How providing payment solutions to B2C and B2B clients differ.

Understanding the unique needs of businesses that focus on different markets can help you successfully approach building and selling solutions.

North American Bancard sales partners are finding more opportunities to provide merchant accounts to businesses that sell to other businesses (B2B) in addition to selling merchant services to business-to-consumer (B2C) clients. However, sales partners quickly discover that providing payment solutions to businesses is different when the prospect is B2B vs. B2C.

Sales Partners need to take several differences into account to successfully expand their portfolios to include B2B companies as well as to B2C clients. The first is how customers prefer to pay. 

Payments at B2B vs. B2C businesses. 

B2C companies usually accept payments at a checkout counter or when a customer places an order online. They often need to accept various payment types, including card-present and card-not-present credit or debit payments, contactless EMV cards, mobile wallets to create touchless experiences, and unattended payments at self-checkouts or ordering kiosks. 

Although there can be some overlap, B2B companies transitioning from paper invoicing to digital payments may need to run other types of transactions, such as ACH payments which draw funds directly from bank accounts. Depending on your merchants’ businesses, they may also benefit from setting up recurring payments, which can save time for businesses that provide regular services or subscriptions. Then there is electronic invoicing and text-to-pay, which can streamline processes for field service businesses by allowing technicians to accept payment immediately after a project is complete. 

B2B companies may also benefit from a virtual terminal solution that allows them to use a computer or mobile device to accept payments. An employee simply logs into the solution, enters payment data that a customer provides by phone, mail, or in-person, and the virtual terminal completes the transaction. 

In addition to providing more options and convenience to customers, the shift to digital payments also streamlines processes for your clients’ back offices, reduces the amount of paper they need to operate, and improves cash flow by decreasing the time from delivery of products or services until payment is received. 

Selling to B2B vs. B2C prospects. 

Besides providing B2B companies with different payment solutions, you also need to adapt sales processes to close more deals with these clients and add value to the services you provide. Here are a few tips: 

• Identify decision-makers. B2B organizations can have different organizational structures than B2C companies and a different approval chain when deciding on payment technology and how it will work with their IT environments. Make sure you understand which stakeholders will be involved in decision making and invest your time talking to the right people. 
• Be transparent about costs. B2B companies new to digital payments will also be new to estimating payment processing fees, particularly if its average sale totals hundreds or thousands of dollars. However, sales partners can help their clients control costs, for example, with interchange optimization that helps businesses pay the lowest possible fees. If you help your clients find a way to digitize payments and control costs, your clients will likely begin to consider you a business advisor, and you’ll strengthen your relationships with them. 
• Be a resource for payment security information. B2B companies can be at different stages of the process of digitizing payments. They may still send invoices, and their clients may still write payment card numbers on paper to settle their bills, accept credit cards over the phone, and allow customers to pay online. Regardless of their digital maturity, though, they must still comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) if they accept payment cards. Businesses new to PCI compliance may need your help to train their employees on data protection best practices, deploying security solutions, and meeting compliance standards. 

Don’t take anything for granted.

Avoid the mistake of approaching B2B prospects with the same sales process and solutions that you offer to your B2C clients. The reality is they operate differently and may prioritize different types of payment methods to meet their customers’ demands. 

It’s always a good idea to ask prospects to share their goals for implementing new payment solutions, the types of experiences they want to create for their customers, and the operational efficiencies they hope to achieve. Whether your prospect is a B2B or B2C business, listening to their plans and pain points, then finding the solution that addresses them, will give you a better chance of closing more deals and laying the foundation for maximum customer satisfaction.