By Kristina Prokop, Co-Founder at Eyeota
The B2B buyer journey has evolved greatly in recent years, as have the distinctions among the buyers themselves. Today, the needs of a given organization and its buyers vary greatly according to the size of the company. Let’s look at the key distinctions you need to be acknowledging in your marketing processes, tactics, and channels when it comes to enterprises versus small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
| ENTERPRISE BUYER | SMB BUYER | |
| Decision Making Group | Committee | 1-2 people |
| Sales Cycle | Up to 6-9 months | 90 days or less |
| Contract Size | 100k – 10M+ | $5k – $250k |
| Demographic Differences | Within buying committee | New vs legacy SMBs |
| Company goals | Various strategic objectives | Growth |
| Useful Content | Provides information | Establishes trust |
| WFH Changes | Significant | Minimal |
Decision-Making Groups
Among enterprises, the typical buying group for a complex B2B solution now involves six to 10 decision makers‚ and each comes to the table armed with four or five pieces of information they’ve gathered independently. Increasingly, enterprise B2B buyers prefer to do their own research before even talking to a salesperson, meaning that more of the journey is ultimately influenced by marketing processes. Across the board, the journey itself is getting longer.
When we talk about SMBs, the decision-makers tend to look different depending on the size of the organization. If a company is under 25 employees, it’s likely you’re selling to the business owner or CFO. However, when a company has more than 25 employees, subject matter experts start to get more involved in the buying process. In other words, who you target within SMBs and how you sell to them needs to be segmented further according to size. But without a doubt, you’re talking to fewer stakeholders than you are within an enterprise.
Sales Cycles and Contract Sizes
The enterprise B2B buying process no longer plays out in a predictable, linear order. Rather, customers engage in “looping,” regularly revisiting each buying step. These sales cycles can now average between 6 and 9 months—and far longer for larger, complex purchases. This lengthening of the enterprise B2B sales cycle is reflective of the increase in macro-economic risks, changes to when and how a buying committee meets, and the growing number of options when it comes to buying technology.
With SMBs, the process involves fewer people and less ambiguity. In general, smaller contracts make for a faster sales process. Perhaps the greatest hallmark of the SMB buyer journey—one that no longer applies within enterprises—is that the standard linear flow of the buyer journey is still in place. SMB buyers start, predictably, with problem identification and solution exploration. They move forward to requirements building and, finally, supplier selection. They don’t tend to circle back within this process. B2B marketers talking to SMBs must test and optimize toward marketing tactics that elicit immediate response, and SMB leads must be nurtured with urgency.
Demographic Differences
Today’s enterprise B2B buyer is younger, digital-first, and dominates the share of voice online. In fact, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of B2B buyers are between the ages of 18 and 40. However, they’re not the only enterprise buyers, and that’s an important note.
With less in-person interaction with vendors following the pandemic, B2B buyers are being inundated with cold emails, LinkedIn messages and phone calls, often without discernment for who is being contacted. Typically, cold outreach gets a bad rep in the industry, but it’s understandable why it still persists. Simply put, it still kind of works. For many industries, cold calling is often the second most successful source of deal flow after referrals—but a big part of this success likely has to do with who is contacted. The average age of an enterprise CEO is 59, and research has found that that the C-suite prefers calls to other forms of cold outreach.
On the SMB side, it looks a little different, but the need to distinguish remains. Approximately 88 percent of SMBs are owned by individuals in the Baby Boomer and Gen X generations. However, the average age of a person starting a new business today is 34 years old. That means B2B marketers looking to connect with SMB stakeholders need to consider whether they’re talking to legacy or new SMBs. Business owners have very different profiles, and B2B marketers must segment the buyer journey based on demographic, geographic, and firmographic information.
Company Goals and Useful Content
Within enterprises, purchases might be geared toward any number of strategic objectives, including driving sales, improving internal communication, delivering on DE&I goals, and more. That means B2B marketing content needs to be highly informational and developed to answer a wide array of questions for a wide array of decision makers.
On the other hand, SMBs know that they need to grow or they die. Every dollar matters. Revenue is the pain point they are trying to address. Above all, SMB relationships start with and are built on trust. SMB buyers are more likely to look at review sites and confirm value with their social circles before making a move. Ad messaging should be about helping SMBs grow revenue, and landing pages should showcase other SMBs “winning” because of the brand.
Ultimately, having access to high-quality buyer data will make or break success in today’s B2B marketing landscape. Data-driven segmentation is key. If your organization is marketing to enterprises in the same way that it markets to SMBs, there’s a good chance you’re missing the mark on both sides.
