B2B vs B2C CRM Features

 

B2B vs B2C CRM Features

Business owners can use the customer relationship management (CRM) software to organize their customers and track them. 

CRM has two types: 

1. B2B – Business-to-business
2. B2C – business-to-consumer

The difference is that B2B focuses on a company’s internal processes, while B2C is more focused on external consumers. 

Because B2B CRM software and B2C CRM software aren’t created equal.

A B2B CRM (which stands for Business to Business Customer Relationship Management) is a software platform used to manage your customer (and potential customer) relationships. Your cold leads to your long-serving customers enable you to see and manage all information from sales, marketing, and customer service in one platform.

B2B deals tend to be quite large and can involve multiple decision-makers. Sales cycles can also range from weeks to months, where there can be a lot of communication across various channels. A B2B CRM has features and capabilities to fit your company’s needs and manage all your customer relationships in one place.

Differences between B2B & B2C CRM

Now let’s see how CRM systems are different based on the end audience. On the surface, they may look pretty similar. After all, marketing and selling — and the tools to accomplish them — are the same, no matter who the target customer is. Right?

Not so fast.

Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is a large matter — ’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”

The same goes for CRM software. “Almost right” for your company won’t cut it. You need a system that fits your company’s unique needs based on your selling environment.

B2B and B2C solutions will have overlapping features and capabilities, but their differences are significant enough that you need to distinguish between the two types. That’s why it’s valuable to thoroughly research the products on the market and build your list of CRM requirements ahead of time so you can more easily weed out the products made for a different sales process.

To help you understand the distinction between B2B CRM and B2C CRM, we put together a shortlist of the significant differences:

1. Complexity

B2B systems require more complexity because the B2B sales process is much more involved.

First, there’s channel complexity. A B2B company often works with vendor partners, resellers, or affiliate companies, selling to other businesses through multiple channels.

B2B CRM systems need to account for these diverse pipelines that target various products across a range of channels and markets. Pipeliner, for example, lets users create multiple pipelines that make it possible to track different buyer journeys. 

2. Sales Cycle Length

The B2B sales cycle is more like a marathon, while B2C decisions are similar to the 100-yard dash. The length of a sales cycle in the B2B world varies and depends on several factors, but it can last anywhere from a few months to upwards of a year.

B2C purchases can happen in as little as a few minutes. If you include the various marketing messages people are exposed to before they buy, that pushes it out to days, weeks or months in some cases. That’s still significantly shorter and requires software with features that cater to the shorter period.

3. Deal Sizes and Number of Leads

B2B purchases will almost always cost more. Sometimes significantly more. B2C products and services cost far less, apart from exceptions like down payments for a house or car. That impacts how a CRM is designed.

B2C companies focus on repeat purchases in the consumer world since they don’t get nearly the ROI from a single purchase as B2B companies do. This creates a need for deep data analysis. These insights can show B2C businesses how customers interact during each purchase, revealing trends and showing where users can cross-sell and upsell products.

On the flip side, B2C generates significantly more leads than B2B, which translates to a much higher number of customers. This means that the database in a B2C CRM needs to support a greater volume of leads and have deep functionality for handling data for thousands or millions of individuals.

Along those lines, B2C CRM systems also need more robust tools to handle marketing and customer retention in massive quantities. Another main difference is that B2C solutions include contact management elements to help sales and marketing teams track everyone in the system. Software for B2B efforts more often turns to tools for account management.

4. Marketing Touchpoints

In today’s information-soaked environment, the traditional, esteemed marketing funnel is a bit of a misnomer. Instead, the decision process is complex and more often mirrors Sam and Frodo’s wandering journey to Mordor than a neatly linear path.

That aside, for our purposes, the how — marketing funnel vs flywheel vs consumer decision journey — isn’t as important as the what. Namely, the different ways your company interacts with prospects, leads, and customers.

This goes back to complexity. If a company will drop $150,000 on new ERP software, they’ll need more convincing than a college student buying a refurbished MacBook Air. Therefore, the tools used to handle and track these touchpoints are different based on your audience.

B2B vs B2C CRM Features