Today’s question is about positioning your business:
What’s an easy way to connect to potential B2B2C partners?
We wanted to zoom out on this question a little, so we turned to strategic business advisor Joan Bodensteiner for our answers.
HWY1: What does B2B2C mean to you?
JB: Typically, these are businesses that have two different but related audiences:
- A business. In many cases, the person you need to influence there turns out not to be the buyer; other times, the buyer you’re aiming for isn’t the product’s end user.
- The actual end user of your product or service.
Today, many SaaS-based models are B2B2C. Given the subscription basis of SaaS, it’s no longer enough to just launch products into a company and hope for the best; your product really has to engage the user to ensure that they’ll keep showing up, actively using and loving it.
Why go with a B2B2C model?
I think part of it is a shift of mindset. Today, you have to take into account the buyer, users, partners, and the ecosystem as a whole. For example, many people tend to associate B2B solely with enterprise, which is a mistake. A lot of retail businesses also have a B2B element to them, for example: you have to work with manufacturers, convince other distribution channels like Amazon or Best Buy to inventory and sell your product, etc. However, your sales and marketing efforts are mostly visible to consumers. One could argue that most businesses today are essentially B2B2C.
How does a startup go about executing on that model?
Typically at the very early stages, and this is true for B2B or B2C, you’re looking for customers who can provide you with good feedback. These early customers can help you establish proof of concept when you have a prototype or idea. They can also help you understand:
- How decisions get made in the company
- What the buying process is like
- Who the key influencers are
- How new products get adopted by employees
- Feedback on pricing and messaging
In addition to understanding the buying process, you should also talk to your end users to understand:
- Their pain points
- How important it is to them that their pain points are solved
- Whether they comprehend the gains your product offers
- How much they’re willing to pay
Develop a practice of testing your hypotheses on actual customers, whether they’re paying for your product or not. Getting and staying close to customers as you evolve your business will help accelerate your growth and possibly prevent you from making costly mistakes.
Also, early-stage B2B or B2C startups should focus on trying to land a few well-known names as early testers and customers to help shape the product. Not only can these customers lend credibility to the claims you’re making in your sales and marketing efforts, having big brands as reference customers in the beginning makes it easier to drive future sales.
On the B2B side, it’s usually a sales/business development effort, and it depends what your objective is. A lot of times you’re looking for partners, whether that means distribution, marketing, or technology — people or companies who can provide you with opportunities to get more customers, acquire technology you don’t have, or round out your platform or set of capabilities. Those relationships are strategic; in order to land them, you need to prove that you have a lot of customers with a problem or need you can uniquely fulfill. If you don’t have paying customers yet, you need to convince potential partners that you have a strategy to get them.
How do you get your foot in the door with potential partners?
First, make a list of potential partners and rank order them in terms of value to the business and likelihood of working with you. Big companies in particular have lots of people trying to pitch them all the time, so you need to be strategic about who you go after and make sure that what you’re offering truly has some value to them.
After that, it’s really about networking: you’re looking for someone in your network who can make an introduction so you can pitch them. The question to ask yourself is “Why should this company or individual care about what I have to offer?” You should also be able to answer the question “What’s in it for them?” That’s the key. If you open with “What challenges do you have and how can I help?” vs “Here’s what I have to offer, are you ready to buy it?” — that’s a very different conversation. If you truly seek out how you can deliver something that’s of tremendous benefit that you — and only you — can do, then they’re likely to be more receptive to your ask, which boils down to “Here’s how you can help me.” Your mindset has to be that it’s about them, not you. Once you move beyond your immediate friends and family, people want to know what’s in it for them, so if you start the conversation from that point, it’ll be easier for you. It could take a day, a week, or a month, but in the end, it’s really just about talking to people, making connections, and delivering something of value.
