B2B companies: what they are, the main types, and examples of each, from software to steel.

Definition

B2B companies, short for business-to-business companies, are companies whose customers are other businesses rather than individual consumers.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines B2B as business arrangements or trade between different businesses, rather than between businesses and the general public. A B2B company is simply a company built around that kind of trade.

They sell the things a business needs to operate or to make its own product: raw materials, parts, equipment, software, data, professional services, logistics and financing. The buyer is an organization, so the purchase is often decided by several people, paid on invoice or contract, and repeated over time.

Many large companies sell to both businesses and consumers. A company is described as B2B when businesses are its main customers, or when a specific product line is sold to businesses, such as a carrier's business shipping accounts or a cloud division that serves enterprises.

What is a B2B company, and how does it work?

A B2B company works one step or more away from the consumer. It sells to a company that uses the purchase to run its operations, to build its own product, or to resell. That position in the chain decides who the customer is and how the deal is made.

The clearest official description of this position is in the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of wholesale trade. It calls wholesaling an intermediate step in the distribution of merchandise, and says wholesalers sell merchandise to other businesses, normally from a warehouse or office with little or no display of merchandise.

The chain above was drawn for this page and is simplified. Services sit beside every step: the manufacturer buys software, the distributor buys trucking, the retailer buys payroll processing. Each of those suppliers is a B2B company too, even though it never touches the product itself.

Three reasons a business buys

• To resell: a retailer or wholesaler buys goods to sell again, so it judges what its own customers will want.
• To make something: a manufacturer buys materials and components that end up inside its product.
• To operate: any organization buys software, equipment, supplies and services to run itself.

The Census wholesale definition lists the same three groups: goods for resale, capital or durable nonconsumer goods, and raw and intermediate materials and supplies used in production. Knowing which reason applies tells a seller what the buyer will measure.

B2B companies vs B2C companies

This comparison is this page's general view, not a rule. A small business buying a software plan with a card can look a lot like a consumer, and a family buying a house goes through more steps than many business purchases.

The difference still shapes what a B2B company does commercially. It needs a sales process with stages, marketing that reaches several roles at one account, and customer success after the contract is signed. The full comparison of selling is in what B2B sales means.

The key types of B2B companies

B2B companies are usually grouped by what they sell, across industries. The categories overlap, and many companies fit two of them, such as a software platform that also sells services, or a manufacturer that runs its own distribution.

The eight types are this page's grouping. Other guides use four or five, usually folding raw materials into manufacturing and data into software. The number matters less than the question it answers: what does the customer receive, and who inside the customer judges it?

How official statistics classify B2B companies

There is no official "B2B" code. In the United States, businesses are classified by what they do, not by who buys. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard federal statistical agencies use to classify business establishments, according to the Census Bureau.

The 2022 NAICS Manual explains why. NAICS groups units that use similar production processes, a concept the manual calls supply-based or production-oriented. Who the customer is plays no part in the grouping, so a B2B label never appears in the code itself.

The manual also describes NAICS as a joint effort of Statistics Canada, Mexico's statistics institute INEGI and the U.S. Economic Classification Policy Committee, so business statistics can be compared across the three countries. Some sector definitions name other businesses as the customer outright; others only describe the activity.

The table summarizes the 2022 NAICS definitions in this page's words. The sector 56 definition adds that these support activities are typically performed on a contract or fee basis, which is a plain description of a business service sold to other companies.

For a seller, NAICS codes are useful filters. SBA size standards and Census business statistics are organized by them, and some company databases filter by industry code, so a code can turn "manufacturers" into a precise list of industries to target.

Product-based, service-based and solutions-based B2B companies

A second way to group B2B companies is by what the customer actually receives. It matters for sales, because each kind is bought and judged differently.

Vertical and horizontal B2B companies

A third distinction is how wide the market is. A vertical B2B company serves one industry deeply. A horizontal B2B company serves one function, such as payroll or accounting, across many industries.

The table is this page's framing. Sysco is a useful illustration of a vertical focus: its annual report describes customers who prepare meals away from home. ADP shows the horizontal shape, offering HR and payroll to clients from large enterprises to small local businesses.

B2B company examples, by type

Each company below is described only with what its own latest annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says. They are not ranked or recommended, and several also sell to consumers.

