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B2B Communications is Not Advertising

There is a very common misperception in our business: In a party, when I tell someone I am a business-to-business communication strategist, they usually reply with “Oh . . . advertising.” I, of course, don’t want to be rude, so I just say, “Close enough.” Now that we have more time, let’s go deeper into the matter and I’ll try to make my point.

Advertising is the act or practice of calling public attention to one’s product, service, or need, etc., especially by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, and in other ways to get more customers.

Advertising is a very effective tool when you need to sell a product or service and the buyer has very little or no influence at all in the product or service he is buying—he is just a consumer. The main goal of advertising is to bring more people to the selling spot. Most of the time, advertising is a communication tool related to the retail market, and the buyer is the final consumer.

Examples of advertising can be found every day on television, radio, or newspapers, and products can vary from cars to sleeping pills. When you advertise, you are telling your customers, “Hey, look over here—I have something you will like at a very good price.” You are making a sale.

Business-to-Business Communication

Business-to-business (B2B) describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler or between a wholesaler and a retailer. B2B communication is a process to increase productivity in the B2B community. It is not work focused so much on sales as it is on production. A B2B product or service is not a final product ready to be sold; it involves a long process of developing a relationship between your company and your clients so that together you can come up with the right product or services to satisfy your clients’ needs.

When a business is buying a product or service from another business, it is usually looking for a long-term relationship and not a one-time purchase. And most of the time, the product or service it is buying is going to be part of the buyer’s final product. It’s more like a marriage than a one-night stand.

The volume of B2B transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C (business-to-consumer) transactions. The primary reason for this is that in a typical supply chain, there will be many B2B transactions involving sub components or raw materials and only one B2C transaction—specifically, the sale of the finished product to the end customer. For example, an automobile manufacturer makes several B2B transactions such as buying tires, glass for windshields, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to the consumer, is a single B2C transaction.

It is very common to see B2B companies using advertising techniques to sell their products or services with very poor results, most of the time creating more problems than solutions.

Thomas K. Leal, B2B strategist