消费者市场才是创业的蓝海下一个伟大的公司将来自 B2B

2014-10-23 14:17:42来源：可可英语

　　Or consider MarkITx, an online marketplace to trade enterprise IT hardware, which earned a$12 million valuation after only eight months of operations. After speaking with its co-founderFrank Muscarello, the company’s revenues are up 300 percent this year compared to last.

　　再比如企业IT硬件在线交易平台MarkITx，公司成立仅8个月，市值便已经达到1,200万美元。笔者从公司联合创始人弗兰克o姆斯卡莱罗那里了解到，公司今年的收入同比增长了300%。

　　To launch the next great startup, here are six lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from B2Bcompanies about how to launch the next great startup:

　　要创建下一家伟大的初创公司，创业者们应该从B2B公司学会以下六条经验：

　　Target your first customers wisely

　　明智地确定第一批客户

　　Many B2B businesses design their products and services around their initial clients, making itcritically important to take a strategic approach to recruiting those first customers. TaliaMashiach, founder and CEO of Eved, went after large firms like Dell when her company was stillin its early stages. She then designed Eved’s platform and online marketplace to addressthose customers’ needs and provide visibility into their meeting and the total amount spent onan event. That set the stage for the recruitment of other large-scale firms and helped herstock her online marketplace with more than 5,000 companies.

　　许多B2B公司往往会围绕最初客户来设计产品与服务，因此通过战略方法吸引第一批客户就变得至关重要。Eved成立之初，公司创始人兼CEO塔利亚o弥赛亚追逐的目标是戴尔(Dell)等大公司。后来，她设计了Eved平台和在线市场，以解决这些客户的需求，使客户可以直观了解会议和活动的总开支。而这为吸引其他大公司奠定了基础，帮助她将客户增加到5,000多家公司。

　　Long-term value of customers is critical

　　客户的长期价值至关重要

　　Generally speaking, B2B companies have longer sales cycles than B2C firms. However, mostB2B customers are long-term customers and, in the end, companies can extract greater valuefrom them. After Jai Shekhawat founded Fieldglass in 1999, it took him more than a year toland his first customers, which included Verizon VZ -0.80% , AIGAIG -3.34% , GlaxoSmithKlineGSK -1.33% and Johnson & Johnson JNJ -2.36% . But he held on to them, and now eachspend billions on contract labor annually. To date, Fieldglass boasts a customer retention rateof more than 99%.

　　一般而言，B2B公司的销售周期比B2C公司更长。但大多数B2B客户都是长期客户，最终，B2B公司可以从客户获取更多价值。1999年，贾伊o谢卡瓦特成立Fieldglass，他花了超过一年时间才找到第一批客户，其中包括威瑞森(Verizon)、美国国际集团(AIG)、葛兰素史克(GlaxoSmithKline)和强生(Johnson& Johnson)。但他一直紧紧抓住这批客户，现在这些客户每年在合同雇工方面的开支都达到数十亿美元。到目前为止，Fieldglass的客户保持率超过99%。

　　To generate steady revenue, focus on opportunities to generate reoccurring revenue

　　要获得稳定的收入，应该抓住能够产生经常性收入的机会。

　　Prioritize customers that are most likely to use your product or service repeatedly.

　　将最有可能重复使用公司产品或服务的客户放在首位。

　　Muscarello knew that financial companies would serve as ideal suppliers for his onlineexchange because they invest heavily in IT and frequently purge their inventory to makeroom for the latest technology. MarkITx’s first customer, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, isnow on its 22nd trade since August 2013.

　　姆斯卡莱罗深知，金融公司将是其在线交易平台的理想供应商，因为金融公司会在IT方面进行大量投入，并且经常要清理库存，为最新技术腾出空间。MarkITx的第一家客户是芝加哥商业交易所(Chicago MercantileExchange)，从2013年8月以来已进行了22次交易。

　　Build something that sticks

　　开发有粘性的服务或产品

　　To develop a long-term relationship with your customers, you need to create products orservices that are inherently “sticky” and provide several levels of integration within acompany. MarkITx’s dashboard plugs into companies via API and provides real-time data aboutthe mark-to-market value of their assets and the optimal time to refresh their ITinfrastructure. As a result, these companies regularly check the dashboard and are more aptto use MarkITx when it comes time to sell their assets. Fieldglass takes integration a stepfurther by staying enmeshed in its customers’ problems. It monitors, for example, changes inlabor laws (in Europe alone, Shekhawat estimates that there are 25-30 changes per month)and ensures that its software immediately reflect those shifts. In turn, customers grow moredependent on Fieldglass to manage their problem for them.

　　要与客户保持长期关系，必须创建天生具有“粘性”的产品与服务，并且为同一家公司客户包含多个层级的整合服务。MarkITx的仪表板可以通过应用程序接口(API)连接到客户公司，为客户提供其资产的实时市场价值数据，以及更新IT基础设施的最佳时间。结果，这些公司会经常查看仪表板，而且在需要出售资产的时候，会更倾向于使用MarkITx。通过投身客户遇到的实际困难当中，Fieldglass可以提前为客户打造整合性服务。例如，公司会密切关注劳动法的变化(谢卡瓦特估计，仅在欧洲，每月便会有25-30处变化)，并确保其软件能及时反映这些变化。因此，为了解决问题，客户对Fieldglass变得越来越依赖。

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