Having worked a lot in both areas, I asked myself the question. Neither is easy. Both are taught and also self-learned. Both take years of experience to get really good at it.
So what are the similarities?
Both demand you understand the customer and you build out the persona in as much detail as possible and this detail comes from research & never from the school of "I made it up"
Both need for you to understand what motivates a buying decision
Both have a sales cycle.
Demand generation, acquisition and loyalty are critical in both B2B & B2C markets
So what are the differences?
For B2C there tends to only be one customer. In the B2B world, there can be multiple stakeholders and influencers.
The B2B buying decision tends to be more strategic around adding value to a business whereas in B2C is can be emotional, impulse, status-driven, personal, and even economic (I want it but can I afford it?)
B2B tends to cost more and tends to be a more complex product with more jargon
The sales cycle in B2B tends to be longer than B2C and has more stages. B2B requires patience. Sometimes lots of it.
B2B is more sensitive to market conditions. Just thinking about Covid. I have spoken to B2B entrepreneurs & they've either gained or significantly lost in this period
B2B markets tend to be more focused, smaller and at times niche. In contrast, B2C tends to have larger target markets.
Marketing techniques vary in both markets. B2C tends to use more paid advertising whereas B2B uses website, email, events, and content
Marketing budget size tends to be smaller in B2B
The customer & client relationship term tends to be longer B2B than B2C
So the outcome...
B2B is much more complex than B2C. The sales process is longer, with more hurdles to overcome and also more stakeholders to please. It can take months or even years to secure a B2B contract. The B2B salesperson needs to understand a larger degree of product features and complexity. In the B2B world, the buying stakes tend to be much higher as a wrong decision can cripple a business & it's hard to see the equivalent in the B2C market.
And above all us, when you work on a B2C brand you have more channels to play with where you can reach your audience whereas B2B it is limited and demands constant updating.
And last of all B2B marketing teams get a bad rep. It's not uncommon for B2B marketing to be seen as B2C's uglier, cheaper, and less sophisticated sister but the complete opposite is true. Good B2B teams can be just as good if not better than their B2C kin but they require more training in terms of a good working knowledge of the product and a deeper richer relationship with the sales team.
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