Speaker Introduction
Nihon Total Telemarketing Co., Ltd.
General Manager, Inside Sales Department, Business Development Division
Mr. Kazuhiko Cho
Has been engaged in the contact center industry for approximately 15 years. Possesses extensive experience, particularly in outbound operations, and has been involved in launching new B2B and B2C business ventures. Until the previous term, he contributed to business expansion as the general manager overseeing outbound operations and currently leads a team specialized in inside sales.
uSonar Co., Ltd.
Master, Marketing Team, Sales Enablement Group, Sales Division
Takuya Tozaki
After working in sales for an advertising agency and a machinery manufacturer, he joined uSonar Co., Ltd. in 2015. He has been engaged in event marketing and digital marketing, having planned and managed over 500 events. He has also participated in the launch of inside sales and customer success departments, and leverages that expertise to implement cross-functional marketing initiatives.
Part 1: uSonar Co., Ltd.
Current Status and Challenges in New Business Development Sales
Tozaki identified two common challenges in new business development: 1) the inability to secure new appointments, and 2) deals stalling after the initial meeting with a "we will consider it" response, failing to convert into orders.
He pointed out that a major underlying cause of these issues is approaching customers who have no actual need for the product or service.
For example, he noted that while traditional targeting methods—such as focusing on "construction companies in Tokyo with annual sales of 5 billion yen or more"—allow for a refined talk script due to the narrow focus, they also present significant problems.
First, the needs of the target companies remain unclear. Simply listing companies you want to sell to does not reveal their actual needs or the timing of their purchasing decisions.
Second, the competition is intense. Because competitors are often using similar targeting strategies, sales efforts become concentrated on the same companies, resulting in a "race to be first" or a "price war."
Changes in the Purchasing Process and the Importance of Intent Data
Citing a research report by Gartner, Tozaki emphasized the importance of understanding buyer behavior.
(Source: Win More B2B Sales Deals｜Gartner, Inc.)
According to a process analysis of B2B buyers introducing products and services, the following time allocation has been revealed:
Meetings (contact with sellers) account for only about 17%, and when considering comparative reviews across multiple companies, this drops to about 5–6% per company. Conversely, online information gathering accounts for 27%. This is the stage where buyers proactively collect information through articles, media, and manufacturer websites.
This data indicates that buyers spend far more time gathering information online than they do in meetings. In other words, capturing their movements during this information-gathering stage is critical.
What Is Intent Data?
Intent data is behavioral data that indicates a customer's purchasing intent or signs of interest. Tozaki refers to this as "Interest Sign" data and focused his explanation specifically on behavioral data collected on the web.
Intent data is broadly classified into two types.
The first is first-party data, which is data collected directly by your own company. uSonar offers a service called "Live Access," which identifies companies that visit your website. By utilizing fixed corporate IP information, it visualizes the companies visiting your site. With "Live Access," you can gauge the level of interest based on the hierarchy of the pages visited.
For example, as a user progresses from a simple service page visit to a pricing page visit, and then to a comparison page visit, it can be inferred that their level of consideration is increasing.
The second is third-party data, which is data collected from third parties, particularly from media access logs. uSonar provides this as a service called "Interest Sign." By setting specific keywords, you can extract companies interested in those keywords based on their page-viewing behavior on external media.
Even for companies that have not yet visited your website or are unaware of your services, you can identify them as potential customers because you know they are interested in the category.
Use Cases for Intent Data
As a use case for intent data, Tozaki introduced a strategy implemented by a cloud accounting software provider that combined both "Interest Sign" and "Live Access."
By creating a list of companies extracted via specific keywords and then narrowing that list down to those that had also visited their own website, the company achieved an appointment acquisition rate approximately three times higher than their previous targeting methods.
This demonstrates that by focusing on companies exhibiting customer purchasing signals rather than simple targeting, sales efficiency is dramatically improved.
Part 2: Japan Total Telemarketing Co., Ltd.
Current Status and Challenges of B2B Sales
Mr. Cho of Japan Total Telemarketing summarized the challenges occurring in B2B sales into four points.
The first is the decline in lead quality, where inquiries are received but do not lead to business negotiations. The second is the misalignment of approach timing, where the consideration phase is difficult to read, leading to many missed opportunities. The third is the personalization of sales activities, where results tend to be skewed toward specific sales representatives. The fourth is the insufficient utilization of inside sales, where the intended efficient division of labor often fails to function.
Mr. Cho explains that intent data, which indicates signs of customer purchasing intent and interest, is effective against these challenges.
Actions such as product comparisons on the web or downloading materials indicate a high probability that the customer has entered the consideration phase. Capturing these signs to optimize sales timing and prioritization is the greatest value of utilizing intent data.
Intent Data Utilization Scenarios and Results
From here, actual examples at Japan Total Telemarketing, including their results, were introduced.
Case Study 1: New Business Development Utilizing External Web Browsing Behavior (Interest Sign)
Product: "Akarui Mirai" (Health Support Service)
"Akarui Mirai" is a comprehensive service aimed at promoting employee health, supporting employee well-being through multifaceted approaches such as risk prediction based on health checkup results, provision of diet management applications, and planning and operation of walking events.
