The right acquisition strategy
To put it bluntly, there is no one right acquisition strategy. What works for one target group in one sector may fail in another.
However, an acquisition strategy should contain these three core elements:
- customer centricity
- customer proximity
and
- customer satisfaction.
Proximity to the customer does not mean permanently visiting the customer. It is much more important to really understand the customer:
- Do I recognise his problem?
- What solution can I offer him?
- When does he have a need?
- And above all: when is he open to my approach?
The right mix, depending on the product and industry, brings success here:
personal sales, a visit to the customer and clever marketing campaigns to make yourself remembered.
“Acts of desperation” or hectic actions initiated by management tend to have the opposite effect and annoy customers. Those who are perceived as a nuisance no longer meet their customers at eye level.
Too high a frequency of visits/contacts can therefore be just as damaging in many cases as too low a frequency or proximity to the wrong customers. If you communicate too little with important customers, you run the risk of missing decisive moments, e.g., for upselling, or not even noticing any dissatisfaction the customer may be building up with the business relationship.
This is always a balancing act between the right frequency of contact and annoying the customer by addressing him too intensively. Ultimately, the customer sets the pace.
Spending too much time with “favourite customers” or time-consuming B-customers is just as inefficient for some sales managers as a lack of focus on A-customers.
Customer satisfaction is something that every company is striving for, but it is often only a lofty goal on paper. In many sales organisations, it is more a case of “take the money and run”. In the short term, this results in increasing turnover, but in the medium to long term it leads to high customer/employee churn rates and a declining reputation.
Again, if you want to increase customer satisfaction, you have to keep your ear to the ground, identify problems (ideally anticipate them) and act quickly.
The introduction of quality management (QM) and a clear regulation of responsibilities after the conclusion of the contract are further important elements.
An important point that is often forgotten in practice is that customer satisfaction and QM should not only focus on new customers, but also on existing customers.
If customer proximity and customer satisfaction are not just empty words, but are “lived” in sales, the customer is the focus and sales increase.
How is optimal customer centricity achieved?
How do you balance presence with the customer, telephone acquisition, video calls, etc.?
There is no rule of thumb here. This is highly dependent on the customer and the product/service.
Of course, it goes without saying that the sales department first tries to get in touch with the A-customers or B-customers with high potential – phone calls and e-mails are of course not enough.
Regular meetings at the customer’s premises, in-house or at events increase customer loyalty.
If the closing rate with the customer varies greatly depending on the channel and the sales manager, this must definitely be analysed more closely.
The most important acquisition instruments at a glance
In order to focus on new customers and to pick them up at the right touch points, properly used instruments are required:
- Networking in groups/ forums/ associations
- Lectures / events
- Cooperation partners
- invitations to tender
- via personal networks
- via customer referrals
- through inbound conversion
- through optimised sales marketing
- through a target approach to sectors/ specific target groups
- through research of lists (contacts/ links)
- through social selling
- through cold acquisition.
Concepts and blog articles can be written on each of these instruments. As an example, I will deal with the topic of “cold calling”.