6 Decision Metrics for B2B Subscription Customers & Buying Centers

Every customer is a human being who balances emotional and rational reasons when they decide to subscribe to your products or services. But B2B customers differ from B2C customers due to several reasons.

1. Buying Center

Most B2C customers make their buying decision on their own and only occasionally involve other parties (such as partners, friends, family) to support them.

However, in most B2B environments, you are very likely not dealing with one single buyer but a whole group of people some of whom you might never get to talk to.

The so-called “Buying Center” describes the different people involved in a buying decision at a company. This usually does involves stakeholders from business units (e.g., IT, finance, marketing, sales). Therefore you have to consider different perspectives and requirements. Especially, when you only deal with one contact person, you need to get a clear picture who else might be invested in this purchase and what their requirements might be.

For example, if you offer marketing software as a service, your main contact is probably someone from the marketing team. However, you also need to take into account that your solution needs to fit into the overall tech stack, you might have to convince the CFO of the return on investment and it’s possible that the sales team is also invested because the marketing solution needs to share data with a sales platform.

So, when looking at your customers, try to define the expertise, intentions, requirements and typical profiles of the different stakeholders/decision makers that might be part of the buying center and think of ways to convince them (demos, case studies, info sheets, pitch decks, etc.).   

Tip: Even if you never directly communicate with every single stakeholder, your customer contact will. If you provide them with material that caters to different goals and viewpoints, you support your customer contact and convince the buying center. 

2. Return on investment

A private person might subscribe because they see value in the product or service itself or the results that go with it (e.g., a healthier lifestyle, a more productive way to pursue their interests, entertainment, etc.).

However, if a B2B customer invests in a subscription, they usually expect a return (or more) of some sorts:

• Higher productivity > less wasted resources, automation, etc.
• Lower costs > compared to the competition or to previous processes
• Churn reduction > removing pain points for customers
• Retention increase > adding value to the customer experience
• Data insights > removal of data silos, better usage of data
• Compliancy & security > more transparency and compliant processes
• and many more

As such, you need to provide not only reasons why your product or service is good. You need to provide business value. Which means, that it’s not just about whether your customer contact likes your product or service. They also need to be convinced that this product will positively impact their overall goals.

Tip: Customer testimonials and what they achieved – presented in numbers or quotes – can give your customer contact good insights into the advantages and returns of your product.

3. Relationships

Relationships with providers are a big challenge for 39 % of German B2B online customers (source: Sana via Statista).

B2B has always been about relationships. Most B2C customers can happily choose to browse different vendors and companies and go “window shopping” as a form of leisurely activity. However, for any business, the search, evaluation and commitment to a new business partner is always a matter of costs, resources, and risk.

Therefore, companies want and need trusting relationships which is why sales teams and customer success teams are usually much bigger in B2B companies.

In this relationship, it’s not all about the pitch, far from it. You need to

• build trust
• act as an advisor regarding your field of expertise
• support your customer in leveraging your products and solutions to their full extent
• and help them with any issues, so their business does not hurt because of your solutions.

Tip: Try to have one person of your company be the go-to-contact for all inquiries the customer might have. They will relay different requests to their colleagues but stay the main communication channel. This way, the customer does not have to go hunting for the right person who can help them and you can create actual relationships by not switching communication partners over and over again.

4. Compliancy

Outside of a few specific products and services, B2C customers usually do not have to consider if, for example, the software they are using is US-based or has servers in Europe. They also do not have to look whether it adheres to any compliancy regulations.  

But for companies, every single purchase is also tied to compliancy, security, and other regulatory standards they have to adhere. Depending on their industry, these can be higher and more complex. That’s why transparency and support regarding any questions is key.

Tip: If you’re doing business in Europe or in specific European countries, you need to make sure your products and services are fit to be used by European companies, so they don’t run into any compliancy or security issues.

5. Contracts

Depending on your industry and product as well as your pricing, it is very possible that you can’t just have one type of contract for every single customer but instead often have to make individual adjustments and agreements to make the relationship work. This can include special pricing, service level agreements, customization, training, and more.

It’s no surprise that most “enterprise” subscription plans do not come with a price, because those oftentimes involve detailed discussions about requirements and add-ons as well as contractual topics that go beyond any standard out-of-the-box solution.

Tip: A proper offer management and a strong CPQ process (configure price quote) is crucial. Especially for subscription services, different add-ons, features, service level agreements, product volumes and pricing agreements can become quite complex and need to be sufficiently supported in the invoice and plan management both for your customers and your finance, sales and service teams.

6. The right fit (for infrastructure, standards, etc.)

Whether you offer a software as a service or products as a subscription, quite often, your B2B subscription customers will have certain requirements that need to be met, so they can use your product or service and integrate it into their tech stack and company branding.

For software, this often includes compatibility with other systems, specific data formats or customizations to fit the company taxonomies, brand or other standards.

But even for products, such as supplies, parts, etc., it is important that they fit because your customers are usually not just starting out but have established systems, products, hard- and software that need to fit with your product and vice versa.

Tip: Make sure to specify customization options and clarify what can and can’t be done when it comes to special custom versions or branding options. For example, some software vendors do offer white label solutions and others do not.
A close collaboration with your product team is crucial here, to be aware of everything that is possible – and everything that isn’t. Additionally, a close alignment with your product team ensures that customizations are within reason and are priced properly, so you do make and not loose revenue.

Successful with Billwerk+ subscription and payment software

Billwerk+ offers subscription and payment solutions that fit both B2C, B2B, and B2B2C companies.

We are GDPR-compliant and depending on your requirements, offer GoBD-certified accounting. With our API First approach, we allow for easy integration of our solutions into your system landscape.

Our solutions are perfect for a wide range of different industries and business models, (e.g., SaaS, eCommerce, media).

Whether your product catalog is simple or complex, we have the right setup, so you can set up your subscription plans, customize them and scale them properly.

On top, we have hosted product pages for a quick go-to-market, a branded overview of your products that can be easily integrated into your web environment and customer portals, to allow your customers full transparency over their contracts and payment methods.

In turn, our systems allow you an easy overview over customers in detail, so you always can look up contracts, subscription models, and more to support, up-sell or otherwise optimize your customer relationships.

Want to talk about your specific needs as a B2B company? Let’s set up a meeting.

“Since our customers place a very high focus on data security, it was clear that we would work with a partner from Germany. With Billwerk+, we were immediately convinced by the support and professionalism. Billwerk+ also offers the possibility to quickly and easily change the payment provider and to make individual extensions in order to perfectly map our business model.”

Andreas Schneider, Managing Director of immocloud