B2B vs. B2C: Why most sales strategies don’t work (and what does)

Leah Neaderthal0:02

I see women wasting tons of money on these strategies, hoping it'll get them consulting clients and wondering what they're doing wrong, and they start to doubt themselves. And I just want to tell them, there's nothing wrong with you. You're not doing the strategies wrong. These strategies are for B to C, and they weren't ever going to work for your B to B business?

Leah Neaderthal0:24

Welcome to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah niederthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their independent consulting businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created the sales approach that I now share with my clients so they can feel more comfortable in the sales process. Get more of the right clients and get paid way more for every client contract. So whether your client contracts are $5,000 $100,000

Leah Neaderthal1:00

or more if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love, and get paid more than you ever thought you could, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to rate, review and share.

Leah Neaderthal1:17

Hey there, Leah here, and thanks for tuning in. I hope that wherever you're listening to this, wherever you are right now, you're having a great week, making some good progress in your business, and, of course, taking some time for you. So in this episode, I'm diving into a topic that I've mentioned in a few episodes recently, and it's so pervasive and so important that I just felt like I needed to do a whole episode just about this, and just so I don't bury the lead here. What I'm going to dive into today is the difference between getting clients when you're selling B to B versus B to C. So the women I work with are offering their consulting or their services B to B, so selling it to companies, right or brands or small businesses or organizations, not B to C or business to consumer, meaning selling to individuals. And what I'm seeing, and what I've seen for a while, is that there are a lot of women out there who are trying to get B to B clients using B to C strategies, and they just won't work. So in this episode, you're going to learn why B to C strategies won't work for B to B and you're going to hear some key shifts that you need to make. You're going to hear why so many smart women out there are accidentally using B to C strategies to get B to B clients. And the reason actually might surprise you. You're going to learn how to know if you are accidentally using a B to C strategy to get B to C clients. And I'm going to share a couple quick tests that you can use so that you can avoid wasting time and money. And I'm also going to share what to do instead that actually will work, and a few changes that you can start to make today. So to back up a bit, I first started talking about this in Episode 60 called the three biggest mistakes I made in my consulting business. And mistake number two that I made was that I tried to get B to B clients for my consulting business using B to C strategies. I shared how I downloaded all these things and bought all these programs from all these big name coaches, and I did them all, and I implemented them all and they didn't work. I mean, I should say they worked to do the thing that they said, right, like start a blog, or what have you, but none of the strategies worked to help me get consulting clients. And I've spent 10s of 1000s of dollars and wasted so much time on stuff that didn't work, and a lot of women come to me today, having also wasted a lot of time and a lot of money on things that didn't work, and because I see women making the same mistakes I made, that's why I wanted to do this episode. But it's funny, I just have to share this. So I started talking about this in Episode 60, which is, you know, a few episodes ago, but I've been thinking about this topic for over two years because I was seeing it in the marketplace and seeing this issue pop up. And I know this because I have these little notes where I hold on to examples and, you know, stuff I see to use later for things like training and content, and the note where I've been holding examples of B to B and B to C, and, you know, little notes and phrases and whatnot. I'm not kidding. I started it like the timestamp is in early 2021 so this episode has been a long time coming, and it's finally time for me to share it with you so that you can avoid wasting any time or money and avoid the frustration of trying something to get clients that just doesn't work. So just for context, let's talk about who I'm talking to here. I'm talking to you if you sell your services B to B. So let's dig a little deeper. This is for you. If you offer what we put under the umbrella of consulting services, which can include direct services, you know, doing the work for your clients, or advisory or coaching, or a mix of all three. And it's for you if your clients are small business.

