Here is the article for you: Lessons from the Consumer Sphere: How B2B Businesses Can Thrive by Going Direct-to-Customer
22nd April 2024