Business to business marketing and branding is at the heart of society considering that the majority of goods and services that we purchase are in fact a subset of what goes on in the b2b branding and marketing realms. This aspect of business development is being given a lot of attention and for good reason when we consider that in some cases the sales process can take years but – securing a business to business supplier contract could means many tens of thousands of dollars of revenues.
In my training and consulting I have developed a framework from which to move on to craft a business strategy in marketing and branding products and services to another business. Much of this comes from my experience when managing in the OEM [original equipment manufacturer] business unit for Hewlett Packard [in Europe, Japan, the U.S. and S.E. Asia].
Some things to consider :-
- purching frequency
- purchasing quantity
- brand equity
- brand positioning
- brand relevance
… and many other terms which need to be understand and worked on in order to develop excellence as a business to business supplier.
When we consider that the strength of the business that we are selling to is directly proportional to the strength of the brand of the weakest component – we want to ensure that our brand is not the cause of say –
- the production line stopping
- end user customers having to make returns
The above is when we consider product quality but what about sales and marketing ?
Of course we will take steps to market our products to our business partner but whose responsibility is it to create pull in the market place ? Could we take steps to co market our business partners product ? Considering that the more that they sell the more revenue we will generate – depending on our product and/or service, maybe we could move from simply selling product to a business partner and leaving them to perform all of the marketing promotion.
Maybe we could move to education the market place, training our business to business partner and many other specific activities depending on the development of the strategy.
Strategy development can take many months but in the first instance I would typically run a day’s seminar on the topic [anywhere in the world – based on demand]. Hopefully, I have touched on a few points which can serve as food for thought so you can take and use in your business.
Should you wish to make contact to explore working together – do not hesitate to get in touch.
To your business success,
Stephen C Campbell