Leah Neaderthal5:00

Businesses, mid sized businesses, large companies or nonprofits. So for example, if you sell marketing services or PR or leadership consulting or organizational development consulting to a company, then you're B to B. But someone who sells career coaching or nutrition coaching or life coaching to individuals is B to C. So the women I help, the ones I work with in my program, are selling B to B, and so if you're selling B to B, then this is for you. So what's the difference between selling B to B and selling B to C? So when you really boil it down, the difference here is that when you sell B to C, you're talking to the decision maker right away. The sales process is faster, but it's much less lucrative. When you're selling B to B, you're often selling to someone who also has to sell you into someone else, and often many someone else's your main contact has to sell you to a team or a decision maker or go through finance or procurement, the sales process is slower and often a lot more complicated, but it's much more lucrative. And so the strategies that work to sell something that's $49 or $99 or 999 to an individual who is the decision maker are very different than the strategies that work to sell consulting services for 10s or hundreds of 1000s of dollars into a company, and you can't try to get B to B clients using a B to C sales approach and B to C strategies. So I just want to share a few examples here, and honestly, I volunteer myself as tribute here, because when I was running a consulting business, I spent a lot of time writing a blog. I started a Facebook group. I did like a whole lead magnet to sale sequence, but my clients were nonprofits and social enterprise organizations, and in doing these strategies, I was completely ignoring that this is just not how they were going to buy. And I hear stuff like this all the time. These are some actual scenarios that women have shared with me in actual conversations recently. So another coach I know was telling me about a woman that she was working with, and this woman had been very senior at the last company she worked with. She was like in the C suite, and now she works directly with CEOs in her advisory and coaching business, and you know, she wanted to get more clients make more money, like all the things, and so she created a 14 day challenge. And my coach friend was like, Hold on one second. How many of your CEO clients are going to do a 14 day challenge? And the thing is that a 14 day challenge isn't wrong, it's just a mismatch. It's right for the right kinds of clients, but wrong for a consulting business and the kind of clients that she wanted. Another client of mine is an Instructional Designer for startups and mid sized companies, and when I first talked to her, she was exasperated. She was like, I've been trying to do this, meaning trying to get clients and build the business. She's like, I've been trying to do this for three do this for three years. She's like, I did a growth marketing course. I built funnels, and it just didn't work. And that's because, you know, quote, unquote, growth marketing and funnels like these are super buzzy terms, and a funnel might work to sell, you know, a $99 product, but not instructional design engagements worth 10s of 1000s of dollars. And finally, recently, I talked to a woman who does PR for brands in the industry where she came from, and the coach that she had talked to just before she talked to me told her that to get clients and build her business, she needed a $97 thing, like a course or something. And she was like, Leah, I just feel like there's no scenario in which the C level people I'm selling to are going to buy a $97 thing. And she's right. And listen, I know that. When you hear me talk about it here, it's like, Duh, you know, like, obviously, these are not going to work. But when you're in the thick of it, and when you're running your consulting business, and all your clients come from referrals, and you're not sure where the next client is going to come from. You're very susceptible to trying things that you see out there. And there's actually another big reason that we're going to talk about in a little bit. So when I say that B to C strategies won't work for B to B, a lot of women will ask me, so which are the B to C tactics and which are the B to B tactics? And what we're really looking at here isn't just the tactics themselves, it's the overall strategy. So just to sort of explain this at a high level, I want to share something that I shared in the academy A while back, because this question actually came up a while ago, and this is the audio from a video that I've shared with my clients on what makes something B to B versus B to C.

Leah Neaderthal9:45

So I love this conversation around B to B versus B to C. You know, it's not about like, which tactic here and which tactic there, because the tactics that we've been talking about, you know, in this conversation are really around leads, right? How do you get leads? And the difference between B. B and B to C is that B to C assumes that you can get a lead and get a client, right? There might be some sort of warm up process, but the person who maybe signs up for your thing might also be the person who purchases your thing using a credit card, right? Like, that's why you get somebody who, like, if there's a whole funnel designed to get you to purchase like a $47 thing as a way to get you to later purchase like $1,000 thing, right? Or a $2,000 thing. But in B and B, there is no universe in which a CMO is going to buy a $47 thing and then buy a $50,000 you know, marketing contract with your firm, right? And so a lot of those sales tactics are B to C. So in your note above, around, like the, you know, is it shoulder tapping? Is it lead, you know, posting on LinkedIn. And I think you had mentioned that, like the, the B to B part is in the attract, right? The B to B part is actually in the guide and in the close because it assumes that there's an actual sales process that has to take place, right? There are tactics that we use to get leads, but we don't ever assume, in B to B that just because somebody signs up for your newsletter, you're going to send them a warm up sequence, and then they're going to, like, sign on for $75,000 worth of, like, leadership consulting, right? So there are tactics that work to attract some of the right people for B to B right, like being on LinkedIn, shoulder taps, etc, but B to B just acknowledges that you have to actually lead a sales process, all right? I hope that

