The Emotional Difference between B2B and B2C Selling (business2community)
Consider the offer from the buyers point of view not the sellers. B2B selling is driven by bottom line rationalization and pain points. Keep in mind, the emotional appeal doesn’t make the sale, ditch the emotional jabber and start focusing on pain points to get those business conversions.
Formula for Success; Ready, Fire, Aim …. Repeat (forbes)
The clichéd image of entrepreneurs coming up with an idea, laboring feverishly to perfect it, and delivering their creation to the market full-born is not what usually happens. The much more typical path is that they come up with an idea. They take a small step toward implementation to see if anyone is interested, and if it looks like there is potential market acceptance, they take another step forward. If they don’t get the reaction they want, they regroup and then take another step in a different direction.
In other words, they
Act.
Learn (from that action) and
Build (off that learning) and Act again.
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86% of Consumers More Loyal to Retail Stores and Products than Brands (ecommercebytes)
• Savvy spenders are creatures of habit: 73 percent of consumers using ShopAtHome.com used it between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., regardless of the day of the week. Only 18 percent used it after 6:00 p.m.
• “Toilet paper” was the most-searched term on the site and has been for the past two months.
• Consumers are more likely to be searching for deals on items they consistently buy. Half of the top ten searched terms were for consumable goods like toilet paper, laundry detergent, coffee and butter.
• Following toilet paper, “laundry detergent” was the next highest search, with 16,307 consumers looking for online savings.
• Animal lovers were equally fond of discounts, with 13,120 of online coupon and savings searches done for pet food and supplies.
• Of the 62 percent of consumers looking for store-centric savings, Wal-Mart was the most-searched for retailer followed by Kohl’s and Target respectively.
• Sony was the most-searched for brand out of the 14 percent of consumers searching for brand names. It was searched three times more than the next brand on the list: Swiffer.
• New York City residents used the site most followed by Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Denver respectively.
• The average ShopAtHome.com user receives $41 in cash back per month. As much as 10,000 checks are mailed out each month to users.
Price is Playing a Key Role in Consumer Behavior…Still (chainstoreage)
Survey says… that despite divergent shopping behaviors, shoppers with annual incomes of less than $45,000, as well as shoppers with annual incomes higher than $100,000, are making purchasing decisions based on similar factors, including price. For instance, 55% of shoppers surveyed bought more items on sale than last year, 71% planned their trip before going to the store; 88% of shoppers have bought buy-one, get-one offers and 50% of shoppers cut coupons.
Retail is Changing at a Pace Never Seen Before (cmo)
The change driven by technology we’ve seen to date is just a fraction of the change we’re about to see. Technology is catching up with our imaginations. Almost any experience inside the store is possible through combinations of display, communication, and computing technology improvements. Prices are dramatically falling as consumer applications of these technologies drive scale that commercial applications can leverage.
Less Face-to-Face Interaction (gaebler)
…buyers are often willing to trade service for lower pricing. As the pendulum swings back to commoditization, traditional selling techniques that relied on differentiation and unique product features are losing ground in the marketplace.
Cotton Still has a lot of Problems (bloomberg businessweek)
Cotton surplus of the fiber, reducing costs for clothing retailers. The outlook for global fiber demand continues to deteriorate, and prices are following suit. Cheaper fiber may trim costs for clothing makers hurt by high cotton prices that last year were the highest ever on average.
The Art of Volume Buying (nationalpost)
“The more the place looks like they don’t spend a lot of money on making it look nice, the more you feel like the prices are low, and the more you feel excited about the deals you’re getting.”
This season’s most prominent denim trend: blinding color!
Colored denim jeans are everywhere, and the colors are getting wilder, even for men. Think pink, red, purple and even patterned jeans. Watch the Video
What’s your favorite denim brand and why?
Is the Product Priced Right? (marketing)
Unlike in a business to consumer (B2C) context, decision makers and buyers in B2B are in most cases not one and the same. In B2B, the decision makers who control the purse strings and have the authority to sign the checks and those multi-year contracts are not the same people who will actually be using your products or services.
The Sales Process is Evolving (infoworld)
The 21st century salesperson is now more so than ever defined in terms of his or her ability to add value to the customer. Forrester developed and tested a hypothesis that B2B selling is really about the transfer of information
The How America Shops® MegaTrends report, Moving On 2012, found that:
80% of Millennials believe it’s important to get the lowest price on most things I buy.
60% are likely to choose a lower priced brand over their usual, if they can save money.
57% of this demographic make a point to search online for discounts before shopping.
63% are now sticking to only those brands and stores they know they can afford.
Retailers Need to Allocate Shelf Space to “Niche Brands” (ezinearticles)
What if, in this present sales environment (or lack of sales), some maverick retail executive came in and said, “Let’s try this niche thing for six months as a pilot program in six of our chain stores in a certain region and see what happens.” The results (and sales) might prove interesting.
B2B Sales Choose Your Battles Wisely (business2community)
There is no doubt B2B sales is in many cases, a battlefield. Sales reps must become sales warriors and learn to train and strategize like that of Sun Tzu’s soldiers.
As most experienced sales professionals know, buyers are busy and getting hit from all different angles addressing the needs of their company as well as being contacted by other sales people. If your buyer is not responding or continuing to blow you off, step back and reevaluate. Don’t be pushy. When you do enough of the right things, in time, the math will add up and the desired results will chase you.
The Technology Industry is only 25 percent female (bostinno)
According to the online jobs website, “Female entrepreneurs begin with about 1/8th of the funding of male-owned ventures” even though “women-operated, venture-backed companies have 12% higher revenues.” As you can see, something clearly doesn’t add up.
Betsey Johnson LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (ibtimes)
Fashion designer Betsey Johnson’s licensing company, Betsey Johnson LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Almost all of the designer’s boutiques are expected to close, with estimated 350 staff members losing their jobs.
Changing Sales Forever (pcbdesign007)
The new world embraces the idea that if you have some information that the potential customer finds helps him or her in their professional lives, they will want to hear more, and opt in to do so. You then can build credibility with them, and establish yourself as a leading voice on the content you deliver to them. This increases the likelihood that they will turn to you when they have a requirement for products or services that you offer.
AmazonSupply goes B2B (foxbusiness)
The categories go way beyond Office Depot or Staples and likely will compete against other online or catalog-based suppliers. Inventory includes hand dryers, drill bits, printer paper, cash registers and more obscure products.
Fast Fashion is Driving Inventory Changes (orlandosentinel)
Over the past few years, U.S. clothiers have shrunk their typical concept-to-store times down to about six to nine months, from a previously glacial 12 months. How much further U.S. fashion retailers can go, or should go, in the quest for speed is a question that involves everything from margins to corporate culture and a reliance on cheap but distant Asian manufacturers.
