B2B Business Marketing to Drive Profitability Without Losing Hard-Earned Margin 🏜️
What is the best B2B business marketing? What is the great way to increase customer prices safely in an industrial B2B business (i.e., to drive profitability without losing volume or hard-earned margin and revenue)?
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In this article, we will discuss B2B business marketing. We will also explore how to implement highly effective price rise management strategies that deliver immediate profit improvement to a B2B business without volume loss. Even for manufacturers and distributors operating within highly competitive, margin-constrained B2B industries.
We’ll argue that the much-trusted cost-plus approach has outlived its purpose and should be put to rest.
What is B2B Business Marketing?
B2B business marketing refers to any marketing strategy or content aimed at a company or organisation. B2B marketing strategies are typically used by enterprises that sell products or services to other businesses or organisations. For instance, businesses that sell services, products, or SaaS to other businesses use B2B marketing. The goal of B2B marketing is to familiarise target customers with your brand name and the value of your product or service to convert them into clients.
B2B business marketing differs from what B2C companies do. How? B2B and B2C marketing strategies and processes are not the same in terms of their audiences and how they communicate with them. In fact, B2B marketing is concerned with the necessities, preferences, and issues of individuals who make purchases on behalf of, or for, their company, thereby making the company the customer.
Segmentation And Targeting In B2B Marketing
Segmentation and targeting in B2B business marketing are crucial for effective customer outreach and revenue generation. For instance, segmentation involves dividing the market into distinct groups based on characteristics such as industry, company size, and geographic location. Targeting involves selecting specific segments to focus marketing efforts on.
By segmenting the market, B2B businesses can better understand the diverse needs and preferences of different customer groups. For example, a software company may segment its market into small businesses, mid-sized enterprises, and large corporations. This segmentation allows the company to tailor its marketing messages and pricing strategies to each segment’s unique requirements.
Targeting enables B2B businesses to allocate resources more efficiently by concentrating efforts on segments with the highest potential for profitability. For instance, a consulting firm specializing in IT services may choose to target segments within the healthcare industry that have a high demand for cybersecurity solutions.
Transitioning from segmentation to targeting involves evaluating each segment’s attractiveness and compatibility with the company’s capabilities and objectives. This process helps B2B businesses prioritize segments that align with their strengths and offer significant growth opportunities.
Effective segmentation and targeting in B2B marketing require ongoing analysis and refinement. B2B businesses should regularly review market trends, customer feedback, and competitive dynamics to ensure their segmentation and targeting strategies remain relevant and effective.
Segmentation and targeting are essential components of B2B business marketing strategy. By dividing the market into distinct segments and focusing resources on the most promising opportunities, B2B businesses can enhance their competitiveness and drive sustainable growth.
B2B Business Marketing And Pricing Decisions
In times of uncertainty (i.e., during a downturn, when demand is uncertain, the supply chain falters or when FX and raw material prices fluctuate), B2B industrial companies find themselves in an awkward position of having to increase or decrease pricing quickly to cover costs or drive volume. But the problem with this largely tactical approach to pricing though is that: 1) businesses usually apply modest increases at year-end or 2) apply blanket price increases across entire categories or portfolios to offset rising costs or 3) slash prices to maintain volume and never regain price positioning in the market.
Thus, the real shame in all of this is that all three of these pricing decisions are damaging to the P&L – the businesses’ P&L and across the value chain too (i.e., their customers and their customers’ customers P &L).
In fact, when the realisation hits that most price change initiatives are destroying value, many industrial companies have already lost some of their hard-earned customers, revenue and margin – or have even gone into liquidation.
Sometimes, though, after price rise mistakes have been made and the damage has been done, a few senior executives will reflect on their financial situation and seek out help from consultants. Unfortunately, though, the advice they seem to favour above all is ‘strategic cost down programmes’. Such as major cost-cutting and culling of talent.
However, when implementing a business marketing management for B2B, getting the desired EBIT figures you need to get over a slump in the economy requires a realistic growth strategy. Also, expertise and the development of a new commercial strategy and infrastructure – including a totally new price architecture. Cutting costs alone is not a sustainable way to maximise margins.
Saying that, of course, a lot of companies don’t invest in strategic pricing. This is because they know that proper pricing is a step-change in commercial thinking and culture too. For many executives, a step into the unknown can be a daunting pursuit or a place they aren’t willing to go. Especially for executives that are risk-averse or personally benefit from the status quo.
Switching to value-based pricing…
But, for many industrial companies in 2021, margin pressure is intense and getting worse. The old reliance on ‘Cost-plus” pricing is just not working to get the ROI required or even cover costs. Changing markets, supply chain issues and the increase in raw material costs have shown up many weaknesses in a fairly fixed and rudimentary “cost-plus” pricing modelling.
At Taylor Wells Advisory, we strongly believe that although cost-plus pricing may be a trusted approach for an industrial B2B business (especially those who view cost-plus as a goal), it’s certainly not optimal or a recommended approach at present.
