Katya Laviolette, chief people officer at 1Password. Passionate about all things people.
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For many companies that build strong consumer-focused operations (business-to-consumer, or B2C), the logical next step is to start catering to enterprises. But executives often underestimate the talent implications of this transition. Like any ambitious transformation, the evolution into business-to-business (B2B) can only be as successful as the people who power it.
B2B requires distinctive talent profiles and a different approach to sales. As with any large, sudden influx of talent, it takes careful orchestration to fully integrate new hires, demonstrate that long-time employees remain valued and preserve the organizational culture. Five years ago, at 1Password, we decided to journey into B2B, and the talent strategy was essential to the critical talent component of this significant business shift.
If you're a CPO whose organization is planning to go B2B, here are some of the strategies we’ve adopted.
Integrating HR From The Start
As a chief people officer, you should be part of the B2B conversation from the beginning. We can improve the chances of success at each stage by raising talent-related considerations. When we have a clear sense of the scope and timeframe and are looped in as plans evolve, we can create effective pipelines for meeting both short-term and long-term talent needs.
While the first order of business may be recruiting employees who can build or refine B2B products, talent teams can start laying the groundwork for recruiting sales talent. If product development experiences delays, timelines for bringing on sales staff must be adjusted quickly. So we can also suggest amending the hiring cadence based on the organization’s capacity to train and absorb new employees.
Having A New Lens On Hiring
B2B sales often requires different skills and capabilities, including industry-specific expertise. You and your talent teams will likely need to tap into unexplored talent pools and develop different evaluation criteria. You may even decide to engage with specialized search firms or add team members familiar with target industries.
There may be a distinction in the soft skills that are most pivotal to B2B success compared to B2Cs. B2B sales teams might spend months—even years—navigating complex networks of stakeholders to land a big client. This requires a long-term mindset, collaboration skills, industry expertise and tremendous patience.
In today’s talent market, companies need to be cognizant of their employer brand. Your recruitment efforts should signal that your organization's focus on B2B is intentional. Create tailored content for ideal candidates, like one-pagers on B2B strategy or detailed job postings elaborating on the nuances of B2B roles.
Offering Best-In-Class Onboarding
You can set B2B talent up for success by creating seamless, customized onboarding experiences. A growing body of research shows that subpar onboarding can impact job satisfaction and retention. A Paychex survey found that 80% of newly hired employees who felt under-trained planned to leave their jobs soon.
Onboarding training programs specific to B2B sales should impart a deep understanding of your organization and industry, the value proposition of the offering, the ideal customer profile, competitors and more. Considering potential clients often ask about these topics, your sales talent should be prepared to respond on day one.
Focusing On Culture
If your organization is ready to tackle B2B, chances are you’re doing something right—and culture is a component. When hiring B2B talent, it’s important to select people who are genuinely excited by your organizational culture and can describe how their previous accomplishments and decisions mirror your core values. This is particularly critical when hiring for senior roles that stretch across B2C and B2B, like chief revenue officer.
It may be tempting to recruit B2B product or sales stars who've excelled in other environments even if their exhibited attributes suggest a potential cultural mismatch. In these cases, it might make sense to dig deeper by amplifying the culture and values portion of interviews.
You can use onboarding programs to illustrate how your culture and values might play out in a B2B context. Listening tours can be an effective way to acculturate new hires and signal that your business shift shouldn’t be misinterpreted as a break from the past.
Optimizing Incentives And Support Structures
Because B2B can sometimes be associated with longer selling cycles, as well as seasonality, your organization will need to develop key performance indicators (KPIs) that accurately measure success, pinpoint where employees need additional support and inspire desired behaviors. You'll also need incentive structures that encourage long-term relationship-building and cross-functional collaboration.
As chief people officer, you can boost B2B employees’ impact and growth by establishing clear processes for objective setting, providing impactful feedback, offering coaching support for managers and structuring regular check-ins. As your HR teams develop KPIs, incentives and support systems for the B2B workforce, consider whether they may be applicable to the B2C side as well.
Making B2C Teams Feel Valued
For some companies, venturing into B2B means stepping away from B2C. For others, like at 1Password, B2C remains a foundational part of the business. When your organization’s focus broadens, you must ensure your current B2C talent continues to be valued, respected and integral to the company’s strategy.
Your employees shouldn’t have to resort to press reports or Slack rumors to hear about the organization's B2B ambitions. Leaders can increase buy-in by communicating the details of the transition clearly and frequently with all employees. By explaining how new and existing roles fit into broader goals, you can boost team members’ engagement and sense of purpose.
Given how highly today’s employees value career development, consider coupling B2B expansion with enhanced skill-building opportunities. Robust career development can elevate the employee value proposition across the board, generating excitement among current and prospective team members.
Take A People-First Approach To Your B2B Shift
Whether your organization caters to individual consumers, mid-sized companies or global enterprises, your people often make or break your success. By adopting the right talent strategies at each stage of the B2B journey, as well as ensuring intentionality about your culture, you and your HR team can steer your organization to the desired destination.
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