May 13th, 2010 by admin

Commercial relationships between organizations are referred to as business to business marketing. The shorter name is B2B marketing and it has different peculiarities from regular business to consumer marketing by the means of distribution, usually labeled as direct. Experts discuss the two variants in parallel since there are both similarities and distinctions between them.

Referring to consumer marketing, the population gets access to products and services through retailers in a very simple process. With business to business marketing, transactions are not closed without negotiations between seller and buyer.

In terms of similarities, business to consumer marketing and business to business marketing rely on identical mechanisms that correspond to the guidelines of traditional marketing. Yet, things are a lot more complex than you may suspect beyond these apparent similarities. The following features correspond to both B2C and B2B marketing.

-They define a target market and make efforts to adjust the product or service to the consumers’ needs.
-Businesses have to advertise regardless of their end clients.
-The target market should have a good idea about the value of the products or services.
-The prices and the strength of the product/service must meet the general market tendencies.

The status of the seller is usually easy to define in business to business marketing, although we can’t say the same thing about the buyer. The so-called businesses that correspond to the other category here belong to separate classes of clients, and each has to be approached differently. There are companies that consume services and products, resellers, government agencies and institutions.

The businesses that work as consumers depend on equipment and services for their activities. Then, business to business marketing for institutions involves collaboration with nursing homes, hospitals, churches, schools and charity organizations. The government with all the corresponding agencies is the biggest consumer of all, if we think of local governments too. And finally, distributors, wholesalers and resellers work both with business to business market, as buyers, and with business to consumer, as sellers.

Larger sums of money enter the circuit with business to business marketing because the partners involved in the transactions are companies. Moreover, the volume of the merchandise is also different, together with the promotional means, the discounts, the pricing structures and lots of others. Therefore, beyond common grounds for B2B marketing and B2C marketing, each approach has its specificity and separate operational mode.

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August 24th, 2009 by Bruce

There are an amazing array of different factors involved when purchasing a business. This is especially true when you are negotiating to own a business in the retail sector. You should always ensure that you don’t leave anything unturned so you can provide yourself with the very best possible shot at achieving your dreams in this highly competitive business arena.

So where do you start? You have to learn what to look for, and develop an excellent understanding of the hurdles you’ll need to deal with in order to drive a retail business up to its ideal performance threshold. It’s also absolutely essential to develop a clear understanding of why some businesses are a resounding success, while others are a complete failure.

Successful businesses share many common factors – crucial components, if you will – and one of the first things you should do is to assess whether the entity you are considering has these factors, or may be modified accordingly.

When you own a business you need a great deal of professional advice and help and this is also the case when you are negotiating to buy a business. Search for professionals who have a significant amount of experience in your specific niche and area of the retail business arena. When it comes to brokers and intermediaries, make sure that you understand that the business broker formally represents the seller and has a role to play – you should bear in mind their allegiance. Always strive to have an excellent relationship with the seller, as they will be crucial in the post contract phase, and you also endeavour to develop a professional relationship with the broker while involved in any negotiations as well.

When you’re actively going through a list of businesses for sale, ensure that you’ve categorized the essential criteria. Depending on your requirements, there may be as many as 70 key points that you should go over when looking through the listings, so always look for all of these important elements – both good and bad. Some extra attention at this point will cut your list down to a much more reasonable number.

When you have moved to the actual discussion stage, arm yourself with a list of critical questions to ask the seller. You have to really focus and search for important indicators. Usually, you can discover some useful insight into their background by putting your questions forward in a calculated manner. You should always ensure that when you’ve complete this stage you’ve acquired a solid understanding of the business.

Financials are often very difficult to understand, especially for a layman. This is where your independent accountants and advisers come in and help you to understand the numbers. There are several things to look for and several pitfalls to avoid, at this stage. Know how to analyze the figures and draw your conclusions accordingly.

Whilst it is important to know how to value a business and you should use proven and tested formulae, you should make sure that you bring in your advisers at every stage to help you understand this process. You definitely don’t want to pay too much when you buy business assets and goodwill. In some instances it just doesn’t make sense to utilize a strict formula to value a business, which might or might not rely on quite a bit of supposed “goodwill”, and it might be necessary to put together an earnout formula to assist you in such a case. If you do decide to buy a retail business based on your findings to this point, you will also need to make sure that you have covered all the financing elements and it is important to try and get the seller involved at this stage. This will inevitably focus the attention of the seller, as he or she will be involved with you for the forseeable future and it is in their best interests to make sure that they are also structuring a great deal.

When you come to the formalities of closing a deal, there are of course numerous legal and documentary issues to address. As you look forward, make sure that you have a very clear plan to help you through the transition, and on into the future. This is a whole new topic in itself, but you do need to make sure that the smooth running of the business suffers the least disruption, and that you do not “spook” the customers!

Richard Parker is the President and founder of the prestigious Diomo Corporation – The Business Buyer Resource Center. His celebrated materials, seminars and consulting have encouraged thousands of aspiring business buyers from around the World to pursue their dream of buying a business.

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