Leah Neaderthal11:43

helps, okay? So you can have tactics that might look similar in B to C and B to B. You can have a lead magnet, or an opt in, where people download it and start to understand what you do, and they start to hear from you and whatnot. Or you can post on LinkedIn, or you can do a shoulder tap Email to start a warm conversation, you can do a webinar, you know, what have you. And the big difference is getting B to B. Clients can start anywhere, but it takes an actual sales process to get the actual client. So no matter how you might get someone's interest right, even if it's through a referral, or when they just raise their hand to work with you. That's when the sales process begins. But we don't have a lead magnet, you know, quote unquote, to get clients the same way, we don't post on LinkedIn. Quote, unquote, to get clients, we use smart marketing to help the right clients warm up so that we can start a sales process with them. Because to get B to B clients, it involves an actual sales process. So when I say you heard me say that the B to B part is not necessarily in attract, which is one of the pillars of our system right all about bringing the right potential clients to you. The real secret of getting B to B clients is in the two other pillars of the system guide about how to lead a sales process and close about how to help clients actually say yes. And you need to be able to do both to actually get a B to B client. And you've actually probably seen this play out in your world too, because think about if you've ever started talking to a potential client and you've had some great calls and great meetings or whatever, and then your client has to go talk to somebody else, like the CMO or a supervisor or whatever, to talk about it, and then it just sort of goes quiet. Then you know that just because you get a lead doesn't mean that they become a client. Or if you've ever had a potential client and you sent them a proposal and nothing happens, it just doesn't go anywhere. Then you know that just because you get a lead doesn't mean they actually say Yes, right? Because when you're selling to businesses or organizations, clients need to sell you in internally. They have to get people on board. They have to help other people understand why this is the most important problem to solve, and they have to secure budget. And these are all things that you as a service provider, you can help with when you know how to actually sell into a company. And this is the part that's completely ignored in these b to c approaches, and that's why they just won't work for B to B. And in a little bit, I'm going to give you a few easy tests that you can use to quickly tell if something is B to B or B to C. All right, so why does this matter so much like, why is it a problem to fall into this trap? Well, there are a few reasons. First, if you fall into this trap, you're wasting time, right? The most valuable resource you have in your business is your time, and if you're barking up the wrong tree, as it were, by trying something that isn't going to work, then you're squandering your most valuable resource. And also, not to mention, because a typical B to B sales process takes anywhere from three to 18 months, you're putting a whole lot of time between you and even the start of that process, I want. Talk to a woman who does marketing consulting and to get companies and brands as her clients, she created a low cost membership product, like a membership community or whatever, trying to get people in and then warm them up to sell her services. And when I talked to her, her goal was to build her marketing business enough to where she could quit her full time job, and years later, she's actually still in that job, because she was spending her time on a strategy that wouldn't work to get the kinds of clients she wanted. And of course, you also waste money, right? I talked to a lot of women who spend a lot of money on coaches and programs, and they implement these B to C strategies that just aren't going to work for B to B. Of course, you know, I mentioned that I did this too, right? And in Episode 67 I talked to Kathy Ali, who said that she spent 10s of 1000s of dollars on strategies to create funnels and products and whatever that didn't in any way help her sell her consulting services to colleges and universities. So, of course, another problem is that you waste money. And if you started your business to make money to support your life, obviously the last thing you want to do is waste it. But the biggest reason why this is such a problem, and I think the one that's most damaging, is this. It completely wrecks your confidence. It can feel like you're trying all this stuff, but it's not working, and you don't know why you know. So people do all these things and wonder, like, why you know they're growing their newsletter list, for example, and why that isn't turning into clients for their consulting business. And of course, type a overachievers like us, we hate doing something, and it doesn't work right? Like we tried our best things should work, right? It makes us feel like