What is B2B, and how do business-to-business sales work?

B2B is a model in which one company sells to another company or a sole proprietor. The buyer purchases goods or services for business use: to build, manufacture, resell, or serve its own customers.

B2B is part of everyday construction work. A contractor carries out finishing work for a property management company, a supplier sells materials to a construction team, and a designer works on a project for a developer. Payments are made under a contract, several people often take part in the decision, and deadlines and reporting matter.

If words such as “invoice”, “contract”, “completion paperwork”, “approval”, and “proposal” regularly appear in your correspondence, these are common signs of B2B, even if you previously called it simply “working with organizations”. The defining criterion is that the buyer purchases the goods or services for business use.

B2B: what it stands for and what it means

B2B stands for business-to-business. The meaning is straightforward: you sell to a company or entrepreneur for business purposes. The buyer has processes, a budget, and responsibilities to its own customers or owners.

That is why B2B almost always involves selling an outcome that fits into the buyer’s operations. For a contractor, this means handing over a completed project and providing a clear picture of work progress. For a supplier, it means reliable deliveries and terms. For a service provider, it means saving the manager time and money while reducing stress.

To see how these subjects apply to construction, a useful starting point is the guide to the 101 blog (in Russian): it has separate sections on business, marketing, and legal topics.

How does B2B differ from B2C?

The difference is noticeable from the first deal. In B2C, an individual can make a purchase on their own and immediately. In B2B, making a decision often takes longer: one person looks for a contractor, another approves the budget, another reviews the contract, and another accepts the result.

Imagine a delivery of materials to a construction site. The site supervisor draws up a list, the procurement specialist requests an invoice, the accountant waits for the completion paperwork, and the manager wants to know why the price has increased. Formally, there is one buyer; in practice, several people are involved.

These are the most common characteristics of B2B processes:

• a longer sales cycle and more approval points;
• a greater role for contracts, invoices, work acceptance documents, and procedures;
• different roles in the deal: initiator, user, finance specialist, legal adviser, and decision maker;
• greater emphasis on reliability: deadlines, quality, service, and reporting;
• work continues after payment: delivery, monitoring, and handover begin.

This leads to a familiar B2B frustration: “The deal seems agreed, the payment should already be here, and nothing is happening.” Often, progress stalls because you do not have a clear map of roles and a defined next step for each role.

Who is your B2B customer, and how can you describe them?

In B2B, the customer is a company or entrepreneur with its own rules and motivations. Different roles may be involved in the deal, and one person may combine several of them. These roles may have different objectives: getting a task done quickly, reducing costs, or ensuring that the transaction is secure.

A practical approach is to describe the customer in terms of roles and criteria. This makes the proposal more precise, shortens negotiations, and reduces the reasons for asking you to “send it again”.

Step 1. Record the type of company: its niche, size, geography, seasonality, and types of projects or orders.

Step 2. List the roles in the deal: who sends the request, who uses the product or service, who signs, who pays, and who accepts the result.

Step 3. List each role’s concerns and criteria. The site supervisor cares about delivery dates, the accountant about correct documents, and the manager about the final price and control.

Step 4. Match supporting materials to those criteria: a cost estimate, specifications, a schedule, communication procedures, or a report template.

Step 5. Create a short objection map: what most often holds up approval and what you provide in advance to address it.

B2B sales: how does a deal progress?

B2B sales resemble a project. There is an initial request, clarification of requirements, a proposal, agreements on money, deadlines, and responsibilities, followed by handover and completion documents.

A hypothetical construction example: a customer asks for “a price to renovate an office”. If you respond with a single figure, further clarification can drag on for weeks: what is included, who buys the materials, how changes are documented, and who accepts work before it is covered up. If you provide a structure from the outset (a cost estimate, schedule, reporting format, and change procedure), the approval cycle becomes shorter.

In project management, this approach involves controlling deadlines, budgets, communication, and responsibilities. If the subject is relevant to you, read the article on construction project management (in Russian).

Communication deserves separate attention. In B2B, customers rarely tolerate silence: they need a status update and a forecast. A communication plan and message templates help the team speak to the customer with one voice. The 101 blog explores this in its article on project communication management (in Russian).

B2B marketing: how can you generate leads without wasting your budget?

In B2B, marketing rarely ends with a lead. It should guide the prospect towards a clear next action: request a quotation, send a requirements brief, arrange a site visit, receive a proposal, or complete a contract review.

A common trap is spending money on reach and celebrating enquiries while failing to calculate the full cost of a deal. In B2B, selling costs include sales staff salaries, site visits, estimates, legal advisers, samples, and presentations. These are selling expenses. The 101 blog has a separate article on what selling expenses are (in Russian) and why they should be tracked as a separate line item.

To bring things into order quickly, start with two tasks: calculate selling expenses by month and compare them with the stages and outcomes of deals. To estimate the average cost per won deal, divide all related selling costs, including costs incurred on unsuccessful deals, by the number of won deals in the same comparable group. Agree on the period and the rules for attributing costs to outcomes, and account for the delay between spending and closing a deal when the sales cycle is long. If there are no won deals, the measure is undefined. The number of deals in progress alone does not show it. This makes it easier to see how much is spent on nurturing prospects and where approvals stall. To explore the capabilities of 101 App and discuss your company’s needs, book a product presentation.

Why does B2B depend on management and accounting?

B2B can easily break down during delivery. A sale may look impressive, while problems arise in accounting: an advance payment has arrived, materials have been purchased, contractors have been paid, and the project has been handed over. It feels as though there is a profit, yet the account is empty.

A project-based approach to finance helps here: manage each contract as a project, record cash receipts and expenses, and keep documents and reports in one place.

To manage margins, it is important to separate project expenses from company expenses: rent, management, accounting, advertising, and training. In 101, Company Fund and analytics are used to record internal company expenses and analyse finances. The financial picture depends on the data entered; feature availability depends on the plan, access rights, and version in use. There is an article about the idea behind PRO+ and its purpose: who PRO+ is for (in Russian).

A quick checklist: is your business B2B?

Compare your business with the signs below. They are common in B2B. The key criterion is that a company or entrepreneur purchases the goods or services for business use.

• The customer requests an invoice, contract, specifications, and completion paperwork.
• A group makes the decision, with a decision maker and people responsible for approvals.
• The sale develops into a project: deadlines, stages, monitoring, and handover.
• Approval and support have a noticeable cost that forms part of the economics.
• Repeat sales depend on the quality of delivery and reporting.

To improve how you manage a construction company, start with the “Business in Construction” section of the 101 blog: it contains many articles on processes, money, communication, and control.