Before we’ve seen all the possible ways business happens, it can be easy to imagine all business as happening in a B2C, or business-to-consumer, framework. The lemonade stand is a pretty quintessential example of selling B2C: you make your lemonade and sell it directly to the people walking down Main Street (and not, say, to Paradox Pastry or Bodo's).
Earlier this week, Holmes-McCall Biotechnologies announced it would be leaving the lemonade stand behind as it moved to a B2B, or business-to-business, model for selling MyPlay, an exergame for children on the autism spectrum.
When I spoke with Madison McCall and Logan Brich about their decision to change the business model, they explained what mentors Deb Jones and Philippe Sommer made them see: that they didn’t want to compete with real, flesh-and-blood physical and occupational therapists, but rather offer MyPlay as a diagnostic tool for the professionals.
This meant selling to the professionals, rather than to the parents of children with these disorders—a big change in the plan, but one that was “a no-brainer” for the mentors and an "all-around better option" Holmes-McCall just hadn’t yet considered.
Now as they move forward, they can continue to reach out to parents but will be directly targeting professionals with their sales and marketing. And to boot, they have a snazzy new website reflecting the changes.