Top 5 Revenue Producing Hardware Retail B2B Accounts and How to Get Them
When done well, B2B relationships can be lucrative, long-term and your best resource for more B2B business. Understanding the core motivators and values of each different type of B2B account and then tailoring your approach is key in setting the foundation for long and profitable partnerships.
1. Brick and Mortar Small Business Owners
Motivations/Values
- Price conscious
- Uses DIY to save money on repairs and upgrades
- Relies on expertise and instruction from hardware store employees
How to get and keep their business
Build a trusted relationship using your expertise to give them consistently good advice. They likely need a collaborator to help them understand the ins and outs of the more challenging projects they find on YouTube and Pinterest. So the more you can help them understand what a project entails, set their expectations, guide them to their best choices and take them all the way through the project, the more they will trust you. With consistency and time, you will become more than just a hardware store to them, you will be their go-to DIY consultant.
2. Local Contractor
Motivations/Values
- Good prices they can pass on to clients
- Quality materials
- Building relationships
- Supporting their employees
How to get and keep their business
Contractors tend to know a lot of people in their business, and the other businesses that are tangential to it. They can be a great source of referral business, so build this relationship by giving them what they need, quickly and efficiently, while exceeding their expectations. It will likely pay you back with loyalty and new clients.
3. Municipal/City Employees
Ex: Head of Building Operations for Our Town, USA
Motivations/Values
- Detail oriented
- Timeline driven
- Product availability and selection
- Bulk pricing/discounts
- Efficiency and deliverability of their project
- Reputation of suppliers
- Repeatability
- Ease of use
How to get and keep their business
As with any B2B client, it’s all about the relationship. But with a city employee, they have the extra paperwork, hoops and bureaucracy of a government entity to manage. They are on someone else’s schedule, answering to the city or project manager and they are held accountable for every penny spent, so efficiency and bulk pricing will be key for them. The more you can lean in to their hectic and demanding schedule and make their lives easier, the more they will come to rely on you as a go-to resource. Build a good relationship with them, and you set yourself up for many more city and government B2B clients.
4. Property Manager
Motivations/Values
- Client relationships and deliverability
- Creating harmony and happiness with clients and subcontractors
- Competing with other PMs
- Adding value to clients
- Price and quality
How to get and keep their business
Property managers are people people and they also know their way around a building. Their main priority is being indispensable and over delivering for their clients, so they need as strong a relationship with their B2B supplier as they have with their own clients. You can try wooing a property manager directly, but you can also build a strong, trusted relationship with your contractors and subcontractors and because of your reputation and track record with them, ask for a reference to their property manager contacts. You’ll need to do your homework for this client and bring the solutions on how you can help differentiate them from their competitors and help them better help their clients.
5. Networking Groups
Ex: The uber-connector
Motivations/Values
- Passionate about people
- Trust and reputation are paramount
- Sincerity
- Loves connecting people she thinks might be of value to each other
- The why behind your business
- Building relationships
How to get and keep their business
Find the connectors in your area through networking groups, social clubs and business organizations like your local chamber. Once you’ve discovered the people who know everyone – build those relationships, because B2B companies experience a 70% higher conversion rate and a 37% higher retention rate from referrals. Meet up once a month or more to keep these relationships warm and find out how you can help them. This is a long game, but building a network is a solid way to scale your B2B business, as 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know.
Conclusion
Find out what interests your B2B customers have outside of their relationship with hardware. Go deep. Learn about them, their hobbies, their families. The more you know about their interests, the more you can tailor what you offer them. Maybe your local contractor is also into fly fishing or hunting. It’s up to you to find out how else you can help them.
Beyond that, each person has their individual communication style. Notice the way they interact with you and others.. Do they use social media to connect? Do they still use pen and paper? Do they call you or text you? The more you tailor your approach to winning their business and their trust to their own personal communication preferences, the more successful you will be.
If you’re curious about how you can adopt tips like these into your B2B marketing efforts, click below to grab a quick meeting for us to chat! With Gratitude, Rand
