Skip to content

Welcome to The Guide

Marketing and sales should be united for growth. This guide provides a foundation for leaders, managers, and professionals to create a unified ecosystem focused on B2B buyers and value delivery at every stage of the buying process.

B2B Marketing Sales Foundations
Protected by Copyscape
© Victor Harrison International and VictorHarrison.com, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Victor Harrison and VictorHarrison.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Choose Your Chapter

Intro

Word From the Author

I am writing this guide for B2B marketing and sales leaders, managers, and professionals. Enjoy!

Chapter 1.

B2B Marketing Basics

Find out what B2B Market, B2B Marketing, and B2B Sales are to generate growth in an AI era.

Chapter 2.

B2B
Customer

If you want to sell, find out how they buy first. Discover how to define customer and buying framework for your organization’s growth.

Chapter 3.

Value 
Proposition

Customers pay for value, not for products or services. Discover a new approach to the customer-centric value proposition.

Chapter 4.

Value
Carriers

This is how customers see what you sell—a totally new perception of products, services, solutions, content, and processes.

Chapter 5.

Value
Exchange

Buying and selling is about value exchange—a new philosophy to the buyer-seller relationship.

Chapter 6.

Buying-Selling Scenarios

Understand those scenarios to develop winning tactics. To win, you must know in-depth customer scenarios and choose tactics carefully.

Chapter 7.

B2B
Strategy

Build a competitive advantage to win more easily. Build a position that gives you a clear advantage over your competitors.

Chapter 8.

B2B
Teams

Discover how to re-organize B2B Marketing and Sales structure and competency mix for better results.

Chapter 9.

Workspace

Discover how to re-organize joint and agile B2B marketing and sales workspace for growth in an AI era.

Enjoy reading!

Word From the Author

I am writing this guide for B2B marketing and sales leaders, managers, and professionals. Enjoy!

Table of Contents: Word From the Author

Thank you for choosing my guide: B2B Marketing and Sales Foundations. Writing this piece is part of my mission: “To inspire and empower the B2B community to make a human-positive change doable.”

I am constantly working on improving this guide, so remember to subscribe for notifications so you won’t miss any valuable insights.

Why You Should Read Me

I have a Theoretical Background

First, I’m an economist who combines macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives. I attach great importance to definitions because how we name things matters. 

Defining things is incredibly important in B2B marketing and sales because much nonsense is published out there. In my guide, You will find only verified information based on trusted sources. I also redefine some concepts based on real-life B2B projects for better business results.

I Have Hands-on Experience

Second, I have over 19 years of hands-on experience in B2B marketing and sales and 10+ years of architecting and implementing go-to-market programs on the EMEA, Europe, CEE, and national levels.

I Have Worked With the Biggest

My experience includes working with industry-leading companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, T-Mobile, Volkswagen Financial Services, Škoda, Volkswagen Group, Doka, Unipetrol (Orlen), Bunge, Deloitte, Sodexo, Edenred, AXA, and others.

I Have Trained The Best

I have trained both sales and marketing teams to adapt to evolving industry demands. I have introduced agile frameworks, which enabled close cooperation, lowered operational costs, and generated profit for B2B organizations.

I Bring Fresh Perspective

Close your eyes, imagine you are in high mountains, and take a deep breath. This is exactly what I bring to the table.  I aim to provide actionable insights and a fresh perspective on B2B marketing and sales of complex tech solutions in an AI era.

Who Is This Guide for?

I am writing this guide for C-level executives, managers, leaders, and trailblazers who are open-minded and searching for unconventional approaches and fresh perspectives. It is for those who recognize the need for change but are still determining the best direction.

This guide is specifically tailored for B2B tech companies and industry trailblazers with an international footprint and a pro-human philosophy. In it, I present a holistic concept of reinventing B2B Marketing and Sales for growth in an AI era, debunking common myths and misconceptions.

What to Expect After Reading

You’ll rethink your status quo, rebuild strategies and tactics, adjust the team competency mix, and revise marketing and sales frameworks and processes.

