Reshape B2B marketing capabilities to support long-term business development

For a long time in the past, local B2B companies have achieved rapid development thanks to factors such as rapid economic growth, strong incremental market demand, and a relatively opaque competitive environment. However, in the process of rapid development, many local B2B companies have not focused on accumulating marketing expertise and depth. In recent years, with increasingly fierce market competition, local B2B companies are facing more and more challenges, such as the saturation of the industry market size, the complexity of the competition landscape, the improvement of buyer expertise, and the increase in demand for going overseas. These challenges have caused marketing difficulties for many local B2B companies, limiting their further development and forcing many entrepreneurs to start thinking about how to reshape B2B marketing capabilities in order to gain a foothold in the fierce competition and then stand out.

Through years of project practice, the Roland Berger team has summarized the pain points that local B2B companies have commonly encountered in marketing in recent years:

Existing businesses are growing sluggishly, and it is difficult to identify business growth points. At present, many industries are no longer in short supply, and there is a serious overinvestment and overcapacity. In such an environment, it is particularly important to gain deep insights into the industry through market analysis and provide guidance for back-end sales. However, many companies are not doing well in market analysis. First, there is insufficient understanding of market demand and trends; second, there is a lack of understanding of competitor strategies and dynamics; and there is a lack of clarity about their own core competitiveness and market positioning. As a result, the actual output of market analysis does not play a guiding role in product development and business direction.

It is difficult to increase customer share, and the downstream end customers are not under control. In the past sellers' market environment, new customers always came in a continuous stream, and the shallow understanding of the needs of end customers was not a big problem. However, under the increasingly complex competition, many companies will face the embarrassing situation of having to wait for customer orders passively. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the management capabilities of customers, especially key large customers. Many companies lack the systematization and depth of key large customer development and management, and the marketing team does not have the ability to sell value, which makes it difficult to break through high-value large customers or has a low customer share.

It is difficult to expand overseas business, and it is difficult to adapt overseas strategies to local conditions. In recent years, domestic business has been seriously involuted. The pursuit of sales and profits has prompted local companies to have an increasingly strong demand to go overseas, and local companies have never lacked the courage to go overseas. However, there are huge differences in market demand, policies and regulations, and business models between different countries and regions, making it particularly complicated to formulate business strategies suitable for local markets. There have been many cases where the overseas business strategies formulated by local companies cannot guide actual business expansion. Either the business development does not meet expectations, or it is difficult to control the irregularities and risks in the development process.

It is difficult to improve marketing efficiency, and standardization and digitalization are insufficient. This is mainly reflected in the lack of standardization of processes or strategies at the business execution level. Sales personnel conduct sales activities in their own way, resulting in duplication and waste of sales activities, or ignoring certain key sales links, resulting in low sales efficiency; secondly, many local companies still lack the awareness of using digital tools to improve marketing efficiency, and the application of digital means and tools is relatively backward.

In view of the above pain points, it is recommended that local B2B companies can evaluate their B2B marketing capabilities based on the marketing capability building framework from three aspects: performance, key capabilities and support mechanisms , identify their shortcomings, and use scientific methodologies, tools and third-party resources that have been verified in practice to reshape their B2B marketing capabilities.

In terms of market analysis capability building, it is recommended to strengthen from three dimensions: data information, methods and tools, and personnel capabilities. First, the most critical aspect of data information is to establish an external industry database and a competitor information database. Roland Berger has a deep understanding of the industrial chains of many industries and has accumulated rich industry data and expert resources; secondly, scientifically apply methods and tools for analysis, such as Roland Berger's STEP framework, value chain analysis, etc.; and in terms of personnel capabilities, it is especially necessary to improve the strategic thinking of market personnel and the ability to cross-validate data from different sources.

Roland Berger once assisted a company in building a data information resource library through a four-step approach, solidifying the process and methods of market analysis, and guiding the customer to output regular research reports, and then judge market supply and demand and growth opportunities, so that the customer's market analysis work can play a good practical guiding role in product development, pricing and sales.

In terms of key account management capability building, it is recommended to strengthen the systematization and depth of key account management based on the key account management closed loop and transform to value marketing. The key account management closed loop includes customer screening, customer analysis, customer planning, certification introduction management, business opportunity management and strategic relationship management. Each link is supplemented by scientific methods and tools to deepen key account management, and combined with the optimization of organizational mechanisms and performance appraisals, support and motivate key account marketing transformation.

Roland Berger once supported a company in building a complete key account marketing system from 0 to 1, including organizational structure, system processes, methods and tools, and provided in-depth guidance to the company on the implementation of key account management, successfully helping the company to break through its largest domestic downstream customer and achieve key account marketing transformation.

Regarding the construction of overseas business strategy capabilities, it is recommended to start from overseas market insight analysis, overseas market entry strategy and internationalization capability building. In terms of overseas market insight analysis, Roland Berger, with its numerous branches and expert networks around the world, helps companies gain deep insights into overseas markets; secondly, design market entry strategies suitable for local markets from the dimensions of marketing, products, supply chain and after-sales service; at the same time, comprehensively improve international operation capabilities to fully support business strategies.

Roland Berger once helped a new energy enterprise to systematically plan its overseas after-sales service strategy based on its overseas business needs, and carried out detailed design of key initiatives such as service content, channels and supply chain. With the help of Roland Berger's global professional team, experts and rich industry resources, the company supported the client in implementing verification in key overseas regions.

In terms of business execution standardization, it is recommended that enterprises refine the most common problems encountered by the team in the business execution process, and combine them with the best practices in the industry to solidify and summarize them, and continuously optimize them through operation in practice. Based on many years of service to local enterprises, Roland Berger has accumulated rich case experience in marketing business execution in various industries, and can fully provide the most appropriate suggestions based on the current situation of the enterprise and support implementation.

Roland Berger supported a local biotechnology company by summarizing nearly 20 of the most common problems encountered by its front-line sales staff in the business execution process into a sales operation manual based on industry best practices. It also assisted the front-line team in operating in practice, preventing the front-line staff from neglecting certain key sales links due to differences in personal abilities, thereby greatly improving marketing efficiency.

In terms of digital empowerment, we can learn from the digital architecture of Roland Berger's B2B business marketing system, examine the current gaps in digital construction based on business needs, and identify digital initiatives. At present, in the field of B2B marketing, there are many excellent tools that can empower corporate marketing, such as: digital exhibition marketing, customer-based personalized marketing, marketing automation, lead rating incubation, intelligent sales and demand forecasting, etc., which can improve customer experience and operational efficiency while reducing marketing and operating costs. However, digital means will always serve and empower the business. When upgrading or transforming digitalization, we must not put the cart before the horse and digitize for the sake of digitalization.

Improving B2B marketing capabilities is not something that can be achieved overnight. We cannot expect a quick solution through "campaign-style" means. It is a systematic project that requires the determination and patience of enterprise managers. As a top global strategic management consulting company, Roland Berger has served many domestic B2B companies and has accumulated rich consulting and implementation experience in marketing capability building, helping local companies improve their marketing capabilities, expand market share, improve sales performance, and reduce marketing costs, helping companies achieve long-term and stable development!

From: Roland Berger