McKinsey

JANUARY 19, 2017

B2B companies fall short of their B2C counterparts in key areas of our Digital Quotient assessment. Our Insights

B2C 87

B2C B2B Company 87

McKinsey

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

Digital has changed how B2B leaders meet customer demands, but not in all the expected ways. Our Insights

B2B 112

B2B Meeting Company 112

McKinsey

JANUARY 4, 2018

Companies that lead in B2B sales follow a three-pronged strategy to drive above-market growth. Our Insights

B2B 86

B2B Sales Strategy Strategy 86

McKinsey

DECEMBER 21, 2016

A deeper understanding of branding’s role in decision making is critical if B2B companies want their brands to drive value. Our Insights

B2B 56

B2B Company 56

Women in Consulting

APRIL 10, 2014

So why is there so much bad B2B marketing content out there? B2B companies are just as able to develop creative, fun, people-focused content as their consumer-oriented counterparts. Even in b2b, relationships happen between people, not faceless entities, and fun and humor are as human as you can get. By: Kathy Klotz-Guest.

B2B 101

B2B Marketing Sports Exercises 101

McKinsey

OCTOBER 23, 2018

Companies that succeed at analytics-based pricing build a strong foundation—and include their salesforce in developing it from the start. Marketing & Sales Insights

B2B 78

B2B Development Company Sales 78

Strategy+Business

AUGUST 21, 2018

Salesforce.com strategist Peter Schwartz argues that the lines between B2B and B2C are forever blurred, and now every company competes in the business-to-individual sphere, where the products and services it offers are tailored to every one of its customers In the fast-approaching world of tailored products and customer experience as competitive advantage, the old categories of business and consumer will be obsolete.

B2C 34

B2C B2B Productivity Company 34

McKinsey

APRIL 28, 2017

Growing numbers of B2B companies are focusing on digitization to succeed with customer-centric strategies. Here’s how to get it right. Our Insights

B2B 78

B2B How To Strategy Strategy 78

Joellyn Sargent

JUNE 16, 2016

B2B customer experience is nothing like a consumer experience. While the sales process may be vastly different for B2B, buyers are still people. B2B buyers value trust just as much (if not more) than consumers. Broken Promises are Deal Breakers in B2B.

B2B 130

B2B Sales Software Marketing 130

BCG

APRIL 5, 2016

To understand what makes digital B2B sales leaders tick, The Boston Consulting Group undertook a study of the end-to-end selling models used by a dozen next-generation sales leaders. Article Tuesday, April 05, 2016. A quiet revolution has been happening in sales over the past several years.

B2B 82

B2B Boston Consulting Group Sales Company 82

Joellyn Sargent

JUNE 16, 2016

B2B customer experience is nothing like a consumer experience. While the sales process may be vastly different for B2B, buyers are still people. B2B buyers value trust just as much (if not more) than consumers. Broken Promises are Deal Breakers in B2B. How about your B2B customer experience? Or is it? They expect to be treated well, and they want open, honest, and timely communications.

B2B 116

B2B Sales Software Marketing 116

McKinsey

OCTOBER 10, 2016

By focusing on the right digital practices, B2B companies—currently trailing B2C companies in digital transformation—can create long-term value. Here are five areas where digital leaders excel. Our insights

B2C 88

B2C B2B Company 88

Harvard Business

MAY 10, 2018

While there’s less buzz around business-to-business markets, these innovations are changing the game in B2B as well, even in old-line industries selling what might be considered commodity products. A growing number of B2B companies are using data and analytics to add services that bring new elements of value to customers, and in some cases new sources of revenue. For a deep dive into the elements, see our related HBR article “ The B2B Elements of Value ”).

B2B 32

B2B Chemicals Engineering Data 32

Seth Godin Blog

OCTOBER 20, 2015

Selling change to organizations is difficult. One reason is that change represents a threat, a chance for things to go wrong. It's no wonder that many people avoid anything that smells of change.

B2B 50

B2B Insurance Insurance Tools 50

1 to 1

MAY 6, 2014

A few years ago while attending Dreamforce, I had a few meetings with executives from marketing automation companies who shared different approaches to engaging with B2B customers and prospects. Given the amount of emphasis that''s placed on using data and automation to engage with B2C customers across the industry, I was instantly intrigued by the possibilities for B2B organizations.

