Business to Business Plan

[Word Count: 2774]

Introduction1

Discussion1

B2B Businesses1

B2C Businesses1

Comparison of B2B & B2C2

Sales Force3

Sales Forces Organization4

Geographical based4

Product-based4

Customer-based4

Account based5

Inside-outside based5

Feasible Structure for SPSL6

Relationship and Network6

Variables of Relationship7

Importance7

Marketing Mix8

Product9

Price9

Place10

Promotion10

Conclusion11

References12

Business to Business Plan

Introduction

The aim of this assignment is to evaluate the sales force structure and marketing mix of SPSL as a business to business firm. These factors are also compared with business to consumer firm as SPSL has a long term plan of entering consumer market.

Discussion

B2B Businesses

SPSL follows the B2B marketing strategies. Business to business marketing is when a firm sells their products to other business entities. This type of marketing is relationship driven as the value of the firm maximizes depending on networking and relationship. B2b firms focus on smaller target markets. The sales cycles of firms employing b2b strategies are multi step. The B2B firms create brands on personal relationships by implementing educational and awareness activities (Murphy 2007). In b2b firms, the target of the firm is to convert prospects in customers. That is the reason of longer sales process. The involvement of sales force is higher. The company needs more focused approach in building relationships and communication. firms can use direct marketing, telemarketing or newsletters to serve this purpose. The quality of content is very important for B2B firms (Murphy 2007).

B2C Businesses

SPSL plans to enter B2C markets, then it is important for the managers to understand the market. Business to customer marketing is product driven. These firms using b2c strategy maximize the value of transactions by addressing larger target markets. These firms have shorter sales cycle due to single step buying process. The brand image plays a vital role in b2c businesses. Firms built brand image by repetition and imagery. The buying decision involves different factors like status, desire and price (Murphy 2007). B2C firms build their profits by converting shoppers into buyers. They also need to maintain the loyalty by aggression and consistency. B2C firms have wider choices of merchandising activities. These activities can be promoted by coupons, displays and store fronts (Murphy 2007).

Comparison of B2B & B2C

There is a huge difference in business to business and business to customer firms' strategies. It is therefore important to implement correct strategy. The customers of b2b are more sophisticated that b2c customer. They want to fully understand the product before making the purchase decision as decision affects the major business. Thus, it is important to provide all details regarding benefits and usage in order to be profitable, competitive, and successful. Marketing copy plays a crucial role in finalizing the decision of business customers. Thus, the selling firm must ensure to deliver all necessary information to the buyer when formulating the content of copy (Sabrina & Salminen 2010, pp. 737).

B2C firms need to focus greatly on competition in the industry. It is because the customer conducts a thorough research of the market regarding pricing and benefits before buying the product. He evaluates all alternative brands. Trust on the brand also affects the customer. The customer base of B2B sector is very small and ...