Business-to-Business Selling

by Dan Ramsey

About 20 percent of salespeople sell products and services to other businesses. It's called business-to-business, or B2B, sales. Many of these jobs are technical sales, engineers and other professionals selling complex products and services to business customers.

Other jobs require fewer technical skills. The process for B2B selling is different from B2C. Typically, more dollars are involved. In many cases, the sale occurs at the buyer's location rather than the seller's. Many businesses needing a product or service will write a request for proposal (RFP) that outlines their requirements. Other businesses, called suppliers, will bid on the RFP with their own sales proposal

How can I determine if B2B sales is the better career choice for me?
Talk with B2B salespeople about their own careers. Salespeople love to talk and most don't get a chance to speak about their careers, so many would enjoy answering your questions. Where can you find them? Ask among friends and relatives. You also may know B2B salespeople through your employment. Alternatively, check with a college career counselor who may have volunteers you can contact.

Because the B2B sales process is more complex, getting a job selling to businesses requires more training and experience than the majority of B2C jobs. Many B2B salespeople have college degrees in technical or marketing fields, or both. B2B salespeople earn higher income than many other types of salespeople, depending on what they are selling. B2B commodities and services range from manufacturing equipment to aircraft and everything in between.

Some B2B salespeople work exclusively with small businesses. Their training requirements and income are lower. For example, advertising salespeople sell radio, newspaper, magazine, outdoor, and other types of ads to businesses. Others sell wholesale merchandise to retailers for resale. They have specialized product knowledge but usually don't need advanced degrees or training. There are about 1.5 million nontechnical wholesale sales reps and 160,000 ad reps in the United States. As manufacturing trades are developed overseas, many reps must travel and sell internationally.