B2B 37

B2B B2C Tools Meeting 37

Harvard Business

MARCH 14, 2018

The cartoon of business-to-business (B2B) buyers depicts gray-haired executives and purchasing agents in meetings, on the phone and lunching with their vendors. But along with fax machines and long golf games, these features of B2B life have all but disappeared due to the astonishing change in technology over the past two decades. This shift in behavior has several implications for B2B value propositions. First impressions matter as much as ever in B2B markets.

B2B 30

B2B Bain Research Study 30

Harvard Business

JUNE 7, 2018

Like this manufacturer, many business-to-business (B2B) companies have a major opportunity to improve their standing on price. To help companies understand the state of pricing capabilities and how they figure into performance, Bain & Company conducted a global survey of sales leaders, vice presidents of pricing, CEOs, CMOs, and other executives at more than 1,700 B2B companies. Glasshouse Images/Getty Images.

B2B 47

B2B Survey Chemicals Software 47

Harvard Business

MAY 10, 2016

” In the B2B world, though, the experience is very different. But B2B customers are mobile, fully engaged in social media, and well educated: 94% of B2B buyers conduct online research before deciding on a purchase.

B2B 46

B2B B2C Transportation Software 46

Seth Godin Blog

MAY 30, 2015

When you sell to someone at a business, it's worth remembering that the pain their problem is causing belongs to them, while the money they have to spend, doesn't. Any time you can cure their pain in exchange for their boss's (or the shareholder's) money, that's a compelling offer.

B2B 47

B2B 47

McKinsey

DECEMBER 21, 2016

B2B organizations must focus on the people and moments that matter so that marketing spend turns into real sales. Our Insights

B2B 50

B2B Marketing Sales 50

McKinsey

AUGUST 25, 2017

New research indicates where to focus digital investments so that they will reap rewards in online and face-to-face channels. Our Insights

B2B 86

B2B Research 86

Seth Godin Blog

JUNE 24, 2014

If you sell to businesses, you''re either calling on unsuccessful companies, who are panicking and afraid and don''t have a lot of resources to spend on new things. Or you''re selling to successful businesses.

B2B 46

B2B Resources Company 46

Harvard Business

NOVEMBER 8, 2016

Outbound B2B sales are becoming less and less effective. Meanwhile, 84% of B2B buyers are now starting the purchasing process with a referral, and peer recommendations are influencing more than 90% of all B2B buying decisions. If organizations don’t change their outdated thinking and create effective sales models for today’s digital era, Forrester warns that 1 million B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service e-commerce by 2020.

B2B 61

B2B Media Sales Guidelines 61

Harvard Business

AUGUST 10, 2018

Gillian Blease/Getty Images. Knowing which organizations perform the best on any particular dimension used to require subjective surveys or painstaking research.

Benchmarking 36

Benchmarking Software B2B Data 36

Harvard Business

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Decision making at big B2B companies is often skewed by anecdote and myth: A worried report from the most vocal salesperson about a competitor’s latest move; a customer complaint that happened to be fielded by a senior executive. That’s complicated at any B2B business. Vincent Tsui for HBR.

B2B 33

B2B Sales Automotive Data 33

Harvard Business

MARCH 7, 2017

A similar sequence has happened with B2B buying. By 2012, our research shows, nearly 60% of a typical B2B purchasing decision — researching solutions, ranking options, benchmarking pricing, and so on — was happening before the buyer even had a conversation with a supplier. See More Videos > See More Videos > Surely B2B purchasing hasn’t become that bad. Like these companies, B2B suppliers need to focus on making it far easier for customers to buy.

B2B 39

B2B Travel Benchmarking Software 39

1 to 1

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

Avnet’s Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Sellers captured the attention of a packed crowd at the recent Leadscon conference as he harkened back to the 1947 jewelry campaign, “A Diamond is Forever,” coined by De Beers’ Mary Gerety.

B2B 26

B2B Conference Marketing 26

Harvard Business

MAY 18, 2018

B2B companies are struggling with a loss of control over the customer experience (CX) today. With their future growth prospects at stake, B2B executives must determine how to improve CX—while ceding more of the experience to their partners. B2B leaders know that customer experience is the gateway to growth. Delivering experiences that produce more B2B sales is another. Selling in the digital age has become more complex than many B2B leaders had anticipated.

