Today, everyone wants to be treated as an individual. That being said, does B2B or B2C matter? My answer is that it does not matter most often, but sometimes it does. And those “sometimes” are what make relationship management a real challenge.
When does B2B or B2C matter?
There is a genuine difference between B2B and B2C in a few critical circumstances. These differences are all about comparability. For example, a couple deciding to purchase a new family car behave very much like a plant engineer and purchasing agent team choosing which piece of capital equipment to order. These examples are about small groups making a major decision.
At the other end of the spectrum is the teenage girl who sees a new Kate Spade purse on Pinterest and decides she can’t face going to school on Monday unless she is carrying one – there is no comparable B2B purchasing situation. The semi-equivalent B2B situation may be an Administrative Assistant ordering desktop equipment (stapler, tape dispenser, etc.) for a new hire. In this case, the AA opens the Staples or W.B. Mason website and chooses whatever he already has on his desk. This is probably not exactly like the sweater example because someone in purchasing negotiated a discount from the office equipment suppliers, and the AA can only order something needed (who needs another sweater?) from an approved vendor at the negotiated discount.
Once we progress beyond the fashion and necessary individual purchases made by individuals, we find no differences between the two types of business relationships. Why is this the case?
Despite what most micromanagers and cynics think, people spend company money as though it were their own. We all want the best value for money, the highest quality product commensurate with the need, purchased from trustworthy people genuinely interested in us having an excellent experience. We all want to be treated with respect and educated to make an informed decision.
What does this all mean for acquisition and retention?
It means that the soft skills training we typically lavish on our service and support people should also be made mandatory for our sales folks. And it means we should teach our service and support people how to actively listen and provide feedback to ensure we understand the issues and can think on our feet to craft an answer or fix just like a professional salesperson.
It also means that, since everyone wants to be treated individually, we must ensure that the organization follows the Platinum Rule – Treat others how they want to be treated.
And to do this requires we know how our prospects and customers want to be treated. The only way to find out (other than trial-and-error, a losing approach) is to get to know them as individuals, ask them what they expect from your business and share that information with every customer-facing person. I am not positively sure which is worse:
- No one in the organization knowing what a customer wants or needs, and not satisfying her or
- Someone in the organization knows what a customer wants or needs and does not share that information with others in the organization, therefore not satisfying her.
I think that 2 is worse since it says that the organization does not respect prospects and customers enough to ensure that everyone knows how to take care of them. And this is clearly a management fault and has nothing to do with the individual employees!
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About Middlesex Consulting
Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals with the primary goal of helping capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. Middlesex Consulting continues to provide superior solutions to meet the needs of its clients by focusing on our strengths in Services, Manufacturing, Customer Experience, and Engineering. If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization learn if B2B or B2C matters, please get in touch with us or check out some of our free articles and white papers here.