Customer acquisition continues to be a primary focus of most organizations. Whether in a start-up phase or a Fortune-ranked company, inclusive of most every industry including legal, healthcare, technology, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and services, all have a desire and need to acquire new clients and customers. Done successfully, customer acquisition has proven to be one of the key factors in the success of an organization. If disappointing results are delivered the impact may be significant and potentially fatal.
Executives are searching for ways to open new doors, speed up their sales cycles, gain new clients and book more revenue. The economy is dictating that organizations do more with less. Globalization is creating more competition for customers. Large companies are moving down market while smaller companies are moving their focus up market. Traditional methods of client acquisition have been falling short for some time.
With the exponential growth of data available on the web, tools, strategies, process and techniques are available today that possess game-changing possibilities for those that embrace these developments and leverage this new information to enhance the processes used to obtain new clientele. Enterprise Intelligence, Social Media, Online Databases, Blogs, Mashups, Software delivered via the Web (SaaS), Cloud Computing, RSS feeds, Podcasts, Online Video and more provide a depth of actionable information and capabilities that, if harnessed, has the potential to alter the competitive landscape within a short period of time.
With a backdrop of over 20 years of active involvement in sales and sales management, I look forward to sharing with you some of the most significant tools and technologies that have ever been available to salesmakers. I look forward to your comments and contribution as we explore this exiting next wave of selling.
2 responses so far ↓
Steve Barnhart // 10/30/2008 at 11:58 pm |
Tools for the job. That’s what is always needed. And new tools are great when they work well to help get the job done better. The value comes in knowing which tools for which jobs.
Even besides the potential positive results of using the new tools, one added value point is that all participants in the business chain will be looking into using each new tool, strategy, process and technique for themselves. Therefore, by using and understanding the new tools, we can arrive at the best position to be in, that of a consultant.
From the coveted consultative position, customer acquisition can be aided by consulting them on the new tools for their own customer acquisition optimization efforts.
It’s always been challenging to stay in front of the learning curve, but that’s why they say “if it was easy, everybody’d be doing it”.
Terry Meyer // 10/28/2008 at 4:49 pm |
I’d be interested in reading how some of the “process and techniques” listed above come into actual play and productive use in the space outside the enterprise. For those in the vast majority of companies (mid-range on down) employees often don’t have time to develop such resources fully. Even when they are exposed to such concepts (think enterprise vendors marketing to resellers) the employees at the VARs keep one Web 2.0 browser window open while completing quote and email. Thus finishing their quotes while getting “marketing points” for participating in the event.