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Here's How to Successfully Acquire New Customers in the B2B Sector!
Carolin Puls1/19/2022
From A as in Acquisition to Z as in Goals. We show you how to successfully implement your new customer acquisition in the B2B area!
Table of contents
- 1. What is B2B new customer acquisition?
- 2. How to identify suitable B2B new customers for you
- 3. These are the tips you should keep in mind when acquiring new customers in the B2B sector
- 4. Softwares can help you with B2B new customer acquisition
- 5. Acquisition is an effort that pays off for you
You give your best every day to satisfy your existing customers. But your company cannot develop profitably just from maintaining this customer base. In addition, existing business relationships can change or even dissolve. The solution is incredibly simple: You must acquire new customers.
Since new customers, whose needs are optimally met by your products or services, don't grow on trees, you should consider a few points that we have compiled for you in this article.
First, you'll learn what you can understand by B2B new customer acquisition and how you can find new B2B customers. Afterwards, you'll learn what you need to consider when acquiring customers in the B2B sector and which software can support you in this extensive process.
Table of contents
1. What is B2B new customer acquisition?
By definition, new customer acquisition refers to all strategic measures that contribute to the acquisition of new customers. This includes the original objectives, the contact points with potential customers, the planning of the necessary steps as well as the analysis of success. When we talk about new customer acquisition, you can distinguish it in two types: Warm acquisition and cold acquisition. For both forms of customer acquisition you need a well thought-out new customer acquisition strategy.
In case of warm acquisition your potential customers already know you because you have already been in contact with them. This is the case, for example, if they have registered for a newsletter and you therefore have their contact details. They actively provided these so that they can receive a service from you in the form of regular information or freebies.
In the case of cold acquisition the approach to possible customers is not so simple. This is referred to when these contact persons have not yet come into contact with your company and therefore no relationship exists between you. New customer acquisition usually takes place via telephone, email, post or referral marketing. But social selling, i.e. acquisition via business networks like XING or LinkedIn is also gaining growing interest.
Please note that you may only use cold telephone acquisition for business customers and not for private individuals. This is regulated by the law against unfair competition. The same applies to contacting via unfiltered mass emails. In Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation, it is written that you are only allowed to contact companies and private individuals who have given explicit consent.
However, if you write a personal email to a potential customer who may have a legitimate interest in contacting you, and attach a link to your privacy policy, you are allowed to choose this method of new customer acquisition in the B2B segment. Contacting by mail, social media or referrals from colleagues or friends does not fall under these restrictions of cold acquisition.
2. How to identify suitable B2B new customers for you
So exactly how do you go about it when you want to win new B2B customers for your company? The basis is the appropriate definition of your target group. After all, with your efforts you want to address the right people or you risk high wastage, which will only cost your company money. Once you have identified and defined your target group, proceed as follows:
- Define your goals: In the first step, determine the goals you want to achieve. Do you want to sell a new service, win at least ten new B2B customers in one month or increase your market share by 5% in one year? If you define your goals clearly, they always provide guidelines on which you can orient yourself. To be able to check their achievement, you should formulate them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attractive, Realistic, Timed).
- Consider your range of services: Now that you know what goals you want to achieve, you need to look at your offer. What are the advantages for your B2B customers? Why should they buy from you and not from your competitors? Define the information you want to communicate to your prospects and what your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is.
- Develop a buyer persona: To optimally communicate the advantages of your products or services to your target group, you need to look at the people who are part of this group. This is called a so-called buyer persona, whose wishes, problems and needs you examine in great detail. You create a fictitious person who represents the typical customers of your target group. For this, gather the following information about them:
- Name
- Age
- Profession
- Income
- Marital status
- Hobbies and interests
- Values and beliefs
- Requirements for products and services
This way, you have the right arguments ready in your acquisition conversation and can convince them of your company. Moreover, you identify the ideal way to approach your potential customers in advance.
- Check the resources available to you: B2B new customer acquisition takes time and often also financial resources. Check before the start of an acquisition wave how much time you can invest and possibly optimize your workday by distributing tasks to other days or to your colleagues.
