33 B2B industries
Every market has its own language: you don’t write to everyone in the same way
The sales cycle of an industrial plant is nothing like that of software. The list changes, the message changes, who decides changes. For each industry below, here is what we have learned in the field.
- Premium food
- Technology
- Automation and robotics
- Pharmaceutical
- Energy
- Software
- Finance and credit
- Manufacturing
- Industrial mechanics
- Machinery and plants
- Packaging
- Electrical and electronics
- Automotive and components
- IT Services and System Integrators
- Cybersecurity
- Telecommunications
- Management consulting
- B2B marketing and communication
- Insurance and brokers
- Logistics and transport
- Recruiting and HR
- Construction
- Engineering and design
- Commercial real estate
- Medical devices
- Trade fairs and events
- Corporate training
- Wholesale distribution
- Chemicals
- Contract furnishing
- E-commerce and digital retail
- Professional and Legal Firms
- Healthcare and Clinical Research
The yellow diamond marks the industries where we have a case study.
Premium food
When the brand opens doors but nobody is knocking
In high-end food, brand recognition is often already established among end consumers, while the B2B channel is left to word of mouth. Hotels, restaurants and corporate gifting come occasionally, with no process that goes out to find them.
Technology
An Agenda That Fills Only with Referrals and Fairs
Italian technology companies often have capable salespeople and a solid offer, but an inbound flow that depends on relationships and presence at events. The result is full months and empty months alternating with no lever of control.
Automation and robotics
Few decision makers, very high tickets, no margin for error
In industrial automation a single order can be worth hundreds of thousands of euros, but decision makers are few and reaching them requires immediate technical credibility. Acquisition has historically depended on established relationships and presence at trade fairs.
Pharmaceutical
A Closed, Regulated and Rightly Wary Industry
Pharmacy consortia and networks receive proposals every week from suppliers who all write the same email. The barrier is not reaching the decision makers, but being taken seriously by people who have already seen hundreds of identical messages.
Energy
Everyone promises savings on the bill, nobody gets read
Energy efficiency for businesses is a crowded market in which every operator communicates the same benefit. Plant managers receive similar proposals every week and have stopped opening them.
Software
When the pipeline depends entirely on inbound
Many software houses grow through inbound and word of mouth, channels that work as long as they work but cannot be accelerated on demand. In the months when traffic drops, the pipeline empties with no lever available.
Finance and credit
Reaching CFOs and finance directors, who filter everything
In finance and credit the decision maker is almost always a CFO or a finance director: a person used to filtering any commercial communication, who replies only when they immediately understand what it is about. Without an active channel, opportunities come through direct acquaintance and nothing else.
Manufacturing
The client portfolio has been the same for ten years, and it ages with you
Many Italian manufacturing companies live on a handful of historic clients worth half of revenue. As long as they order, all is well. The day one of them moves production or changes buyer, you realise that nobody in the company knows how to find a new client any more.
Who decides
- Purchasing manager or strategic buyer
- Plant Director
- Technical Office or R&D
Industrial mechanics
Excellent workmanship, and a market that only finds out through word of mouth
Precision machine shops and component manufacturers often have a quality that clients recognise immediately. The problem is reaching those clients. They live off references and a few contacts made at MECSPE or Lamiera, and the sales agenda follows the mood of the market.
Who decides
- Mechanical components buyer
- Technical office manager
- Quality manager
Machinery and plants
A Machine Sells Once in a While, and the Right Client Doesn’t Know You Exist
Those who build machines and plants sell few units a year at a high price. Every deal lasts months and involves engineers, production and management. Many Italian manufacturers still entrust everything to EMO, BI-MU or a network of agents who work when they feel like it.
Who decides
- Technical or Production Director
- Maintenance manager
- Chief executive officer or general manager
Packaging
The client changes packaging supplier only when something goes wrong
In industrial packaging the supplier is rarely changed. When it happens, it is for a specific problem: a delay, a rising cost, a new rule on materials. Whoever is present at that moment wins the client; the others do not even know.
Who decides
- Purchasing manager
- Packaging engineer or product development manager
- Sustainability manager
Electrical and electronics
Getting into a client's bill of materials is hard, getting out of it is almost impossible
Those who make electrical components, electronic boards or switchboards work with projects that last years. When your component goes into a client’s bill of materials, it stays there a long time. The problem is that the choice is made at the design stage, months before the order, and there nobody invites a new supplier.
