Enterprise Customers
What are Enterprise Customers?
Enterprise Customer refers to those who buy goods or services from a business for the purposes of retailing those goods or services. This could be to other businesses, or to end-users, in which case the enterprise customer is buying on behalf of others.
Enterprise Customers are usually more selective about their purchases than individual customers and often have special requirements that may not be an issue for other customers.
Who needs to be keen about Enterprise Customer?
There are certain enterprises that need to really pay attention to Enterprise Customer because they either face challenges or be under pressure, which can be from multiple areas:
Scope of the Enterprise:
This includes the types of products/services that the enterprise offers, whether it is a company with one branch, or a large corporation with many branches. With so many branches in existence, enterprises need to focus the business on what their focus is because having many networks tend to cause overhead and productivity problems.
Market Positioning:
This is the place where an enterprise is functioning, being in a market/ industry that has many competitors or few competitors, there is a difference in the way they look at things.
Financial Situations:
This includes looking at their financial standing and how it was affected by the recent economic crisis, whether businesses are going through debt restructuring or bankruptcy proceedings.
Perception:
This is related to the perceptions of employees in the organization about their jobs and how customers perceive them as well as their products/services.
Technology:
This refers to the integration of technology with the enterprise, whether they are using it effectively or not.
What’s the Difference between Individual Customer and Enterprise Customers?
Individual customers can be categorized into two types:
- OTC refers to over-the-counter
- Non-OTC refers to non-over-the-counter.
Both of these types are buyers who buy for themselves every day and in large quantities, but there is a significant difference between them. Non-OTC buyers are those who buy from retailers while OTC Buyers are those who buy from wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers.
Types of Enterprise customers
Enterprise customers can also be categorized into two types:
- Operator customers. An operator customer is a buyer who buys directly from the wholesaler or distributor because they run a business themselves, such as a salesperson or an owner of a shop.
- Broker customers. A Broker Customer is an operator or wholesaler who has brought in a buyer who wants to buy from a wholesaler/distributor as the broker.
An Enterprise Customer is an individual customer who buys for their business or company, either directly from retailer, wholesaler, or distributor.
For both types of customers, there are two key differences that need to be realized within their overall needs and operations. They need to look at what type of products/services they are buying and where they are buying them from.
This is where the relationship of the retailer, wholesaler, and distributor can come into play. Beyond that, there are specific actions that need to be considered in order for both types of enterprise customers to be at their best.
- Type of Products/Services: This is where an enterprise customer has to choose what kind of products/services they want to buy from a retailer or wholesaler/distributor because this determines the type of set-up of their relationship with a supplier.
- Numbers of Enterprise Customers: This refers to how many enterprise customers there are within an organization.
- Set-Up of Relationship: This refers to which type of relationship the enterprise should have with a retailer or wholesaler/distributor because this determines how the enterprise customer will buy from them.
- Activities: This refers to what activities need to be carried out by the enterprise customer, in order for them to carry out their business
- Marketing Mix for Businesses: This refers to how companies market their products and services in order for them to achieve a competitive advantage over other businesses within the market.
Enterprise customers are not only a major contributor to a company’s revenue, but it also has an effect on the relationships with other customers because these are people who buy from them, especially when it comes to distributor customers.
The influence of the marketing mix on the overall business is significant because it can make or break the way an enterprise customer will buy from them and if they will buy from them at all.
How to Win over Enterprise Customer?
1. Have a Strong Brand:
This refers to the image of a company and how that relates to its brand, which can affect how enterprise customers buy from them because they want to associate with well-known and popular brands.
2. Offer Superior Products and Services:
This refers to how a business can offer superior products or services that will attract more customers because the customer base is rare.
3. Positioning:
This refers to getting the correct positioning for yourself in front of customers, especially enterprise customers, because this has a significant effect on how enterprise customers buy from them and if they will buy from them at all.
4. Customer Relationships:
This refers to the relationship that a company will have with their customers and the relationship that an enterprise customer will have with them. These relationships are paramount to how they carry out their business, so they need to be strong in order for enterprise customers buy from them.
5. Marketing Mix of Retail Businesses
- Product: The product is one of the most important things that a retail business should focus on because it is what attracts customers to buy from them. Without a good product, chances are that enterprise customers will not buy from them, or they will lose interest in them.
- Price: The price has a significant effect on how enterprise customers buy from them because it gives customers more choices when deciding where they want to buy from.
- Promotion: Promotion is also an important area for retail businesses because it allows the business to create their own brand awareness as well as introduce new products to enterprise customers.
- Place: Place is important to retail businesses because it brings in a lot of traffic, which can be converted into more sales. It would not be worth it for a business to invest in a costly place if there is no return on that investment.
- Content: The content is important for online businesses because they need to keep their website updated every now and then, so enterprise customers will be able to find the information that they want on their website.
6. Positioning of Retail Businesses:
- Brand Name: This refers to having a good name which enterprise customers would recognise as being a good brand.
- Product Name: This refers to the name of the product that a business sells, which enterprise customers will associate with a certain brand if they recognise it.
- Authority: This refers to how well-known or popular you are in the industry because this will give enterprise customers more trust in you and they will want to buy from you as well.
- Location: Having a good location will help with how much traffic that a business can get because it is easier for enterprise customers to access your products and services.
- Other: Other is a term that is used to describe other factors, such as reliability, convenience, and speed.
7. Retail Businesses by Size
- Size: It is good to have a wide range of sizes when selecting a retail business. If you were to select one that had few employees, there would be very little chance of it being trusted by enterprise customers because they will think that they will get poor quality products and services.
On the other hand, if you were to select one that has many employees, the reliability and speed that a retail business can provide can be an issue.
- Growth: When selecting a retail business that has the potential to grow, it is important to be able to see how the projected growth will impact on the operating results.
If you choose a business that is expected to give you 40% growth in five years, for example, but the financials reveal that it is only going to give you 15%, this means that the accountant will not be able to train enough employees and the customer experience will suffer because of this.
Therefore, it is better for you to choose one which has an additional 25%. The reason behind this is that there are some companies which offer a high salary even after the initial promotion while others still want to give more.
8. Experience in the industry
It is important for you to hire someone who has worked in the financial sector and has enough experience. You cannot judge if they are good after a few weeks of training on the job as it will take a long time for them to get used to their new tasks.