B2B Usability

(min utheving)
B2B Usability (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

One of the biggest differences between B2B and B2C might be that most B2B companies don't seem to see themselves as engaged in e-commerce.
....
However, the lack of an Add to cart button doesn't mean that B2B vendors should ignore their websites. The site should still support the many other stages of the buying process -- including the post-sales stages, which are crucial to customers' long-term brand loyalty.
....
Most important, B2B sites can be great lead generators. Prospects use websites during their initial research and stick with the helpful sites during subsequent research.

The website represents the company to prospects. In today's world, people don't always save brochures and advertisements, because they assume they can find equivalent information on the Web when the need strikes. Most of our users also said that when they were thinking of doing business with a company, one of their first actions was to check out its website.
....
[among user-hostile design:]
The most user-hostile element of most B2B sites is a complete lack of pricing information. And yet, when we asked users to prioritize which of twenty-eight types of B2B site information mattered most to them, prices scored the highest by far (29% higher than product availability, which ranked second).

Sites have many excuses for not wanting to display prices, but they are just that: excuses. Users expect to get a basic understanding of products and services during their initial research, and they can't do that without some idea of what it's going to cost. Even if your company can't list exact prices, there are several ways to indicate price level, which is really all people need initially.