Procedure for B2B new customer acquisition
- Collect contact data: It always makes a professional impression if you know who you need to talk to to sell your products. Now collect the necessary data for this. Besides the name and possibly the telephone number or email address, you can also see the interests and career of your contact persons on many portals. You might even find out that the person will be attending the same event as you soon, so you can introduce yourself to them in person. It's best to keep the collected information in your CRM system so that your colleagues also have an overview of the current status of the customer relationship.
- Determine your approach: Next, you decide which contact point you choose for your new customer acquisition. When making your decision, consider the following questions:
- Are there any legal frameworks that you need to comply with?
- How can you best reach your Buyer Persona?
- Which customer approach measures are usually taken in your industry?
- Which form of acquisition can you implement with the resources available to you?
- Train your employees: In order to put into practice the previous considerations, it is necessary to train your employees accordingly. You can provide them with various conversation techniques and arguments to perfectly prepare them for the conversations with new customers. This step is particularly important, as your sales employees represent your voice to your customers.
- Put into practice what has been planned: Last but not least - go for the customers. Gain experience, document it and adjust your strategy, if necessary.
3. These are the tips you should keep in mind when acquiring new customers in the B2B sector
New customer acquisition in B2B sector doesn't sound so complicated at first. And it doesn't have to be. However, there are a few tips which if observed, will make you even more successful in acquiring new customers.
- Analyze the behavior of your target group: The actual sales process can already start when you don't even notice it. Interested parties can become aware of your company through search queries or on social media. Therefore, it makes sense to regularly control your marketing measures via analysis tools, to draw conclusions about the buying behavior of your customers.
- Be present online: To implement the previous point, you must be present on the World Wide Web. A company website is part of good manners today and more and more private customers and also business customers use social media platforms for research and for collecting information. Therefore, place special emphasis on your external appearance, the content you produce and the user-friendliness of your shop system. All of these points affect the experiences of your potential customers with your company.
- Motivate your employees: The acquisition of new customers can be strenuous and sometimes frustrating. To keep your employees in good spirits nonetheless, you could introduce a bonus system. In this system, for example, the person who has attracted the most B2B new customers within a certain period of time can get a prize. This can have a positive impact on the service mentality of your salespeople and thus on the customer experience.
- Work with testimonials: Recommendations from other people can help you convince doubting new customers. Such recommendations help build trust in you, as they demonstrate the advantages your company has already provided for other customers. Therefore, regularly ask your existing customers for feedback and ask if you may publish this feedback on your website, for example.
- Don't forget your existing customers: The acquisition of new customers is important, but existing customer relationships make a significant contribution to your company's sales. So, keep an eye on them, take care of their needs and stand by their side with commitment. As a result, they feel valued and you regularly receive updates about current issues. Maybe new opportunities will arise that you can seize.
4. Softwares can help you with B2B new customer acquisition
As you may have noticed, the field of new customer acquisition is broad and can be approached from different sides. Various tools are suitable for this, whose ratings and detailed descriptions we have compiled for you on OMR Reviews. The following is an overview of the categories of software that can assist you in acquiring your B2B new customers:
- SEO tools
- Marketing automation software
- Email Marketing tools
- Shop System Tools
- CRM software
- Social media tools
- SEA software
- Conversion Optimization Tools
- Content recommendation tools
- Content marketing software
5. Acquisition is an effort that pays off for you
Convincing your potential new customers of your company and your products or services often requires a great deal of work. But don't get down if you're not immediately successful at the beginning.
Over time, you will better understand the needs of your target group, sharpen your buyer persona and adjust your strategic goals accordingly. And for this effort, your B2B customers will reward you with loyalty and referrals to other companies in the same or another industry.
Author
Carolin Puls
Author
Carolin Puls
Carolin ist freie Texterin und Pressereferentin mit einer Leidenschaft für das geschriebene Wort. Als ehemalige Brand Managerin in der FMCG-Branche hat sie umfangreiche Marketing-Erfahrung gesammelt und währenddessen berufsbegleitend ihren Abschluss als Marketing-Betriebswirtin gemacht. Heute erstellt sie PR-Texte, Pressemitteilungen und Social-Media-Inhalte, immer mit viel Kreativität und Herzblut.