You’ll learn how to build a Joint B2B Marketing and Sales  Workspace with MARS1 (Marketing and Sales as One) methodology.

You’ll learn how to transform your B2B marketing and sales frameworks into Value Exchange Frameworks, where value and trust are foundations of growth.

Finaly, you’ll learn how to reshape your B2B marketing and sales ecosystem to beat the competition and win the market.

You Have the Power to Shape This Guide

I invite you to participate actively in the conversation. Use the dedicated form to ask your questions and share your thoughts. I will address these queries in future updates of the guide.
To stay informed, subscribe to for notifications.

Chapter 1.

B2B Marketing Basics

Find out what B2B Market, B2B Marketing, and B2B Sales are to generate growth in an AI era.

Chapter 1: Table of Contents

What is B2B Market

Initially, I would like to present the standard B2B Market definition most professionals recognize.

Standard definition of B2B Market

The Business-To-Business Market is a space where companies (business entities) meet to buy and sell products or services.

— Victor P. Harrison, June 06, 2024

The definition given above is simple and correct, and it is very similar to those found in books or reliable sources. But wait. Isn’t it true that the B2B customers are not interested in your products or services but in themselves, in achieving their goals and meeting their needs? There is no word about that in this definition.

Despite this definition’s correctness, I will provide another one below that, in my opinion, better fits the B2B reality. It can help you stay on track when the atmosphere gets pressured. And yes, there is enormous pressure in a B2B marketing and sales job. Under pressure, stress appears, and when it does, people operate as trained—automatically.

So, when you are taught that the market is about buying and selling or about products or services, you do your job based on a flawed foundation. You’re focusing on something that your customers are not interested in.

What if your competitors focus on what customers care about most and even desire? That would be a problem, right? So, let’s forget what customers don’t care about and focus on something they need, want, or even desire. The market definition below covers this approach.

Practical definition of B2B Market

The Business-To-Business Market is a space where companies (business entities) meet to exchange value.

— Victor P. Harrison, June 06, 2024

Changing the phrase”…to buy and sell products and services” into”…to exchange value” is not a philosophical change. It keeps you on the right track of understanding what business-to-business is all about and what your focus should be on – the value.

The value is usually carried on money for the B2B seller. B2B sellers want to generate profit, which equals revenue minus costs. Both are measured in money.

For the B2B buyer, though, value is a much more complex concept and can mean different things. I conducted B2B customer buying framework mapping and B2B customer journey mapping for companies like Microsoft, T-Mobile, Bunge, and Future Processing. I also conducted hundreds of deep-dive conversations with those companies’ customers. I asked about the value behind the product, service, or solution they bought. For some, it was risk reduction; for some, cost reduction; for some, it was a path to promotion.

Still, after many conversations, I could see a pattern of what customers value most. Asking questions about value helped me adjust the value proposition, value carriers (products, services, solutions), communication, and other essential B2B marketing and sales areas.

So, is it worth focusing on what customers value? Definitely yes. The value is precisely what B2B marketing should focus on. 

What is B2B Marketing

Knowing the B2B market definition, defining B2B marketing should be easy. In practice, it took a lot of thinking, writing, deleting, drawing, drinking coffee, waking, or even diving. Still, below, I present my definition of B2B Marketing based on five years of university education in economics and over 19 years of hands-on experience in B2B marketing and sales. This definition will be my guide’s foundation. It guarantees the maximum practical approach.

B2B Marketing Definition For Professionals

B2B marketing is a social process of generating profit and socially positive impact by building trust, developing value, promoting value (communication and sales), and delivering value for money from one company to another based on an offer.

— Victor P. Harrison, August 22, 2024

I created an additional article (B2B Marketing Definition) in which I present not one but several definitions I use depending on the context. I encourage you to read it and decide which definition best suits your business.

Following Chapters

The following chapters of this guide are protected. To find out how to get access, please contact Victor Harrison on LinkedIn.