Mr. Cho pointed out that for such niche health management services, setting targets is extremely difficult. While health management initiatives are receiving significant attention and any company could potentially be a target for such services, there remains the challenge that the market is still niche for implementation.
In their conventional internal targeting, they narrowed down by industry and size; for example, they focused their approach on the transportation and shipping industry. Mr. Cho recalled that they operated based on the assumption that companies with occupations that put a strain on the body, such as drivers, would have a relatively higher need for health management.
The turning point here was the utilization of uSonar's "Interest Sign". They set five specific keywords related to health management and extracted companies that were browsing web pages using these keywords.
The essence of this approach is a shift from static corporate attributes like industry and size to selecting companies that are actually showing interest in the theme. In other words, they became able to conduct sales by focusing on companies with a high probability of having manifest needs.
As a result, while the business negotiation acquisition rate was 1.04% with conventional internal targeting, it reached 1.24% with the list extracted via Interest Sign, achieving an improvement of approximately 120%.
They also state that four elements leading to sales results have become visible. First, by narrowing the approach targets to hot leads, sales efficiency per lead has improved dramatically, and the closing rate has also increased.
Next, they mention that they have been able to build a repeatable sales process. Furthermore, by gaining the ability to grasp customer needs, there are cases where they can identify industries of interest through reverse lookup based on keywords.
Finally, a key strength is the ability to conduct sales activities based on objective data rather than hypotheses, allowing for well-founded outreach.
Case Study 2: Immediate Approach Utilizing Website Visiting Behavior (Live Access)
Product: "Akarui Mirai" (Health Support Service)
Unlike Interest Sign, Live Access targets companies that have visited your corporate website.
Previously, approaches were limited only to companies at a highly advanced stage of consideration, such as those that had downloaded materials or filled out forms on the company website. In contrast, Live Access makes it possible to extract companies that are in the information-gathering stage, one step before the specific action of downloading materials.
While it is true that companies that download materials have clear needs and are very hot as leads, their numbers are not high. However, Live Access has the advantage of allowing companies to be listed at the potential need stage while they are still gathering information.
Regarding operational points, Mr. Zhang emphasized data extraction every three hours and immediate approaches. Considering whether it is more effective to wait one or two days or to attack immediately as browsing history accumulates, Nihon Total Telemarketing Corp. extracts Live Access data every three hours and immediately assigns newly extracted hot leads to the inside sales team.
As a result, while the appointment acquisition rate in conventional new business development was 1.04%, they achieved a result of 2.64% with Live Access, which is more than 2.5 times the conventional performance.
Why Intent Data Generates Results
Mr. Zhang cited two important elements as to why intent data leads to results.
The first is the acquisition of valid data. It is important to acquire multi-faceted intent data from both internal and external services, which allows for capturing customer purchasing intent from multiple perspectives.
Second, there is the appropriate operational method. He stated that even if data is acquired, the operational method of how to apply it to sales activities is crucial.
Nihon Total Telemarketing Corp. has long provided B2B sales support services, and starting this term, they are also providing inside sales support utilizing uSonar's intent data.
Inside Sales Support Content
The support content provided by Nihon Total Telemarketing Corp. is divided into four categories based on services and structure.
The first is intent data acquisition and list generation. Utilizing the uSonar database, it is possible to design lists tailored to specific needs. Furthermore, they also support the reactivation of existing leads.
The second is the construction and operational outsourcing of the inside sales structure.
Third, they provide comprehensive support ranging from script design to sales talk improvement support, and fourth, KPI design and performance monitoring.
Three strengths of the support service are cited. The first is the reactivation of leads and the maximization of list value. With limited sales resources, it is difficult to continue quantitative approaches, and many companies struggle with stagnant, untouched leads; however, inside sales support maximizes the value of lists, which are a valuable resource.
The second is the optimization of sales resources. They support the construction of an environment that allows staff to focus on core tasks, addressing issues where they cannot focus on tasks that should be prioritized in sales activities, or where activities become personalized and opaque.
The third is business design with an eye toward data utilization. Rather than simply aiming to acquire appointments, they provide feedback on all information obtained from customer conversations, such as real voices and reactions, as deliverables.
Regarding the usage image of the inside sales support service, Nihon Total Telemarketing Corp. handles everything from target selection to inside sales, while the client focuses on field sales.
In the target selection phase, by utilizing the uSonar database and having Nihon Total Telemarketing Corp. handle the areas of approach, identifying issues, hearings, confirming needs, and acquiring appointments, they act as a bridge to closing, while closing and contract finalization remain the client's area of responsibility.
By advancing the division of labor in sales activities, the client can focus on closing, thereby maximizing sales results.
Summary
Thank you for reading until the end!
In this seminar, we were joined by Japan Total Telemarketing Co., Ltd., who shared their success story of significantly improving sales efficiency by shifting from traditional attribute-based targeting to a sales approach that leverages intent data to capture customer buying signals.
It is important not only to acquire intent data but also to understand how to effectively utilize it for your outreach.
We hope this seminar report serves as a valuable reference for your sales activities.
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