Today’s post takes a look inside Signworld’s hybrid business model to explain how our focus on business-to-business (B2B) sales maximizes profits for our partners. Specifically, we spotlight 3 major benefits of B2B transactions and how the Signworld alliance optimizes them all.
B2B vs. B2C Signage Sales
Generally speaking, there are two forms of commercial transactions: business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C).
There are a number of major differences between these two forms, including:
- Unique purchasing processes. Consumers buy signage for personal use, such as helping to advertise a yard sale or to assist with wayfinding at a big party. These purchase decisions are personal and usually finalized after a one-on-one sign consultation.In B2B transactions, the purchasing process is much more complex. Purchase decisions will involve entire groups of people, tapping into the collective knowledge of technical, business, financial, and operational departments. Sometimes the person selecting the product does not have authority to complete the purchase without approval from the higher-ups.
- Payment and pricing differences. In B2C transactions, all consumers pay the same price and typically complete the purchase at the point of sale using standard pay mechanisms. In contrast, B2B transactions usually require more complex systems in which the buyer selects products, places an order, arranges for delivery, and then pays later when invoiced. B2B pricing is typically more flexible as well.
- Completely different sales experience. As previously discussed, B2B sales usually take longer, involve more stakeholders, and come from smaller lead pools, all of which drastically alter the sales experience. B2B sales also require a different level of product knowledge. Compared to average consumers, business customers require a much deeper technical knowledge base, both in regards to their needs and the product’s components. As such, B2B sales force you to be “on top of your game” and focus on substantive value rather than cheap sales tricks.
Though Signworld partners do partake in B2C sales (e.g. creating signage for a wedding, private party, or yard sale), the majority of your sales will be B2B transactions. And that’s a great thing!
Benefits of Signworld’s B2B Model
- Stable customers. Without question, there is less demand for private signage than there is for commercial signage. We recognized this dynamic early on and designed our model to optimize B2B sales.To make the most of B2B transactions, we offer an extensive catalogue of custom business signage. This allows our partners to help the biggest number of businesses and generate bigger bottom lines. And if you can’t do the job in-house, we can help you outsource the work–whatever it takes to get the job done! We also give all partners protected territories consisting of a contiguous cluster of zip codes which contains up to 3,000 businesses. You have exclusive access to these businesses–no other Signworld partner will sell in the designated area–and your website gives you global sales capacities.
- Better work-life balance. B2B customers tend to keep standard working hours upon which you can rely to set your schedule. This means you avoid late nights, holiday shifts, and odd hour work commitments.
- More exciting (and profitable) projects. Few B2C transactions will involve the kind of big budgets and high-level features that B2B projects require. This can be a good thing for small shop without a lot of design or production power, but established sign shop owners can get bored with small projects. More importantly, these small projects don’t pay as well. B2B projects, on the other hand, can be awe-inspiring and immensely profitable, like Tiger Works Signs and Graphics overhauling the signage for six whole apartment complexes.
Learn more about the Signworld business opportunity at https://signworld.org/.
