Selling Sentiment in b2c and b2b -Trust, Service and Integrity

There are of course, both tactical and strategic differences between business to business (b2b) and business to consumer selling (b2c).

Yet it’s important to keep in mind that, in the end, people buy from people.

Whether it’s in-store, on line or in an office, salespeople connecting with their clients make the difference – things like trust, service and integrity are universal and transcend every marketing sector.

Yet in business if you want to manage - you need to measure. The easiest way to measure is to analyse numbers- these can range revenue figures to various activities leading to the sale.


Despite the current emphasis for Sales Processes, Sales Metrics and colourful 'Dashboards' there is still that inconvenient and time honoured truth that not all can be under our control.

 The reason for this is clients buy for not only logical /rational reasons but also for personal and emotional reasons.

Good selling will always be the mix of relationship building and getting commitment.

The Brand Enrichment report commissioned by Creston Unlimited was published this week in Marketing Week highlights all this.

Although primarily focused at consumer marketers it has interesting interesting findings to b2b as well.

Marketers tend not to talk about products but brands nowadays. In the study the researchers have found that there are 8 dimensions of brand enrichment that most often determine consumer’s reason for choosing a brand.choice. There is also a hierarchy in these influences.

These measures have been defined using qualitative research.

The 8 dimensions according to Creston Unlimited represent 83% of buying decisions

The research has then been used by ICM to form a 22 question  quantitative study

3,500 people were interviewed on a nationally representative Omnibus panel

The 8 dimensions were :

1. Pleasure

2. Confidence

3. Status

4. Responsibility

5. Effectiveness

6. Individuality

7. Saving

8. Belonging

“When indexing men and women against the total sample, the emotional value with which brands enrich women’s lives was greater across every dimension compared to men. This suggests that a brand targeted at men has to work harder to enrich men’s lives than a female orientated one,” the report discloses

  Pleasure Confidence Status Responsibility Effectiveness Individuality Saving  Belonging

Men          26%          11%       16%           15%           10%                 9%             6%           6%

Women     19%           22%       13%           13%           12%                 9%            8%           4%

Marketing Week 1st March 2012 Creston Unimited

Key points from the Creston Unlimited data.:-

• Pleasure drives 23% of all brand choices
• The emotional value with which brands enrich women’s lives was greater across every dimension compared to men
• For men, Pleasure was also the greatest brand choice driver at 26%, followed by Status and Responsibility
• For women, Confidence was the greatest brand choice driver at 22%, followed by Pleasure , Responsibility and Status
• The level of brand enrichment varies significantly according to income, with individuals earning £15,000 or less gaining significantly more emotional value from buying brands than the better of

•  Savings remains one of the lowest drivers for the less well off, despite their low income

• 89% of women earning below £15,000 are are 89% more likely than average to get pleasure from a brand.

• Well off men earning £50,000 feel much less enriched than the average person,as do men of 45-64

• Younger women get more from brands. Those aged 18-24 are more likely to feel that brands improve their lives than any other age group on every aspect except responsibility

• Men aged 45-65 care very little about status but it is a prime motivator for men aged 18-24. They are 115% more likely than average to believe owning a brand can elevate their status.



So it looks like the old adage still holds that :-

"There may be not much emotion in business but there is a hell of a lot of business in emotion !"

Related Links

Value Selling evolution


http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/10/value-selling-evolution-at-successful.html 


Buyer Motivation


http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/01/it-is-not-only-about-price-12-key-buyer.html



Differentiated Value Proposition


http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.com/2011/01/3-key-parts-to-dvp-tuning-into-buyers.html