we've done something wrong. And, I mean, we hate not doing something right or perfect. If this is you, am I right? If you're nodding right now, it's definitely me. And trying these things that don't work, and spending time and money and not getting clients can make you feel like you don't know what you're doing, or you're not cut out for running a business, because you can't make clients happen, and it can make you feel like everyone else must have this figured out, you know, so why isn't it working for you? All of this is soul crushing, and it's completely unnecessary, and the reason why this grinds my gears so much is I see women wasting tons of money on these strategies, hoping it'll get them consulting clients and wondering what they're doing wrong, and they start to doubt themselves. And I just want to tell them, there's nothing wrong with you. You're not doing the strategies wrong. These strategies are for B to C and they weren't ever going to work for your B to B business. So we've talked about what doesn't work, and I want to talk about what does work. When you're selling B to B, to sell B to B, you have to build what we call the know, like and trust factor. People have to know what you do. They have to like you, and they have to trust that you can do what you say you can. And that process of building the know, like and trust factor can take a lot longer in B to B than in B to C, because you're not just building that factor with one person. You have to empower and enable that person to sell you into other people. Because in B to B, clients don't just have to make a decision for themselves. It's higher stakes because they're putting their professional reputation on the line by recommending you or bringing you in. So you have to give them time to learn about you by building the know, like and trust factor, by showing up online and letting them learn about you consistently. You also have to know how to lead a sales process, because one thing that I want everyone to know is that you're not just an expert in what you do in your business, right the service you provide, you're also an expert in how to buy from you, and it's up to you to lead the sales process. To sell in a client B to B, you have to put together your services and pricing in such a way that clients can actually say yes to that, and you have to write a proposal that actually gets signed. And lastly, what also works in B to B is helping your main client do what we call navigating the jungle so that you can actually help them get the Work Sold in. So all of this takes time, but it's absolutely worth it. And of course, not to mention critical if you're going to sell into companies or organizations. So right about now, if you've spent time or money on something that didn't work, or if you've thought about doing something like that, you might be feeling a certain way. Maybe you're kicking yourself a little bit, or maybe you're feeling a little embarrassed, like, how could I, as a smart woman, how could I have done that? And I know that feeling too. Remember, I've done all these things, and I want you to know. I need you to listen to this. It's not your fault, especially if you've ever stared down a client pipeline that looks kind of empty, or you're waiting for something to land, or you have a cash flow crunch, no one would fault you for wanting to try something to get clients. And as a small business owner trying to navigate this world of entrepreneurship, it's actually really confusing, because nearly all the marketing and sales that we experience as entrepreneurs is B to C, or, I guess you'd say B to E, right? Like business to entrepreneur, because depending on how big your company is like for most solopreneurs. Selling to solopreneurs like us is actually very similar to selling to individuals. So we experience all the marketing that's designed to get us to hire coaches to help us. And so we see this type of marketing, and we see these strategies directed at us, and we think, Well, you know, that must be what I have to do, too. But the marketing and sales that we need to get B to B clients has to be aligned with how B to B companies make decisions. So what we see, what's visible, is B to C, B to B stuff is actually pretty hidden, because it's not directed at us. It's not going to be, you know, an ad to a lead magnet, and then you get retargeted to join a facebook group, and then the group owner goes live once a week, or whatever, you'll always see more marketing strategies targeted for B to C, because it's targeting you as a solopreneur, not B to B, B to B, marketing and sales will largely be hidden from you. But there's another reason why it's not your fault that you should somehow know about B to B versus B to C strategies. And I'm just going to come right out and say it, oh my God, my heart. My heart's like pounding right now. I'm just going to come out and say this. There are a ton of business and sales coaches out there, and tons of marketing coaches, and most of them have no idea how B to B works, even the ones that are big names, even the ones that you probably know, have no idea