SMS in B2B Businesses

I was recently approached with the question of how can B2B companies make use of SMS (text messaging)? I think this answer really depends on how your B2B organization works when it comes to the sales process to develop this answer.

Does your B2B have a sales cycle?

When I speak to a sales cycle, I mean that the customer does not just come to your website or call and order your product at a split second. I am speaking to there being a sales rep involved and there are ongoing negotiations until the product has been purchased. There are usually a few marketing systems being used for this, including marketing automation for lead nurturing. Some examples of this type of B2B organization includes:

  • Aircraft Engines

  • SaaS Software (CRMs, Marketing Automation)

  • B2B sides of B2C Companies (Amazon attracting companies to sell on their platform)

For these type of companies, SMS is not a good idea. I would highly doubt that someone getting a text message about aircraft engines would trigger a buy. A person’s decision is not likely to be determined by a message they receive while they are in line for their Grande Americano.

I am a B2B Company with no sales cycle!

There are always exceptions to the rules. Let’s think for example of a company buying office supplies from Staples. There is not really a sales cycle outside of Staples saying they are better than Office Depot. In these situations, it would not be a bad idea for an SMS email to go out to win their business there. It would not be surprising for the viewer to get this message.

The best way to think about which area your company falls into is this:

  • Would your business easily be interchanged with B2C (Business to Consumer)? For example, like my Staples example, you could easily substitute a consumer in place of the business whom is shopping.

  • Does it take more than one phone call for a sale to occur? If so, SMS most likely would not be useful.

  • Would you want to get messages about this product? Go in the shoes of your customer, would you be tempted to buy off a SMS message?

SMS is powerful and with the number of mobile phones out there growing every day, it is becoming more powerful. This does not mean that SMS for B2B is a bad idea, but you just need to be careful on how it is used and in what audience.