Business to Consumer Selling for
Small Business Owners:

Requires Specific B2C Marketing Strategies

B2C or Business to Consumer selling strategies for small business owners. Sales manager jobs need to be developed to focus on a checklist for key sales activities and B2C marketing strategies.

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The primary difference between business to consumer selling and business to business selling is in the length of time it takes to complete the sales process.

B2C selling is typically a short sales cycle.

Consumers are more apt (than businesses) to make buying decisions quickly; and sometimes even impulsively.

How do you sell to consumers and reach your small business sales objectives?

Sales Manager Jobs: Focus on Strategy

Develop sales staff descriptions, and particularly sales manager jobs, to focus on using targeted B2C marketing strategies. Your business is dependent on a strong and effective strategy.

No matter what type of sales you are in; business to business or business to consumer - the most important action you need to take is to connect with your customers and build strong relationships built on your ability to communicate your unique value, your differentiation, and the features, advantages and benefits of your organization.

To do that - build your sales story

Because relationship marketing is a key sales strategy (even in a short sales cyle - it just means you have less time to build a relationship).

Ensure that you understand the importance of understanding your customer needs; and supporting those needs.

Your small business plan needs to include B2C marketing strategies and actions for sales activities.

The checklist below is not a detailed list of how to sell, it is a list to focus you on the basics of what you need to do to ensure sales success and small business growth.

Always remember to focus on your customer first. If you can make the sales experience for your customer easy, hassle-free, and even delightful and memorable (in a good way), your customer will come back to buy more. Isn't that your goal? Repeat customers? Who are happy with your product and service and who are willing to tell others about their experience buying from you?

Business to Consumer Selling Checklist:

1. You know your product or service.

2. You know your business (you own it; you better know it). And you know and understand your industry and business environment.

3. Then the challenge is 'reaching' or getting to your consumer: you must have the right location (whether that's a physical location or an online location).

4. You must be able to stand-out from all the 'noise' and demonstrate your value based sales approach in a way that enables consumers to be able to make decisions (they are bombarded with advertising, brands, sales pitches).

5. A Business to Consumer sale always needs advertising, branding and/or sales message tactics.

   How can your customer find out about what you have to sell: what pulls them in to your 'store' (physical offline store or online)? Maybe it's the store front; maybe it's signage, maybe it's your reputation; your unique value; your advertising.

   Whatever it is, recognize that you must get your message out to your customers, so that they will want to find you and buy from you. For example, year end sales and/or going out of business sales are common in the retail or consumer sales cycle. Do customers 'believe' that message or are they ignoring it in today's over-messaged environment?

6. Focus on how your unique value proposition 'stands-out' amongst all the other propositions in your industry.

7. Then make your sales offer irresistible (the strength of your unique value proposition) to your customer.

   The sales offer or proposal will change depending on whether or not it is a physical location or an online 'location'.

8. Be sure that your business system is set up to make the customer's buying experience quick and easy.

   In other words, if a storefront location, have friendly, efficient staff available to deal with the sale. Using the year end sales or going out of business sales examples, if you expect those sales events to bring out a large customer crowd, staff your store properly or customers will simply walk away.

   If an online store, make the process easy, painless (how many keystrokes/boxes/etc. does a customer have to fill in), and secure. Also, if online, resist the temptation to make the sales experience a way to get too much information from your customers - most customers are smart enough (and busy enough) that your 'trolling' for information would be a turn-off.

Business to Consumer selling can be a quick and easy process - for both your customer and you.

The goal is to build a strong relationship with your customer - because if the sale is quick and easy (which is how the customer wants it), it means that building a long term, returning customer relationship can be the challenge.

Make the buying experience good for your customers, and they'll come back for more.

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Business to Business Selling

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