how to sell B to B. And I know this because for some of them, I actually bought those programs, and so I experienced it firsthand, but I also know this because I hear from women who are coached by them or were in their programs, who tried their stuff and realized their stuff doesn't work for the business clients that they want. And that's when they come to me. I just talked to a woman last week whose marketing coach had her doing this. You know what the coach called like a three step process? And it went like this. Number one, build awareness, get people into a Facebook group and engage a whole lot. Step two, once a month, host a joint Facebook Live with one of the guests who you've identified would be a good client for you. And then step three, the woman I was talking to goes like this. She goes and then step three, ideally, the sale. And I was just like, what like step three? Ideally, the sale. Like, I was baffled. Ideally, the sale is, like, a three to 18 month thing that you have to navigate. And there's no just like step three. Ideally, the sale. But most business coaches and most marketing coaches have no idea how to get B to B clients, so their strategy stops that, and then you get the sale. And anyone who tells you that, quote, unquote, the principles translate just further, proves that they don't know what they're talking about, and they're just trying to get you into their program or group, or course, whatever will make them successful, rather than think about what will make you successful. And this is not the first time I've heard something like this. I hear this all the time. It makes me so mad, because it does such an incredible disservice to women who just want to know what to do to get clients right so they can do great work. And frankly, it's not honest, because you're promising women that they can get clients and your sales strategy sounds like quote, and then you get the sale like, that's just not how it works. So again, it's not your fault. Don't feel bad. In this world of entrepreneurship and tons of coaches, it's confusing, and a lot of people out there are making it really easy for you to accidentally spend money on the wrong thing. So I want to give you a few quick tests to know if something is B to B or B to C, so that you don't waste time or money or heartache trying to use B to C strategies to get B to B clients. And it's really in the language. Like I'm a total word nerd, I think language holds a lot of clues, and so I'm going to tell you how to read the clues. And there are four big ones. The first thing is, pay attention to how it is that people are assumed to buy in this strategy. I'm going to go through a bunch of these So words like funnel or sales funnel, automated sales sequence, getting clients with just one call, or getting clients without a sales call, or getting clients from a Facebook group or anything low cost, like a course or a membership or what have you with, the hope of selling them into a bigger thing, like I saw a prominent business coach whose tagline for getting clients was get leads. Automate sales, like that sort of thing. None of these work for B to B because they assume that the lead is also the buyer, and that you can get the sale in this way. And that's just not true in B to B. So one quick, really easy test for you to figure out if something is B to B or B to C, is this? Ask yourself for whatever this method is, when I was working for somebody else, when I was working in corporate or what have you, and I hired service providers. Could I have hired a consultant in this way, like, could I have hired a consultant through an automated sales sequence or by purchasing on an optimized website? If the answer is no, it's B to C. The second way to tell if it's B to B or B to C is to ask yourself, Is this really sales, or is it actually marketing? So a lot of what people say gets sales is actually not sales. It's marketing. So for example, writing better landing page copy or better emails, doing what's called social selling, getting speaking gigs or growing your newsletter or starting a blog or getting more followers. This is all marketing, but it's not sales. You don't get clients in this way. The third way to tell if it's B to B or B to C is whether it's about buying fast. I've seen a bunch of promises from really popular, prominent business coaches that sound like, you know, make 10k in 10 days. That's an actual email I got from somebody recently. And that same coach actually promised that you can make 100k in 60 days. Or I've seen 30k in 30 days. Book Yourself Solid in 30 days, stuff like that. And you see this all the time. This might be the case for B to C, but the truth is that B to B just takes longer. There is no like, do this thing and get these clients. One of my clients actually talked about this in the academy group. She said, so I kind of feel like the internet is full of B to C sales coaches who've made it sound like clients get back to us within days, and if you haven't heard and insert some teensy number here that it'll never happen and you need to apply pressure or something that is the opposite