Software and technology

• Salesforce describes itself as a global leader in customer relationship management (CRM) technology and says it sells to businesses worldwide, mainly on a subscription basis, directly and through partners.
• Workday provides organizations with cloud solutions for managing people and money, according to its annual report.
• ServiceNow says it helps public and private organizations digitalize and streamline workflows on a cloud-based platform.
• Cisco designs and sells networking, security, collaboration and observability technology. Its report lists customers as businesses of all sizes, public institutions, governments and service providers.
• Intel designs and manufactures processors and other semiconductors and sells them primarily to equipment manufacturers and cloud service providers.

Manufacturing and materials

• Caterpillar manufactures construction and mining equipment, off-highway engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives, and works with a global network of independent dealers that sell and service its products.
• Dow describes itself as a materials science company serving customers in packaging, infrastructure, mobility and consumer applications.

Distribution and wholesale

• Sysco sells, markets and distributes food and related products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments and entertainment venues.
• Grainger is a broad line distributor of maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) products and services.

Services

• Accenture describes itself as a solutions and global professional services company working across strategy, consulting, technology and operations.
• ADP provides HR and payroll solutions to clients ranging from very large companies to small local businesses.
• FedEx provides customers and businesses worldwide with transportation, e-commerce and business services.

Marketplaces and platforms

• Alibaba.com is an online wholesale marketplace that connects suppliers with overseas wholesale buyers such as trade agents, wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers and small and medium enterprises.
• Upwork connects businesses with independent talent and agencies, with clients ranging from small businesses to large enterprises.

Companies that are both B2B and B2C

Plenty of companies sell to businesses and consumers at the same time. Amazon's annual report describes serving consumers through its online and physical stores, and serving developers and enterprises of all sizes, including start-ups, government agencies and academic institutions, through Amazon Web Services.

FedEx is a similar case: its report names both customers and businesses. Intel's report says its products end up in computing products used by consumers, enterprises and governments, while its direct customers are mainly manufacturers and cloud providers.

For prospecting, the label matters less than the unit you sell to. A company that is "B2C" overall can still have a large B2B division with its own budget, buyers and sales team. Treat the division as the account.

B2B2C

Business-to-business-to-consumer describes a company that sells to a business, which then uses the product to serve consumers. The contract and the sale are B2B, while the end user is a consumer. A payroll provider whose service employees log into is a simple case.

B2B e-commerce companies

B2B e-commerce is business-to-business trade that happens online: a business buyer orders from a supplier's portal, a distributor's website or a marketplace instead of through a sales rep or a purchase order sent by email.

B2B e-commerce companies come in three kinds. Suppliers and distributors run their own online stores for business accounts, with negotiated prices and invoicing. Marketplaces such as Alibaba.com connect many buyers with many suppliers. And software companies build the e-commerce platforms other B2B companies sell on.

Grainger's annual report shows how one distributor splits the two models. Its High-Touch Solutions segment serves customers with complex buying needs, while its Endless Assortment segment runs an online platform with one-stop shopping for millions of products.

In this page's view, online ordering rarely removes the sales team. It tends to take over reorders and simple purchases, while sales people spend their time on new accounts, large contracts and custom quotes.

B2B technology companies and B2B SaaS

B2B technology companies build hardware, software or infrastructure that other businesses use. Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, Cisco and Intel above all fit the label, from applications to chips.

B2B SaaS meaning

B2B SaaS means business-to-business software as a service: software a company uses through the internet, hosted by the vendor, and paid for as a subscription instead of a one-time license. The full meaning, pricing models and metrics are in B2B SaaS.

For a seller, the category tells you who the buyer is. A B2B technology company selling cybersecurity does not sell to "the company"; it sells to the security leader, with IT and finance involved in the decision.

B2B companies by the size of customer they serve

B2B companies also differ by the size of the businesses they sell to. The same product is often sold very differently to a small business and to an enterprise.

The segment names are sales language, not official categories, and each B2B company draws the lines at its own employee or revenue counts. ADP's annual report, for example, frames its clients as anything from a very large company to a small local business.

What "small business" means officially

The U.S. Small Business Administration sets size standards that vary by industry and are generally based on the number of employees or the amount of annual receipts. SBA assigns a size standard to each NAICS code.

