The Importance of Customer Analysis
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Determining Who to Sell To, What to Sell, and How to Sell It
Before initiating new business development, you must clarify your target audience. By focusing on customer interests and categorizing them into segments—such as those who want to buy immediately, those who could become long-term fans, and those who offer no benefit as existing customers—you can optimize your time and resources. Analyzing why existing customers became fans of your company is crucial for developing a sales strategy that defines who you are selling to, what you are selling, and how you are selling it.
Analyzing Competitors to Update Your Value Proposition
To sell products and services effectively, you must analyze not only your own strengths but also those of your competitors. A standard approach is to use SWOT analysis, which incorporates Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, to evaluate your competitive landscape. For example, even if you lose to a competitor on location—such as proximity to a train station—your company might be preferred by customers for being in a quiet, tranquil area. By continuously updating your value proposition, you can better address customer needs and benefits.
Preparation and Tips for New Business Development
Creating a Sales Process Map
New business development is often won through thorough preparation. Creating a sales process map allows you to visualize your sales strategy. In new business development, if you fail to meet customer expectations during the first visit, the likelihood of a follow-up meeting is low. By mapping out the behavioral and decision-making process that leads a customer to purchase your product or service, you can improve sales efficiency. Sharing these insights across the entire team, rather than keeping them with a single sales representative, leads to overall improvements in the sales process.
Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Set the KPIs necessary for sales representatives to achieve their goals. Work backward from your targets, use your business card management database to perform analysis, and create lists to acquire new customers. Effectively setting KPIs clarifies the actions required of sales professionals and makes it easier to receive feedback from management. With uSonar's PLANSonar, you can integrate data from your CRM/SFA and business card management systems to manage lead counts in detail and create optimal approaches.
Implementing the PDCA Cycle
To achieve organizational goals, it is vital to implement the PDCA cycle and continuously refine your plans until targets are met. By repeating the Plan, Do, Check, and Act cycle, sales professionals can grow, and the organization can improve. Setting a plan clarifies how much new business development activity is required, enabling proactive action. Evaluating outcomes—including failures—and building a comprehensive process for operational improvement is essential. While gathering materials and managing tasks can be demanding for sales professionals, the PDCA cycle is a critical tool for success in new business development.
New Business Development Methods Through Inbound Sales
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6. Website Operation
Website operation can be a trigger to increase awareness among new customers. Since customers visit the website by searching for their challenges, it is also characterized by clear needs. This increases the likelihood of leading to business meetings. Strive to build a website operation that continuously delivers useful information and leads to requests for materials. Also, even if the content is good, it is meaningless if it is not found by potential customers. It is important to implement SEO measures to increase search rankings and increase the number of visits to your company's site.
7. SNS Operation
SNS operation (Twitter or Instagram) has the characteristic of being able to connect with companies easily. By increasing the frequency of posts, from tweets about company information to advantageous campaign information, it is possible to deepen psychological connections with potential customers and turn them into fans. Compared to telephone and email sales, potential customers take the initiative to make contact, and because it is easier to feel a sense of familiarity than with website operation, it is attracting attention as a new customer acquisition method.
8. Registration on Comparison Sites and Ranking Sites
By registering your company's service on related comparison sites and ranking sites, you can generate improvements in awareness and guidance to your company's website. Some registrations are free and some are paid, but the important thing is to choose a site that has a strong relevance to your service. After posting on the site, you can increase the new business development effect of the comparison site by implementing a campaign that encourages review submissions.
9. Provision of White Papers
By distributing white papers on websites or advertisements, you can convert mere visitors into prospective customers with names. White papers delve deeply into specialized themes and provide research results and concrete solutions. Unlike service materials, they promote the resolution of customer issues by sharing specialized knowledge that is close to the customer's needs.
10. Video and YouTube Operation
Video content uses sight and sound to convey information, making it possible to provide a visual experience. It is suitable for conveying difficult content easily, such as product demonstrations, user guides, and highly entertaining storytelling. While it becomes easier to convey information, the amount of information that can be conveyed is limited, so the results depend greatly on whether you can narrow down the theme and optimize the message.
11. Seminar Operation
Seminar operation is a sales method that gathers your company's prospective customers and leads to transactions by conveying new specialized knowledge. By inviting internal and external experts to provide information, you can help potential customers solve their problems. Referrals from participants can also be expected, which may lead to new business development opportunities.
12. Exhibiting at Events and Trade Shows
Unlike seminars, this means exhibiting at events hosted by external companies. While it costs more than a seminar, it is characterized by the ability to efficiently have contact points with many prospective customers. Before exhibiting, confirm that your company's target matches the attributes of the participants. If you participate in an event where the target is misaligned, there is a possibility that a large amount of money will be wasted.
13. Online Advertising
This refers to advertisements placed online, such as on websites. Representative methods include search engine advertising, social media advertising, display advertising, native advertising, retargeting advertising, and video advertising. It is important to take the optimal advertising method based on your budget and target results.
14. Offline Advertising
This refers to methods of delivering advertisements without using digital media, represented by television advertising and newspaper/magazine advertising. Other methods include outdoor advertising, radio advertising, sponsorships, and placement in flyers or brochures. While it can reach a wide range of people, targeting tends to be rough and direct sales effects are difficult to visualize, so it is suitable for large companies with abundant funds or companies with high profit margins.
15. Public Relations Activities and Press Releases
Public relations activities refer to a series of communication activities conducted by a company, such as issuing releases to media personnel, holding events, and providing information through the company's official website or social media. The purpose of public relations is to improve the company's image and strengthen relationships with stakeholders such as customers and investors. Press releases, which are created to share information that may attract public interest, such as new product launches, important business updates, events, partnerships, and awards, are a representative method of public relations activities conducted by companies.
New Business Development Methods Utilizing Relationships
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16. Agency and Alliance Sales
Agency sales refer to a business model in which products or services are sold through a third party (agency) instead of selling them directly. The company provides products or services to the agency, and the agency sells those products to customers.
On the other hand, alliance sales refer to a method of forming business partnerships or collaborations to jointly provide products or services to the market. This includes various forms such as joint marketing, product development, sales, and service provision.
17. Referrals by Sales Advisors
Sales advisors are advisors who have personal connections with internal key personnel, such as directors or executive-level personnel with decision-making authority at large companies such as listed companies. We will have advisors specialized in specific industries introduce key personnel of your target and conduct business meetings.
18. Joining Economic Organizations and Industry Associations
Joining economic organizations and industry associations not only brings improvements in awareness and reliability but also provides an excellent opportunity to come into contact with other companies in the same industry and companies in related industries. Many companies belonging to the organization are also important companies in the industry, and exchanging business cards with those counterparts brings an effect greater than just one company.
19. Referrals from Acquaintances and Industry Peers
It can be said that this is the method that is easiest to gain trust compared to outbound measures and inbound measures. Since the referrer is already using your company's service and has a high level of understanding, there is a low possibility of missing the target, and it has the advantage of being easy to lead to effective business meetings. Although it is a difficult method to control, it is important to make efforts to improve usability, such as maintaining good relationships with existing customers, regularly upgrading services, and widely announcing them, so that they will think, "I want to introduce this."
20. Upselling and Cross-selling from Existing Customers
Strictly speaking, this is not new business development, but it is far easier to increase sales from customers who already have a relationship than to acquire new customers. Do not be caught up in the perspective of new business development, and choose the optimal method to achieve the goal of increasing sales.