Accenture 30

Accenture B2C B2B Sales 30

Harvard Business

DECEMBER 6, 2016

According to Gallup , only 29% of B2B customers are engaged with the companies they do business with. Let that sink in. That means 71% of your customers are likely not committed to sticking with your company or, even worse, are actively seeking to move their business elsewhere. This problem is not new.

B2B 40

B2B Metrics Company Survey 40

1 to 1

DECEMBER 22, 2015

My colleague Anna Papachristos recently wrote an insightful article about the findings in Accenture Strategy's 2015 B2B Customer Experience report. The report underscored how despite the understanding of executives about the value that B2B customer experience initiatives can generate, the vast majority of B2B companies are missing out on revenue growth opportunities due to poor performance.

Accenture 27

Accenture B2B Interviews Report 27

Harvard Business

JULY 12, 2017

B2B buyers have slowly been conditioned to expect the same personalized treatment that they get while shopping on Amazon. Only then will B2B sales professionals be able to capitalize on personalization at scale and fully realize how disruptive it can really be. As consumers in this data-driven, algorithmically obsessed world, we’ve come to expect highly personalized experiences that are tailored to our specific needs.

B2B 30

B2B Media Survey Enterprise 30

1 to 1

MARCH 28, 2013

It disappoints me when customer experience professionals at B2B companies won't even consider CX practices from business-to-consumer companies. Sure, B2B firms can learn a lot from other B2B firms: Cisco has an amazing voice of the customer program, Boeing does great work conducting field studies of their customers, and Adobe has a notable CX governance practice.

B2C 38

B2C B2B Case Studies Case Study 38

Harvard Business

JANUARY 19, 2018

B2B, or the process of marketing and selling product and service offerings to business customers, is experiencing an intensified focus as the availability of new digital data that describes businesses grows. Traditional B2B insight activities have involved such limited data as size of companies as measured by revenue, capitalization or employees, and industry type as formally classified by SIC codes. vincent tsui for hbr.

B2C 30

B2C B2B Data Sales 30

1 to 1

NOVEMBER 21, 2013

B2C financial services provider Ally Bank and B2B professional services firm PwC Australia took home top honors in the design category of Forrester''s first annual Outside In Awards.

B2C 31

B2C B2B Banking Financial 31

McKinsey

DECEMBER 27, 2017

SURVEY] The B2B Buyer Persona: 30 Ways to Get Inside the Mind of Your Target Buyer. For the complete study, download The B2B Buyer Persona here. STUDY] What Do B2B Buyers Want? Account-Based Everything Best Practices from the Industry Sales Development Account-Based Marketing B2B Sales Insights Cold Calling cold email Customer Satisfaction DiscoverOrg Email Marketing Good Data Outbound Email Outbound Sales Prospecting Sales Tips

B2B 42

B2B Video Study Survey 42

1 to 1

DECEMBER 1, 2015

But there's far less data available about B2B buyers, including information about their preferences and interests, making it challenging for B2B sales and marketing teams to understand their clients' interests and needs in what is typically a more complex and extended sales cycle. Every day there's more information available to marketers about consumers, including their transaction histories, social media comments, mobile and website behaviors, etc.

Sales 25

Sales Media B2B Data 25

Seth Godin Blog

MAY 5, 2016

You'll never hear it spoken aloud, but it happens all the time, particularly when you're selling something new, something powerful, something that causes a positive change: "You're right, but we're not ready.". This is what people felt about the internet, about word processors, about yoga pants.

B2B 29

B2B How To 29

Joellyn Sargent

OCTOBER 4, 2011

b2b Marketing Small Business Marketing Start-Up Marketing event marketing marketing message sponsorship Sponsorship Can Pay Off, If You’re Smart About It. Are you thinking about sponsoring an event, conference, trade show or community fundraiser? Read this first, so you can turn a potential money pit into a real opportunity to build your business. If I sound harsh, it’s because I know all too well that sponsorships CAN be money pits if not handled properly.

B2B 109

B2B Small Business ROI How To 109

Harvard Business

FEBRUARY 8, 2019

48% of B2B salespeople are afraid of cold calling. Difficult conversations Sales Digital Article

B2B 28

B2B Sales 28

McKinsey

OCTOBER 10, 2017

B2B companies often achieve subpar results from digital-sales initiatives—and tech companies are not immune to this problem. How can they reverse the trend? Our Insights

B2B 107

B2B Enterprise Trends Sales 107