SBA's own summary says most manufacturing companies with 500 employees or fewer, and most non-manufacturing businesses with average annual receipts under $7.5 million, will qualify as small, with exceptions by industry. Check the table for the exact code before you label a prospect.

Firm or establishment?

The Census Bureau's Statistics of U.S. Businesses glossary separates the two. An establishment is a single physical location where business is conducted. A firm is one or more establishments under common ownership or control. For a seller, one firm can mean many sites and many buyers.

How B2B companies buy

Every B2B company is also a business buyer. In many organizations, buying runs through purchasing staff. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics describes buyers and purchasing agents as people who buy products and services for organizations to use or resell.

According to BLS, they evaluate suppliers on price, quality and speed of delivery, analyze price proposals, negotiate contracts, work out delivery agreements, and monitor contracts to make sure vendors comply with the terms. That list is a good map of what a seller has to survive.

The stages are this page's summary of a common purchase, not a fixed standard. Small companies may skip most of them. Large ones may add security reviews, pilots and board approval.

The buying group

Because several people judge a purchase, sellers to B2B companies talk to more than one person per account: the user, the budget owner, procurement and sometimes IT or legal. Working those contacts in parallel is called multithreading in sales.

How B2B companies make money

• Subscription: recurring fees per user, per account or per tier, common in software and data. Salesforce's report says it sells mainly on a subscription basis.
• Usage-based: pay for what is consumed, such as transactions, storage or shipments.
• Contract and project: a scope and a price for a defined piece of work, common in services and manufacturing.
• Wholesale and distribution: margin on goods sold in volume on business accounts.
• Marketplace fees and memberships: a share of each transaction, or a fee to be listed. Alibaba.com's sellers may buy an annual membership, according to its parent's annual report.
• Licensing: the right to use a product, data or intellectual property.
• Financing and services attached to products: Caterpillar's report names financing services through Cat Financial alongside its equipment.

The model shapes the sales job. Subscription businesses care about renewals and expansion as much as the first deal; project businesses need a steady pipeline of new work; distributors care about reorders and account coverage.

How B2B companies sell

The filings show these motions in practice. Caterpillar grants independent dealers the right to sell and service its products in a territory. Cisco says it sells to public sector customers primarily through channel partners. Intel combines its own sales organization with distributors and resellers.

What B2B sales reps do

BLS describes wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives as people who sell goods for wholesalers or manufacturers to businesses, government agencies and other organizations. Their listed duties include finding prospective customers through directories, leads and trade shows.

The same BLS page lists explaining product features, negotiating prices and terms, preparing contracts and following up after the sale. Some reps cover large territories and travel; others work mostly by phone, email, chat and video. That is the field and inside split in official words.

Who you meet on the selling side

When you buy from a B2B company, or compete with one, these are the commercial roles you are likely to meet. Titles vary by company; the table describes the job, not a standard.

Many B2B companies combine several motions. The common thread is that they target accounts, not individuals, and they run B2B lead generation to fill the pipeline.

B2G: when the customer is a government

Business-to-government, or B2G, is a close cousin of B2B. The customer is a federal, state or local agency, and buying follows public procurement rules. Cisco and Amazon both name government customers in their annual reports.

For federal work, SBA says a business must register in the System for Award Management (SAM), the database agencies search to find contractors. Government agencies reserve some contracts for small businesses certified in SBA's programs, and size standards decide who counts as small for each NAICS code.

In this page's view, B2G adds formal solicitations, fixed evaluation criteria and more paperwork to the usual B2B steps. Some companies reach government buyers through partners and resellers instead of bidding alone, as Cisco describes for its public sector business.

How B2B companies do marketing

B2B marketing is aimed at a buying group that often researches before it talks to sales. Channels many B2B companies use:

• Content and search: guides, comparisons and tools that answer the questions buyers search for.
• LinkedIn: company pages, employee posts, ads and events that reach buyers by role and industry.
• Account-based marketing: campaigns built around a named list of target accounts, covered in ABM strategy.
• Email: newsletters, nurturing sequences and outbound prospecting.
• Events and trade shows: industry conferences, webinars and customer events. BLS lists trade shows among the ways sales reps find customers.
• Partners and marketplaces: integrations, listings and partner referrals that put a product in front of an existing audience.

Business email still follows the law. The Federal Trade Commission's CAN-SPAM compliance guide says the law makes no exception for business-to-business email, and that opt-out requests must be honored within 10 business days.

