Business-to-Business (B2B) is a very common and well-established strategy in both the startup and software industries. B2B refers to companies that sell their products or services to other businesses rather than directly to individual consumers (B2C).
Why?
Many startups and software companies focus on B2B solutions because they offer several advantages.
- B2B sales often involve higher-value contracts and longer-term relationships.
- This leads to more stable revenue streams and
- potentially higher profit margins.
B2B products and services tend to cater to specific business needs, providing solutions for efficiency, productivity, collaboration, analytics, customer relationship management, and more.
Examples
In the software industry, there are numerous examples of successful B2B startups and companies. These include enterprise software providers like Salesforce, SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, and Adobe, as well as smaller-scale startups that specialize in providing B2B solutions in areas like cloud computing, cybersecurity, project management, data analytics, and communication tools.
B2B strategies are prevalent in various industries beyond software as well, including manufacturing, logistics, finance, healthcare, and professional services. Many startups and established companies recognize the potential of B2B markets and actively target them to build sustainable businesses.
Differences
It’s important to remember that the startup and software world is diverse, and there are different strategies and approaches depending on the target audience and product offering. While B2C strategies may receive more attention in some cases, B2B remains a fundamental and significant aspect of the business landscape because in some sense – it is easier.
- In B2C – The target audience is much bigger
- While in B2B – it is harder to close an offer – it brings longer stability after it. In B2C – every individual customer needs to be satisfied independently – endlessly.
- Volume and value: B2B transactions generally involve larger order volumes and higher monetary values due to business needs and economies of scale. B2C transactions tend to have smaller individual order sizes.
- The marketing is different. While businesses are more impressed with numbers – B2C tends to have more emoional than logical messaging.
- The platforms where the users are reached are different. Businesses tends to be on older and legacy platforms. Users and customers are on newer and more flashy applications – (like TikTok).
- Ownership – many businesses tends to go deeper into custom tailered solutions that are closed source and private. You sell your product to them. In the same time – if you’ve chose B2C – you end up the owner of the product or the service you are offfering
I’ve wrote a booklet with the major basic principles and steps needed for a startup. You could check them out at https://programtom.com/dev/product/the-start-up-ultimate-xx-steps-pdf/