Product management is vaguely defined and varies a lot in different companies depending on the type of product and user base.
While the roles and responsibilities of all Product Managers overlap, there are some key differences between B2B and B2C that one needs to uderstand. These are B2B vs B2C differences are important to define the ideal Product Management strategy.
To broadly define – B2B Product Management deals with products for business while B2C Product Management involves products directly targeted at consumers.
If you are a Product Manager or planning to build a career in Product Management, this article will give you a walkthrough of two different types of Product Management – B2B vs B2C.
B2B vs B2C Product Managers
1. Clients vs Customers
To differentiate in the most simple way, B2B Product Managers focus on clients and their needs. Whereas, B2C Product Managers focus on the end-user.
B2B product Managers spend most of their time in customer meetings and working closely with the sales team. Whereas, B2C Product Managers study user behavior patterns, digital product analytics, see what works and what should be improved, and continuously novel ways to optimize product UX.
2. B2B vs B2C Industry Knowledge
Industry knowledge is essential to get the trust of the people inside the organization, especially product development and sales.
B2B product managers understand the language of their product and industry which can be quite a large undertaking and takes time that B2B companies don’t have much to offer.
On the other hand, B2C product managers, can wing it with enough behavioral science sustained by some analytics to know the consumers.
In B2B, Product Managers have to deal with different people playing a part in the sales process, while in B2C it’s simpler because the same people who use are the ones who pay.
3. B2B vs B2C Sales
B2B sales can have a considerable amount of role in the Product Roadmap. B2B Product Managers have to deal more often with the sales than the B2C Product Managers.
This is because of the duration and investment in the sales cycle. B2B sales cycles are longer and expensive which gives the sales team the authority to be vocal about missing features in the product.
B2C Product Managers, on the other hand, rely largely on marketing and advertising for sales. B2C doesn’t require any focused sales support and thus B2C Product Managers do not have to deal with ‘sales team’ requests and concerns.
4. B2B Clientele vs B2C Number of Users
There is a huge difference between the number of users in B2B and B2C. It takes a lot of users for a B2C company to succeed whereas B2B companies can profit a lot even from a few large investing customers.
B2B Product Managers know and have direct access to their customers whereas in B2C it is harder to pin down the ideal consumer from hundreds or thousands of them.
In conclusion, both B2B and B2C have a different roadmap and sales cycle which affects the roles and responsibilities of their respective product managers. Therefore, it is crucial to analyze the type of industry before you enter its market.
These were the 4 key differences in B2B vs B2C Product Managers. To learn more about Product Management and make a wise decision it’s important to gain knowledge and hands-on experience.
