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# System prepended metadata

title: Selling to small companies vs. large enterprises
tags: [Week 1, ' M2', ' H3']

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tags: Week 1, H3, M2
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# Selling to small companies vs. large enterprises
Now that we're familiar with B2B and B2C buyer's journey and personas, let's dive a little bit deeper into the type of B2B companies and customers.
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## Types of B2B Customers

There are two main categories of B2B customers depending on the size of the companies: "SMBs", and "Enterprise" sales.

- **SMB** refers to "Small and Medium-sized Businesses". These are usually companies with between 100 and 1000 employees. 
- **Enterprises** on the other side refer to organizations that usually have many thousand employees.


**You need to remember that the sales process works differently based on the size and organizational structure of your potential customer.**
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## Selling to different kind's of B2B customers

**Large enterprises** 
- Many stakeholders involved in decision making
- Longer sales cycles
- Usually higher deals ($) 
- Usually consultative approach

**SMB's**

- Few (or one) stakeholder
- Shorter sales cycles
- Usually smaller deals ($)
- Usually transactional approach
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## Consultative vs. transactional selling

Selling to enterprises usually requires what is called consultative selling, whilst selling to SMBs can be a more transactional approach. 

Let's see the difference between both these types of sales 👇

### Transactional selling
Transactional selling is a simple, short-term sale that focuses on the product and maybe the lowest price. The customer already knows what he needs, so the salesperson doesn’t need to know much about the product. When you go to the store to get toilet paper, you hand over the money and walk away. That is an example of a transactional sale.

### Consultative selling
On the other hand, consultative selling is a more complex, long-term process that involves collaboration between the buyer and seller. The customer needs guidance to solve their problem, so the salesperson must know more about their product or services to offer solutions.  But, to offer the best solution, the salesperson must first develop an understanding of the customer’s business, industry, and needs. The interaction becomes more of a relationship than a transaction.
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Let's have a look at the main differences in the video below before we move onto a short quiz!

{%youtube X669IYLKO2s %}

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