Question

Charles Renner has been considering the implications of senior management’s new growth strategy. As head of sales for Integrity Building Supplies, he has been responsible for a sales force of more than 300 sales people that sold building supplies to contractors and large developers around the country. He, and more importantly, his sales force, knew how to sell the company’s products and services in a business-to business setting. They had a great reputation in the home-building business and for many contractors integrity had become their supplier of first choice for many basic building supplies.

Senior Management at Integrity, however, had determined there was a real opportunity for company growth by creating a retail (business-to-consumer) channel to target the homeowner wanting to take on home repair projects. The managers believed that they could not compete with Home Depot and Lowe’s on price or selection but they could compete successfully on service. Charles agreed that the home do-it-yourself market was huge and Home Depot and Lowe’s did not often provide adequate post-sale service or guidance to individuals wanting to take on these types of projects.

The company’s board of directors had approved Integrity’s move into retail operations and targeted two cities, Atlanta and Dallas, as test markets for the concept. They were both large cities with a significant number of homeowners who enjoyed do-it-yourself projects, in addition Dallas was the Headquarters for Integrity.

Among the many challenges facing Charles as he pondered the future was the sales culture at integrity. The company had been a B2B organization for its entire 60 year history. Everyone in the organization, including him, knew how to sell to other businesses (contractors, developers) but had no experience selling to consumers who had much less understanding of the products, or how to use them. He knew that to become a B2C company would require a number of changes to the sales culture.

Questions:

1. What are the major difference Charles will encounter between a B2B selling environment and a B2C environment?
2. As head of sales for Integrity, what are the two most significant challenges Charles will encounter in putting together a retail sales force?

Answer 1

Answer: In this digital world the ease of doing business has changed a lot and because of these The sales has become very challenging.Today the customer in B2B does not take sales person very seriously and do spend time in researching with your competitor and deciding the parameters for their purchase.

The challenges did Charles may encounter in B2B sales are as follows

1. Conversion of a customer: In B2B business the sales leads are very important because it helps the Company to reach out those B2B business and Target the customer and make the sale.
2. Retaining of B2B customers: B2B business is much more complex than B2C because it is different and B2B sales takes typically longer time especially in niche industries.
3. Time-consuming: To make the customer base of B2B is very different than b2c Because it operates in niche or complex industries Because of which it is very time-consuming. In this type of business it is sometimes it is heard from   the prospects  once and never again.
4. Demonstration: Product demonstration is another challenge that may be faced by Charles.Product demonstration in B2B business is very important as it helps the customer to know the product well and it serves as an additional benefit to the customer As it helps in understanding the product well.

Another challenge is that Charles man encounter in B2C Service follows

1. This type of business is generally easier then As it is not as the complexity of business and most products and easily shippable, there is no tax complexity and the products are not heavily regulated.
2. Products and services are directly sold to the customer through distribution channel and it is not as complex Provided the distribution channel is very strong.
3. In this type of Business the participation of the customer is very participative because of which  the sales increases rapidly.

Therefore in both the business model to overcome these challenges they are priorities that need to be created by the seller and work on it The second part..

The second part.

The major challenges that Charles may encounter while it is sales are as  follows.

1. The expectations of the customer in retail changes very rapidly Therefore is the retailer you should always keep an eye on seasonal trends as Willis customer shopping behaviour. You have to see what is trending and what is not.
2. In retail industry maintaining customer loyalty is another challenge that retailer has to keep in mind.
3. The Retail operation is very complex, the front-end , back-end and the support team need to be synchronised together and constantly work asa team to achieve the goal.