Finding Building Business-to-Business Relations Facts

It's true, a lot of information on building business relationships is irrelevant, out of date, and even misleading.  That's why I'm delighted to hear from readers who enjoy the resources I share with members of Applying Strategic Relations.  If you sell and market to other businesses, how do you find facts about building business relationships that will work for you?

The biggest problems with information available on building business relationships is that it's written for consumer markets.  The faceless masses.  Not for us, in the industrial business-to-business world where relationships are real and complex.

In B2B, buyers purchase because they must, it's a matter of advancing their own company to its objectives.  While they don't have to buy from you, they will buy from someone.  That's why business relationships are so important.

With a level of trust and credibility with a particular buyer, they can make a decision faster with a lower probability of a mistake.  Consumers are fickle, with many more choices, options, they can get everything they need from the corner store. 

In the business-to-business industrial markets, decisions must be made more carefully -- with fewer options, more at stake, mistakes aren't as easily tolerated.  With that said, here are a few resources to get you started:

• B2B Lead Generation Blog by Brian Carroll.  Regular analysis and references to current strategies, plus other materials useful to lead generation.
• Mac McIntosh's B2B Sales Leads Expert.  Providing articles and marketing tools, checklists and other resources to improve lead generation.
• Selling to Big Companies Blog by Jill Konrath.  Brief to the point tips and insights about improving complex sales, her main site is at http://sellingtobigcompanies.com/
• How-to B2B Articles featuring various experts.  A collection of relevant materials for sales and marketing professionals who serve other businesses.

I'm not going to say these are the only resources available on-line, however, they provide solid information sales and marketing managers can use today. 

Not the watered down stuff you'll see on many blogs (and magazines) who are primarily trying to generate advertising revenue.  These experts don't publish frequently, because they are busy actually doing what they teach, serving clients.

Of course, I may offend some of my peers for not listing them here.  If I've missed someone then use the form below to let me know.  But off the top of my head, these are the sites you should start with (in addition to my own.)