In truth, many executives in B2B organisations already know this. Some executives are brave and seeking to find better pricing strategies and or moving from cost-plus to value-based pricing.
To remind you of what value-based pricing is, it is a customer-focused strategy that focuses on:
- discovering what your customer truly values about your products and business
- and then quantifying that value in economic terms to set prices and win more profitable deals
After all, price is the summation of the total economic value of your business – not just your products.
Cost-plus, on the other hand, is based on an overly complex cost allocation analysis with a simplistic percentage markup slapped on top. Cost-plus is accountancy-based, while value-based pricing is market-focused. As such, there is no market intelligence or analytics on the causal relationships between costs and volume and volume and price when setting new customer prices.
This mindset shift from cost-plus to value-based pricing may sound easy to follow in theory. However, pricing done properly can be more challenging in practice. For example, many companies offer hundreds or thousands of products across multiple categories and brands. Thus, optimising prices and building a B2B pricing architecture that is right for a business model, operations and industry will be a daunting task.
But with expertise, systems and advanced analytics, it is entirely possible for B2B industrial companies to overcome all these hurdles. Better price analytics, for example, can allow B2B businesses to measure and determine value in all major product categories. Such as standard units, configured products, engineered products, spare parts, and kits.
Value Proposition Development In B2B Business Marketing
Value proposition development is a crucial aspect of B2B business marketing. It involves identifying and communicating the unique value that a company offers to its customers. A strong value proposition clearly articulates the benefits and advantages of a company’s products or services compared to competitors.
Firstly, B2B businesses need to understand their target customers’ needs, challenges, and preferences. This understanding forms the foundation for crafting a compelling value proposition that resonates with the target audience. For example, a software company targeting small businesses may emphasize affordability, ease of use, and customer support in its value proposition.
Secondly, pricing plays a critical role in reinforcing the perceived value of a company’s offerings. B2B businesses must carefully align their pricing strategies with their value proposition to avoid undercutting the perceived quality or value of their products or services. For instance, a premium-priced product should be supported by features and benefits that justify the higher price point, thereby enhancing the perceived value proposition.
Transitioning from identifying to communicating the value proposition requires clear and concise messaging that highlights the key benefits and advantages of the company’s offerings. B2B businesses should leverage various communication channels such as websites, marketing materials, and sales presentations to effectively convey their value proposition to customers.
Regular evaluation and refinement of the value proposition are essential to ensure its relevance and effectiveness in the dynamic B2B marketplace. B2B businesses should continuously gather feedback from customers, monitor market trends, and assess competitive positioning to adapt their value proposition accordingly.
Identifying baseline pricing performance for B2B business marketing management
To improve your pricing capability, then, it’s very important to understand your current pricing situation first – with a clear view of where you perform well and where you don’t. Oftentimes, this part is either forgotten or avoided as executives race to take action to fix the problem. However, addressing issues with quick-fix price increases doesn’t address the nub of the problem.
To exemplify this point, we know an industrial firm that was habitually increasing its prices by 2-3% annually without much thought at all. The belief was that a 2 -3 % price rise was enough of an increase to maintain profitability for the business and deal with inflationary pressure increase without too much volume loss.
However, as time progressed and the market became more and more fragmented, the business found itself dealing with the risk of a profit downgrade. This was a surprise to many people in the business. The commercial team were quickly tasked to find out the cause leading to significant margin erosion.
Over a month or so, the commercial team monitored and compared past and current pricing performance. It didn’t take them too long to see that they should have issued variable price rises by brand or even SKU level rather than category or portfolio level.
Additionally, even though this industrial company increased its list prices by 3% yearly, the commercial team realised that their average sales price (ASP) decreased. They found that the gap for some goods was expanding between the list price and ASP. What’s more, the business was giving larger discounts to its distributors (and too frequently) immediately after the price rise was issued for at least 3 months. In the end, it was clear to all that they had lost all marginal revenue gains from their prior 3% price rise and created serious issues with their marketing positioning.
Key takeaways from this case study:
- The business didn’t take time to diagnose its problems and didn’t understand the level of its pricing problems required a strategic approach rather than a quick-fix tactical approach.
- The business didn’t have enough integrated business intelligence to monitor transactional level pricing data for each product or segment so didn’t even realise that its pricing approach was severely loss-making.
- Each of their brands depended on various pricing tools – i.e all of their pricing IP, systems were scattered and there was no centralised decision-making.
- Discretionary pricing was rife – each sales rep could and had the ability to set prices; making it very difficult in turn for the business to see how industrial pricing and profitability are different in all brands and regions.
- There was no pricing team to set and manage prices and revenue. Just a commercial team to do a post-mortem after the mistakes had been made and a finance team to calculate and implement a broad brush price rise.
In the end, the executive team had to deal with the huge gaps between their forecasted margin and realised margin quickly yet sensibly. Without 3 months of these poor profit results, the business installed a new strategic pricing function and a strategy execution plan based on the latest pricing rather than old-fashioned cost-plus pricing and tactical price rises.
