Photo courtesy of Christian Sann, SCVNGR
By Barbara Bix
To one side of me sat a business development professional from a detective agency. To the other side, was an owner of an eye glass store in a downtown mall that seeks to make his store a “destination”. Both had come to learn about how to use social media to market their businesses. Moreover, the packed ball room was standing room only.
“All star” panel on social media
Paul Gillin, author of The New Influencers and a leading authority on B2B marketing, just published a draft of the first chapter of his upcoming book, Social Marketing to the Business Customer on his blog. He had me on the second page when he spelled out what I’ve always seen as the differences between B2B and B2C sales–but have never been able to articulate as clearly. 
The points Paul makes –about buyers’ focus on value, group decision-making, and sales cycle length especially resonate with me as someone who focuses on marketing IT products and professional services to corporations.
A lot of what we read and hear about social media focuses on how businesses can use it to market to consumers (B2C). Yet, as a business-to-business marketing consultant, I’m far more interested in its B2B applications.
This is perhaps the main reason I was looking forward to Paul Gillin’s breakfast seminar at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council last week. The other reason is that Paul has an uncanny ability to connect the dots in ways that add new meaning to any topic that he addresses.
B2B Marketing differs from B2C marketing
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