Market Segmentation: Secret to Winning More B2B Customers

Customers have already fed up with standardization, and currently prefer individual and more personalize service or product. To meet these requirements, businesses of b2c and b2b strategies apply the segmentation approach for providing their clients with a unique treatment and buying experience.

Market Segmentation As A Strategy

Usually, it is told that segmentation is the heart of marketing performance. For establishing the effective strategy, you should find out the key groups and customer segments in your database. Despite the type of business, lots of vendors use the 20/80 principle in the process of their audience diving. In other words, they try to separate the most profitable 20% clients that bring the highest income and pay more attention to their needs.

Before you start considering the key aspects of your customer segmentation strategy, you should look through a set of criteria shared between b2c and b2b companies.

• Sizable segments. Make sure that groups you have separated in you database are big enough for addressing. In case, they are too small any campaign won’t deliver you neither the revenue nor ROI. The best market segmentation practices show that the most suitable number of segments is up to 6. As long as each group of customers has a separate budget, this figure is justified and proven.
• Distinctive and recognizable groups. Your segments should be distinct and easily identified if they will have a slight difference - the segmentation will fail. It is highly important to recognize the segments from demographic (b2c)/ firmographic (b2b) information, needs hierarchy or ‘killer questions’ for making quick and important decisions wisely.
• Reliable divisions. Segmentation strategy needs time to come into effect. So, if your customers will be reclassified constantly, your market division project is destined to collapse.
• Actionable segments. Make sure that your groups are realistic and may be implemented immediately. Generally, these segmentations are used by sales reps in b2b. That’s why the customer groups should be easy to work with and show the features of each division without a deep insight.

Major Types of Segmentation

During the building your marketing strategy, you should keep an eye on your segments and prevent them from merging into a single approach to ‘fit-all- customer-groups’. There are 3 well-known types of client targeting:

• Demographic mode views customers from the physical aspects (age, gender, income, geographical position, etc.) In b2b it is called firmographic and deals with company size, products, etc.
• Behavioral segmentation enables with the interests, buying patterns, brands clients tend to choose, price preferences.
• Needs-based is considered as a leverage that helps to identify unmet needs of the customers and get closer to their satisfaction. The higher level of meeting these unique requirements, the higher competitive edge your organization has.

B2B companies find it difficult to recognize the unsatisfied customers’ needs, that’s why they usually implement a blended approach of firmographic and behavioral aspects to developing their market segmentation strategy.

Drawing Up A Guide to Segmentation

The need-based customer division is the most powerful and such services are hard to imitate. The value and quality are always hidden behind the need. So, if you have defined the relevant and important factors to meet the customer requirements, enables you with the outstanding service and competitive advantage.

The second challenge of market segmentation is the implementation of the developed strategy. Obviously, each segment requires a specific offering and price. That’s why in the process of sales reps engagement into the strategy; make sure that managers pay attention to the characteristic of each group and understand that not every customer look for a low price product or service.

The best practices of customer segmentation adoption prove the essence of monitoring the sales managers’ performance and ensuring that they are following the strategy requirements. With this approach, you may provide personalized, relevant and timely service what will drive your income rates and boost the levels of ROI.

P.S. Many CRM solutions enable its users with a built-in customer segmentation tool and facilitate the process of singling out the client groups by means of the structured, consistent database with all required information. If your CRM system lacks this option and you want to move to a more advanced platform, you are welcomed to use the automated service Trujay. It will transfer your records in a direct and accurate mode. Run a free demo to see the service in progress.