Who decides
- R&D or electronic design manager
- Electronics buyer or commodity manager
- Operations Director
Automotive and components
The automotive transition is emptying order books built over thirty years
Many Italian component suppliers built their revenue on a few large automotive groups. With the change in powertrains and platforms some codes disappear and others go to different suppliers. Diversifying clients or industries is no longer a strategic choice, it is a deadline.
Who decides
- Supplier Development or Purchasing Manager
- Product engineering manager
- Purchasing Director at companies outside automotive
IT Services and System Integrators
All system integrators say the same things, and the client sees no difference
An IT manager receives proposals from system integrators, vendor partners and consultants every week. They use the same words: digital transformation, cloud, security. Your team may well be better than the others, but in a cold email it does not show.
Who decides
- CIO or head of IT
- CFO
- Operations Director
Cybersecurity
Selling Security to Those Who Think It Won’t Happen to Them
Many Italian companies know they should invest in cybersecurity, but they put it off until something happens. With NIS2 some of them are obliged to act, and all vendors have realised it. The result is an avalanche of messages about fines and attacks that nobody reads any more.
Who decides
- CISO or head of security
- CIO or head of IT
- Chief executive officer
Telecommunications
The client changes operator only at expiry, and nobody knows the expiry date
Connectivity, cloud switchboards, corporate networks, dedicated fibre. In B2B telecommunications the client signs multi-year contracts and then forgets about them until the automatic renewal. Those who sell telco services to businesses therefore live on timing, and timing can’t be improvised.
Who decides
- IT or infrastructure manager
- Facility manager or head of general services
- CFO or head of administration
Management consulting
The good consultant sells well in the meeting room, but first has to get in
Management consulting firms live off the partner's relationships and returning clients. It works as long as the partner has time to nurture them. When the firm grows, one person's relationships are no longer enough to fill everyone's calendar.
Who decides
- Entrepreneur or CEO
- General Director
- CFO
B2B marketing and communication
The agency that grows its clients cannot find new ones
Marketing and communication agencies that work for B2B companies know how to do lead generation for others, but rarely for themselves. The calendar fills with client projects, and the search for new clients always ends up at the bottom of the list. Then a big client ends the contract and the pipeline is empty.
Who decides
- Marketing Director or CMO
- Sales Director
- Entrepreneur
Insurance and brokers
The corporate client renews the policy without reading it, and you are not in the room
Brokers and agencies that work with businesses live off their portfolio. Policies renew every year almost automatically, and changing intermediary is a choice the entrepreneur always postpones. To win a new company you have to arrive before the expiry date, with a reason to be heard.
Who decides
- CFO or head of administration
- Entrepreneur
- Risk Manager
Logistics and transport
The client changes logistics provider only when the warehouse is already in crisis
In third-party logistics and transport the supplier is rarely changed and never lightly, because moving a warehouse or a distribution network is risky. Tenders open when something breaks, and whoever has no relationship already arrives late.
Who decides
- Supply Chain Manager
- Logistics or warehouse manager
- Operations Director
Recruiting and HR
Companies call you when the position is urgent, and put you in a tender with three others
Recruitment and selection firms, executive search and HR service providers know the problem well: the client shows up when in a hurry and compares fees. The exclusive mandate, the one that pays, comes from a relationship built before the need.
Who decides
- Personnel Director or HR Director
- Chief executive officer
- Head of the hiring function
Construction
Construction companies buy from those they know, and they always know the same ones
Those who sell products, machinery or services to construction companies know the industry is built on long relationships and decisions made on site. The company owner is often out of the office, the technical director rushes from one site to another. Reaching them with the right message is half the job.
Who decides
- Business Owner
- Technical or Site Director
- Purchasing Office or Procurement Manager
Engineering and design
The firm is full of orders, but they all come from the same three clients
Engineering firms, plant and structural design studios, technical consultants for industry. They work well and clients come back. The flip side is that few new clients arrive, because the only channel is the name that circulates among people who already know you.
