In Marketing 101 you learn there are two types of ways to classify a business. The first is commonly called B2B, which stands for business-to-business. When a business caters directly to consumers, it is called B2C, which stands for business-to-consumer. While it is good to understand the difference between the two from an operational perspective, from a marketing perspective, I think it is more important you get to know their less talked about sister … P2P!
What is P2P?
People-to-People or Person-to-Person marketing recognizes that neither consumers nor businesses actually select a service or buy a product from a business. Instead, all transactions are based around people buying from other people.
At the end of the day, any service or product in any industry can be replicated. What can’t be replicated is the unique personal touch your business provides to each person who utilizes your services. People expect the service or products you provide to be of high quality. What they often don’t expect is an amazing customer experience, where they leave feeling touched by the people they encountered at each point of contact during their visit.
Your true competitive advantage in the market place is not that you are open an hour later. Your competitive advantage is not that you have a larger marketing budget or a bigger lobby. Your competitive advantage really comes from your human resources and how they treat your customers. That is why it is so important that you take time to invest in building your employees. At the end of the day, your employees are your brand in most businesses.
So forget B2B and B2C. Train your team to understand that you are in the P2P business, and then give them the skills and tools necessary to be successful. Their success is your success.