Using a new method of product segmentation and list pricing in B2B business marketing
If industrial companies want to prevent these issues and get real pricing transparency, they have to build a high-performance pricing team. Apart from that, they need to spend time building an extensive transaction database with accurate cost, volume, price, and margin information for all their product portfolios. From this, they get an accurate insight into SKU-level profitability and know what direction to take with their product portfolio.
Here are some of the B2B business marketing management that industrial companies can implement:
1. Establishing a pricing standard for made-to-stock units
For standard units, companies use attribute-based pricing. To achieve this, they need to separate the portfolio into groups of the same products. Then determine the most vital features for each of them. Such as material, size, or performance according to their experience in the field.
After studying these data, businesses can implement analytical frameworks that evaluate all attributes. Then identify what each contributes to the product value. The frameworks will show several factors for evaluating value which often includes historical pricing information about products with the same features. Naturally, companies will obtain the model output along with their own knowledge of the market.
2. Developing quote tools for configured, made-to-order offers or projects
Pricing products that are uniquely configured to meet customer requirements is difficult. Most especially if the target market and feature set are big. For example, some companies have hundreds of products with thousands of features that can be customised. Thus, having more than a million potential offerings. In this case, companies should identify the value of the base model and the individual attribute. Just like the process for pricing standard units. Each customer segment must be examined when creating attribute prices when it comes to configured products,
3. Pricing for engineered-to-order units
Industrial companies normally don’t have any similar goods or products that they can use to set baseline pricing. Because customers buy engineered units to build something from scratch based on their specifications. Most of the time, deals for engineered units are attached to a project. Therefore, the exact unit specifications can’t be determined right away. To accurately price engineered units, industrial companies should identify all the attributes that they are likely to consider. Also, the customer’s willingness to pay for each one.
Customers often modify the specifications stated in their original order on projects for engineered units. Thus, industrial companies should follow a standard value-based methodology for pricing these changes to maintain their margins.
4. Pricing for spare parts
Spare parts and consumables normally account for approximately 20-40% of profit. But they make a much bigger contribution to a business’s profitability. Industrial companies may be hesitant to move from cost-plus pricing. However, a value-based approach can work for spare parts too. As long as companies create a few category-specific adjustments.
In identifying the value of spare parts, businesses should examine attributes such as: whether they are proprietary or nonproprietary. Also, the transaction features, like the frequency of purchase. Then estimate a customer’s willingness to pay by checking the resale price. Or a spare part’s list price as a percentage of the base-unit (kit price). However, they should aim for consistency in all the portfolio if they use the latter method.
5. Kitted parts pricing
Mostly, industrial companies determine kit prices by adding up the cost of all the items included. This approach allows for consistency and unit pricing is a more suitable benchmark. For example, the business offers some kit that contains dozens of items that are usually ordered from different suppliers.
The unit price would include the value of convenience to customers. Certainly, many customers are willing to pay for that value. Because they want to avoid looking for all those units from different suppliers and ordering multiple parts.
Determining discounts and commissions according to performance and customer group in B2B business marketing
When setting discounts, industrial companies don’t usually follow a common approach. Some businesses set them based on the sales volume of a product or performance tier. Others provide standard discounts, regardless of quantity or else reward distributors according to their willingness to follow specific requests. Many industrial companies use this method because they got it through acquisitions.
Industrial companies should be consistent with their discounting method with all of their products. They should consider factors like market demand, sales volume, and desired distributor behaviours. It’s important to note that the specific considerations included in the calculation and their relative importance may differ by company. For example, some industrial businesses might give the biggest discounts to distributors that have a huge inventory of long-tail SKUs. For the reason that they want end-customers to get quick access to essential spare parts. However, others may focus on distributors that have highly-trained support staff that can assist end-customers in understanding complex products.
Implications
- Industrial companies must create performance-management systems. Supported by tools that highlight the significance of pricing to build confidence in their new initiatives.
- In addition to pricing, industrial companies can take some other steps to improve margins on customised units by using B2B business marketing. With the configured products, industrial firms should also check each customer segment when creating attribute prices.
- For industrial companies, the increase in raw-material costs, however, could be a “blessing in disguise”. Now that they’re facing lower margins, they’re closely examining pricing for the first time in so many years. Also, thinking if the cost-plus approach is really the best one for B2B business.
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Bottom Line
Companies need to create a more detailed transaction database. That is if they want to avoid pricing mistakes and obtain real pricing transparency. One that has accurate price, cost, volume, and margin information.
Switching from a cost-plus approach to value-based pricing might improve a company’s return on sales by approximately 5-10%. Meaning, that pricing could be the lever that promotes the biggest and instant impact in a market where businesses face heightened competition and rising costs.
To achieve great results, industrial companies must be consistent with their discounting approach across all products. They should take into consideration elements like market demand, sales volume, and desired distributor behaviours.
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