of my experience with clients, whether they're corporate, nonprofit or government, a current client contact and I were talking about a project for a year Before we sign, and they're now my biggest client. So that's why this clue is so important. If it promises that you'll get clients quickly, it's B to C, and the fourth is a little more of a semantic thing. It's a little wonky. Remember, I'm a total word nerd, but you can find clues in the language that's used to describe what you'll be selling, words like high ticket, signature, offer, irresistible offer, these just don't relate to consulting. I mean, high ticket is a term that coaches use to differentiate from low ticket, right? Like an online course for $99 so again, allowing me to just get a little wonky about words here, but you actually don't need to call consulting high ticket, because consulting is high dollar amount already. So if the tactics that you're learning are to sell high ticket, it's probably referring to selling something more expensive to the same people you were selling a low ticket thing to. And okay, now this is even, like, super, super wonky, but even words like sales, or, quote, unquote, get sales. Like I don't even like actually calling it sales or getting sales, because I think it places the focus on the sale, like the transaction, versus the relationship that you have with a client. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this, and I haven't quite been able to articulate it. So maybe this is just a personal thing, but when somebody says quote, unquote get sales, I just don't think it gives enough respect to the client and just the relationship and the fact that you'll be working together. So quote, unquote, sales or get sales is a clue for me. So again, quick cheat sheet on how to tell if it's B to B or B to C. Number one, the how, when you were working in corporate or working for somebody else, could you have said yes in this way? Number two, is it really selling, or is it actually marketing? Number three, is it promising speed? And number four, is it using language that isn't relevant to consulting? So I hope that helps you as you start to see and interpret the messages that you're getting. So I want to end on a lighter note, like I don't want you to think I'm just crapping on B to C, because there are some things that B to C does well, that B to B can actually learn a thing or two from and having seen both sides, I've seen that there are some benefits. So for example, people who market B to C, they know they need to show up and be seen, not do what a lot of women consultants do, which is spend a lot of time being quietly awesome and not showing up in B to C. They know they have to use multiple touch points, like posting on LinkedIn, sending a newsletter and doing some personal. Emotional outreach, not just doing what a lot of women consultants I see do, which is send an email every now and then to the people they know, asking for referrals. And in B to C marketing, they know that you have to make an offer and actually tell people that you have a service that can help them, instead of what a lot of women consultants I see do, which is just hesitating and feeling weird about even telling people that you can help them. So when you can sprinkle in a little b to c confidence on top of a sound B to B marketing and sales strategy, that's where the magic really happens. So I hope I've been able to share why a B to C approach won't work to get B to B clients, and why it's actually easy to get duped into spending time and money on B to C strategies that won't work. And I hope you've come away from this knowing how to avoid making that mistake or avoid making it again. And if you know somebody who needs to hear this episode, please take a moment to share it. Just remember that your time is the most valuable resource in your business, so spend it on what's going to work so that you can build a profitable, fulfilling consulting business.

Leah Neaderthal31:10

Hey, everything we're talking about in this episode is part of the system. Women like you are learning in the academy. In the Academy, we help women consultants install the two systems every B to B, consultant needs a marketing system to consistently attract the right clients, and a sales system to lead a sales process to a yes and get paid more for every contract. So even if you've only gotten clients through referrals or word of mouth in the academy, you'll learn how to attract and sign clients outside your network, how to lead a sales process with confidence, and how to get paid for your value, not your time, and there's no cold calling or cold emailing involved, no changing your services or making a course, and you won't use any pushy sales tactics. That's just not our vibe. So if you like what you've heard here, the academy may be your right next step to learn how you can get these two systems in your consulting business and make progress faster and with fewer roadblocks. Head to smart gets paid.com/academy and apply and we can chat about next steps. All right. See you over there. Transcribed by https://otter.ai