Purpose and background:

B2B stands for business-to-business, which is a method of marketing merchandise or services to different businesses. Competitive analysis is extremely important to build B2B strategies as they help highlight where you’re having success and your weaknesses against your competitors.

Scope and responsibilities:

For a better knowledge about business interactions, you need to know about the company you are involved with. Also, there can be a lot of data involvement which can be chaotic to handle. To have hands on, on the massive data for better productivity results we need to have business to business analysis. B2B analysis provides a direct contact with buyers and sellers, this can include the traders, industrialists, middlemen, drop shippers and wholesalers from across the world. It provides an ideal opportunity to expand business network. One can identify the influential companies and can get directly in touch with them to create mutually benefiting partnerships. Small business owners will get a lot of visibility within the market through B2B analysis. It helps you identify Sales Leads and not waste time chasing the wrong ones.

Procedure and methodologies:

1. Search for the company- To study the competitor company, study the company website, corporate blog, social media accounts and one can use B2B Market Research tools like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vimeo, and SlideShare.
2. Search third party reviews- Use B2B Market Research tools like TrustRadio, G2 Crowd, GlassDoor and Quora.
3. Search for top competitors- Use B2B Market Research tools like Owler or StartupFlux.
4. Company financial material– Review all the material accessible on their investor page and explore for honest revelation Earnings Transcripts, or investor presentations, financial models.. B2B Market Research tools used: Alpha or NASDAQ.
5. Analyst reports– Coverage reports offer you the general analysis of the business. B2B Market Research tools used: D&B, Hoovers, Factiva, Zacks, FactSet, Capital IQ, Investext, ThinkWithStartupFlux.
6. Business Developments- Important developments in the business are often acquired by using B2B Market Research tools: D&B Hoovers, Bureau van Dijk Orbis, or local registries.
7. Technology employed- B2B Market Research tools: Datanyze, HG Data, BuiltWith, DiscoverOrg, RainKing, StartupFlux.
8. Company News- B2B Market Research tools used: Factiva, LexisNexis, StartupFlux.
9. Market Share, Forcast Reports- Regional or National Market shares, forecasts, mini profiles of 3–4 companies B2B Market Research tools used: MarketLine, Euromonitor, BMI, Freedonia, IBIS World, StartupFlux.
10. PE or VC funding- Funding details can provide an estimate of firepower with the company. B2B Market Research tools used: CrunchBase, DataFox, MatterMark, PrivCo, StartupFlux.
11. Credit Report- B2B Market Research tools used: D&B, Experian, or local credit company.
12. Company Family Tree and major subsidiaries- B2B Market Research tools used: D&B, Hoovers, Bureau van Dijk, and InsideView, 10-k.