Reading Guide:
- What is Industrial or B2B Marketing?
- Key Considerations in B2B Marketing
- Characteristics of B2B Marketing
- The Role of Technology in Industrial Marketing
- Summary of Key Points
- Rahkarpouya's Activities in the Field of Online Stores:
B2B Marketing
I've started my business, now where can I find wholesalers to source goods cheaper and faster?
Where can a manufacturer or importer showcase its products to get maximum feedback, eliminate intermediaries, and reach more retailers?
Each company, depending on its method of operation, has 4 marketing methods: B2B-B2C-C2C-C2B
Our focus in this article is on industrial or B2B marketing.
What is Industrial or B2B Marketing?
Let's start with an example for better understanding:
Machinery factories need parts to manufacture machines. Consider automotive parts manufacturing plants. These plants need raw materials, which they obtain from mines and other producers.
So, the machinery factory needs products from parts manufacturing plants to build machines.
This means that a business needs raw materials to provide services and products, and with the help of these raw materials, it produces materials and services that may be needed by another company or business (something like a barter system).
Therefore, in this method, we have a cycle of product buying and selling between businesses and companies, which creates a cycle of industrial marketing or B2B (Business to Business) or a business-to-business method.
This is called industrial marketing because both the customer and the seller have their own businesses.
Key Considerations in B2B Marketing
To succeed in this method and convert potential customers into buyers, we must try to observe a number of points:
- Make sure you are fully familiar with the business process and the target company.
- Try to establish good communication with the target audience, and use knowledgeable people to do this. A trained and knowledgeable sales team will help you build effective relationships.
- In this method, you speak directly with high-level decision-makers, so you must behave professionally.
- Have a precise strategy and plan for all stages of work.
- To promote your work and brand, you can use digital marketing, attending business conferences, working on website SEO, trade magazines, email marketing, and more.
- The main goal in B2B marketing is to build effective relationships with the target audience, not to expand your brand's voice.
Characteristics of B2B Marketing
Advantages
High Purchase Volume: In industrial marketing, the purchase volume is high; for example, a bicycle factory needs thousands of bicycle tires.
Close Relationship Between Buyer and Seller: In B2B, the relationship between individuals is much closer than in other methods because both parties to the contract must have sufficient knowledge of each other and be trustworthy.
Rational and Targeted Purchases: The buyer in B2B marketing is more rational than the average buyer. An ordinary purchase does not require much knowledge, and the average consumer buys based on what they want, not what they really need. However, in B2B marketing, people must buy carefully because the amount of money involved is much higher than a typical purchase and can affect the performance of an organization.
Disadvantages
Multiple Influencers: More people influence purchasing decisions in business-to-business marketing; for example, in a purchase, various departments such as the marketing department, the finance department, etc., express their opinions and play a role in the final decision.
Number of Customers: Usually, the number of customers and target audiences in industrial marketing is less than in other groups, such as a dairy factory that, despite high demand in the market, has a limited number of stores to offer its products.
Time-Consuming Sales: The sales process in B2B marketing is usually slower; for example, to purchase a product, a team from the organization must reach a conclusion, which may take a long time to make a final decision.
The Role of Technology in Industrial Marketing
One of the most accessible tools in today's world is the internet and digital space, and with its high capacity, it can make the work of any business easier and faster. We can also use these capabilities in the B2B sales environment. You might be wondering how?
Let's explain further...
Going back a bit, importing and manufacturing companies used to give their goods to wholesalers, which led to many problems:
- The exchange of goods between wholesalers and retailers made goods more expensive in the market.
- Due to the large distance between the end consumer and the manufacturer or importer, the imported product differed from the customer's needs.
- The administrative stages of selling the product to wholesalers were time-consuming.
- Credit and cash purchases by wholesalers caused many problems.
- It had low profit for the manufacturer and importer.
- Difficult access for wholesalers to importers or manufacturers, to the point that these two groups might not find each other to work together. For example, you are a mobile phone wholesaler in Kermanshah, and a mobile phone importer is in Tehran, making it difficult to find them using traditional methods.
- Sometimes, an inappropriate competitive environment might arise among wholesalers, leading to multiple pricing of goods in the market.
With all the problems that old methods have, I think it's better to think of another way to offer and sell our products.
An optimal and fast way for manufacturers and importers is to use a B2B e-commerce website. Why?
Because:
- It solves the problems mentioned in the traditional method.
- Eliminating intermediaries between retailers and distributors reduces the price of goods.
- In this method, the security and speed of transactions are increased, and it saves time.
- Ease of use of B2B website services such as product search.
- Fast order dispatch and delivery.
So, with the points and advantages mentioned, it might not be a bad idea for manufacturers and importers of products to consider setting up their own B2B stores. With the rapid advancement and widespread use of technology and the internet, if a business does not use this environment, it will find it very difficult to continue its activities in this space.
Summary of Key Points
We talked about B2B marketing. What it is and what points it has, its advantages and disadvantages.
In the end, we mentioned how we can solve the problems of traditional methods in B2B marketing with the help of technology and new methods, and we listed the advantages of new methods.
Rahkarpouya's Activities in the Field of Online Stores
One of Rahkarpouya's activities is creating e-commerce websites for manufacturers and importers of products, and to date, it has successfully completed projects in this field, and you can see more details in the dedicated store.