Who decides
- Technical Director of an industrial company
- Plant manager
- Real estate or facility manager
Commercial real estate
The right warehouse exists, but the company looking for it doesn't know yet that it is looking
Those who work in corporate real estate, warehouses, offices, logistics hubs, know that the best deals don’t come from listings. They come from a company that grows, restructures or consolidates its sites, and that starts looking when it is already in a hurry. Arriving first means more choice and less competition.
Who decides
- Chief executive officer or entrepreneur
- CFO
- Real estate or facility manager
Medical devices
A good device can sit idle for years between tenders, department heads and purchasing offices
Those who make or distribute medical devices know that selling to a healthcare facility means convincing several people with different logics: the clinician who uses it, clinical engineering that evaluates it, the procurement office that buys it. Without a clear path, even a better product stays out of the tender specifications.
Who decides
- Medical Director
- Head of clinical engineering
- Head physician or department head
Trade fairs and events
Exhibitors renew on their own, until one year they don't come back
Organisers of trade fairs, congresses and B2B events live on exhibitors and sponsors. The historic ones return every edition, and sales are concentrated in the months before the event. When an important exhibitor skips a year, the space must be filled quickly, and nobody works the pool of new companies.
Who decides
- Marketing Director
- Sales Director or Export Manager
- Entrepreneur
Corporate training
Companies look for you when there is a fund to spend, not when there is a problem to solve
Those who provide corporate training, managerial, technical, sales, know the market for inter-professional funds and catalogue courses. It is a crowded market, where what is sold is a classroom hour. The most profitable projects are those built around a problem of the company, and to get there you have to speak with the people who have that problem.
Who decides
- HR Director or Head of Training
- Sales Director
- Production or Operations Director
Wholesale distribution
The catalogue is huge, but clients always buy the same ten items
B2B distributors, from industrial hardware to electrical materials, from spare parts to technical supplies, have catalogues of thousands of codes and a network of agents in the field. Revenue grows with existing clients as long as the territory is covered. Then you need new clients and new areas, and agents aren't enough.
Who decides
- Purchasing manager
- Maintenance or technical office manager
- Owner of Installer Companies or Resellers
Chemicals
A Better Formulation Is Not Enough If the Client Does Not Want to Requalify the Recipe
Chemical companies that sell to other industries, intermediates, additives, surface or water treatment products, run into a specific obstacle. Changing a raw material in a client's recipe means redoing tests and approvals. The client only does it if they have a strong reason, and the reason has to be found together with them.
Who decides
- R&D or lab manager
- Raw materials purchasing manager
- Regulatory or HSE manager
Contract furnishing
Whoever gets into the architecture studio before the specification wins the project
In contract furnishing (offices, hotels, public spaces, ships), the decision is almost never made by whoever pays. It is made by architects, interior designers and general contractors, often months before the order goes out. If your product is not in the designer's mind when they draw, it is not there at tender time.
Who decides
- Architect or interior designer
- General contractor or fit-out company
- Client's facility or real estate manager
E-commerce and digital retail
Those who sell to e-commerce talk to entrepreneurs who receive ten proposals a day
Agencies, software, logistics and services for those who sell online have a huge and very noisy market. The owner of an e-commerce business turning over a few million receives offers every day about advertising, conversions and platforms. To be heard you have to show you have looked at their store and their numbers, not send yet another growth promise.
Who decides
- E-commerce Owner or CEO
- E-commerce manager or digital manager
- Operations and logistics manager
Professional and Legal Firms
The firm grows as long as the partners' relationships grow, then it stops
Business law firms, accountants who follow companies, employment consultants and multidisciplinary associated firms. The client arrives by introduction and stays for years. It works, but growth is tied to the partners’ personal network, and the day one of them retires, he takes the channel with him.
Who decides
- Entrepreneur or CEO
- CFO
- In-house legal counsel
Healthcare and Clinical Research
In healthcare the right door is not the general director's, but that of whoever runs the process
Those who sell services, consulting or technology to hospitals, private clinics, CROs and clinical research sponsors deal with large, cautious organisations. Decisions go through healthcare, administrative and scientific departments, each with different priorities, and timelines are long. Whoever arrives with a generic message about efficiency gets filed away with a hundred others.
Who decides
- Medical Director
- Administrative Director or Head of Management Control
- Clinical operations manager or clinical project manager
The first step is a call
In the Feasibility Study we understand your market, your needs and your goals, and we tell you honestly whether we can help. If yes, we present a tailor-made project so you can start right away.