In this page's view, the marketing team's job in a B2B company is rarely the sale itself. It is generating and qualifying demand, so that sales tools and sales people spend their time on accounts that are ready to talk.

Advantages and challenges of running a B2B company

Ranking guides list perks and drawbacks of the B2B model. The trade-offs below are this page's summary, not measured results. They describe tendencies, and any single company can be the exception.

Cash flow deserves a note. When a B2B company ships first and invoices later, it carries the cost until the customer pays. Credit checks, clear payment terms and prompt invoicing are ordinary parts of running a B2B company.

What B2B companies sell across industries

Every industry buys from B2B companies. The table shows products and services each one can buy. It was written for this page as an illustration, and it doubles as a map of where B2B companies find customers.

How to find B2B companies to sell to

If you sell to B2B companies, the list starts from a written ideal customer profile, not from a list of famous names.

1. Define the type and size

   Industry and NAICS code, company type from the tables above, employee count, region and the business model that makes your product relevant.

2. Search where companies describe themselves

   LinkedIn company search and Sales Navigator account filters, industry directories, association member lists, marketplaces and, for public companies, annual reports on EDGAR.

3. Add signals

   Hiring for a relevant role, funding, expansion to a new market, a new leader, or a technology they use.

4. Find the buying group

   At each company, identify the user, the budget owner and the person who signs, then enrich their contact data.

5. Prioritize and reach out

   Start with the accounts that fit best and show a signal, and contact them through a cadence of email, LinkedIn and phone.

Research one company before you write

For a public company, Item 1, Business, of the annual report on Form 10-K is where the company describes what it sells, to whom and through which channels. It is the source used for every example on this page. Private companies need their website, press releases and job posts instead.

A full checklist for that step, from the website to recent news, is in company research for sales.

A worked example

This example was written for this page and describes no real company. A seller offers route planning software for delivery fleets. "B2B companies" is far too wide, so the seller narrows the list by the type of business that runs trucks every day.

• Type: wholesalers and distributors, because the Census wholesale definition describes businesses that move merchandise from a warehouse to other businesses.
• Size: companies with roughly 50 to 500 employees, an invented range chosen because the product needs a dispatcher but not an enterprise rollout.
• Signal: a job post for a dispatcher or fleet manager, or a new warehouse opening.
• Buying group: the operations manager who feels the problem, the finance lead who approves the spend, and the owner at smaller firms.

The result is a short list of accounts instead of every business in the country, each with a reason to talk now. The same narrowing works for any product sold to B2B companies.

How to tell if a company is B2B

These are signs, not proof. A company that shows several of them is very likely selling to businesses.

• Its website talks to roles and teams ("for sales teams", "for HR leaders") rather than to individuals.
• Pricing says "contact sales", lists plans per user or per team, or is not published.
• It shows customer logos and case studies of other companies.
• It offers demos, trials for teams, contracts and invoicing.
• Its jobs page hires account executives, sales development reps and customer success managers.
• Its annual report names businesses, governments or institutions as its customers.

A company that sells to businesses which then sell to consumers is often called B2B2C. The contract is B2B, even when the end user is a consumer.

Common mistakes about B2B companies

• Treating "B2B" as a market. It describes who buys, and the needs of a steel buyer and a software buyer have little in common.
• Prospecting a famous brand because it is B2B, when it is far outside the size and type your product fits.
• Selling to "the company" instead of the people in the buying group.
• Assuming a company is purely B2B or purely B2C, when many large companies are both.
• Using B2C tactics, such as discounts and urgency, where the buyer needs a business case.
• Quoting a company's description from a list article instead of its own site or filing.
• Assuming business email is exempt from email law. The FTC says CAN-SPAM makes no such exception.

In a sequence

When you prospect B2B companies, the first email is to a person at the company about a change at that company. The template below was written for this page: it names the signal, connects it to one problem, and asks one question.

Subject: {{signal}} at {{companyName}}

Hi {{firstName}},

I saw that {{companyName}} {{signal}}. For {{companyType}} companies, that usually means {{problem}} becomes a priority in the next few months.

We help teams like {{similarCustomer}} with {{outcome}}.

Is that on your plate this quarter, or is someone else looking at it?

{{senderName}}

Frequently asked questions