In perfect market conditions, you would probably have an unlimited budget for promotion, brand building, customer acquisition, so on and so forth. And, you could buy lots of online and offline advertising, drive traffic in-store (at least in preCOVID times) and online. Or maybe, launch a proactive public relations campaign to increase your product or brand’s visibility and awareness. But the reality is far from perfect.
Realistically, most small businesses and even many mid-sized firms have more great ideas on how to peddle their wares than available resources.Therefore, searching for new B2B clients is always a bit of a journey and a task that takes time and energy to do. It’s a challenging task that often goes through a sales process and a journey from the time you’ve found them to the time they become customers.
Finding the companies that may be interested in your company’s products and services comes with many different variables. Asking yourself or your company-specific questions before you embark upon that journey can make your time and money spent more wisely, help you be more effective, and increase your efficiency at attracting a new customer.
Through this post, I will try to ask some basic questions and align on a thought process that would help us be better B2B marketers in our day-to-day work.
#1 Where are your customers located?
When we say location, we aren’t necessarily talking about their physical location. We’re not very interested in where the prospective customer’s office is, but we’re more interested in understanding how to reach out to them. We’re talking about where they spend their time, where we can get access to them, and expediting the process of locating them regardless of a particular social media site, a particular conference, or their website. Once you’re able to figure out where they are, you can figure out how you will try and approach them. By figuring out where they are, you can then try to create ways to get their attention, contact them, or begin the sales process.
Locating where they are, makes it more cost-efficient to try and sell them. That way, you can already start thinking about different ways to target them or approach them, be it through a marketing campaign, a direct sell, or any other way. Once you know the location, you can eliminate many options, mediums, and channels that you might’ve otherwise thought to be good ideas. You can save you and your firm lots of money from figuring out where they are through your advertising or taking a chance by figuring out first where they are.
#2 What’s your message or copy that’s going to attract them?
When it comes to finding new clients or customers, you can attract them through the messaging and communication you have with them. The messaging you have with prospective clients can be a great way to communicate what you do, who you are, and how you can help them. Through crafting a message that communicates what you’re looking to do, or your objective for the call, you can identify if they’re an actual potential client or not.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a software or a hardware company, a venture capital vs. private equity company, or a real estate company vs. a retail company; the messaging takes shape in various ways. From the way you speak on the phone call to how you write an email or how you word your ads. The way you communicate with an audience can stretch far and wide, and figuring out the right message can help you become more efficient and effective in your communication. Your messaging can be a great way to eliminate any poor customers or people who aren’t in your target demographic from the ones that are. The messaging you produce can further filter the broad audience you’re reaching out to and bring you interest or the targeted potential customers you’re looking for.
Depending on your target demographic, the type of goods, products, or services you sell, crafting a message that attracts the attention of people interested or might have a use for what you’re selling can lure more clients to you. If you’re able to figure out the right way to communicate with them and connect with them, then you’re able to move them along further in your sales process and increase your likelihood of finding a new customer. Having the right message, while it might take some time, experimenting and testing can be an incredible way to attract new and higher probability leads.
#3 Why should they choose you?
Part of finding more leads, and landing more clients, is in the value you offer. When it comes to finding new clients and converting leads to clients, one of the most common questions you might have to face or answer is why we should choose you? It is ultimately the question that asks what your competitive advantage is or what you can do that no one else can.
There are lots of ways to answer it. First, you can compete with others through price. Then you can compete with others through experience or track record. Have you been able to produce results for other similar companies in the past? Is that experience, knowledge, and information something you can parlay for them? Another way is the service you provide. You can go above and beyond on providing an incredible level of customer service, transparency, and a package of services that can beat others.
Depending on the skills you have, the products you can offer, and the results you’ve been able to produce, you can make your offer more attractive than others by packaging more together. Ultimately what it comes down to is what uniqueness you can provide that others can’t. Figuring out what you’re able to offer or provide that can separate you from the competition is one of the many questions that can help you know, answer, and have prepared when you’re trying to find new B2B clients.
#4 What’s your marketing budget?
When it comes to finding new B2B clients, one of the ways you can attract more is through marketing. Marketing offers you the opportunity to connect with the audience and put your message or company out there. Depending on the type of marketing budget you have, you can figure out the best ways to use it or where you can derive the most value. Based on your budget’s size, specific marketing channels or options may be more attractive or practical.
Using your funds to help you directly sell or find more customers close to the point of sale can be a great idea on a smaller budget. With a larger budget, you may be able to test out various campaigns, audiences, mediums, and channels to figure out which one works and where your target demographic or customers are. The budget size also determines your best approach and where it makes the most sense to spend your capital.
Few approaches to marketing based on your budget
i. Asking for referrals:
Referrals are one of the best channels for acquiring a new customer. If you don’t have a big marketing budget and are in a typical founder-led stage, get proactive in asking for referrals.
ii. Relationships and network
Marketing is the business of building trust and relationships. Word of mouth, networking, and building relationships will never go out of fashion. Build long-term relationships with long-term people, and start with “How can I be of help” than “what can I sell today?”
iii. Offers and discounts
We’re in a world of freemium Saas products. So, the idea is to minimize the entry-barriers as much as possible. Offer discounts and incentives for people genuinely interested in your products, and give them enough time to trust you. That said, there’s no point offering massive discounts when people decide to leave. That’s a dark pattern. Take care of them when they are with you.
iv. Focus on retaining existing customers
As stated in the previous point, value your existing customers and reduce customer churn as much as possible. The cost of customer acquisition is way higher than increasing your average revenue per user (ARPU). There are ways to measure customer value, and that act as a base for your segmentation process.
v. Demo for selling, not for training
Irrespective of your budget, you cannot be wasting time on demoing your product to every single request that comes inbound. It shouldn’t be like an episode of ‘Oprah’s Favorite Things’ – “You get a demo! You get a demo! Everybody gets a demo!” Vett your customers before you invest your time and energy. Check out some of the most common demo mistakes.
vi. GAME Model for revenue marketing
On one side, marketers tend to stick to good-old methods of what worked for them in the past and don’t experiment enough to stay relevant in the ever-changing business scenarios. On the other side, sales and marketing not being aligned is an age-old problem. Iron the situation out by sticking to The GAME Model of Revenue Marketing.
vii. Collaborate with industry peers
Collaborate with businesses that are catering to a similar customer base but solving for a different pain-point. Identify a win-win proposition to reach out to each other’s customers to drive new business together. For example, a maternity clothing website and a baby products website could offer discounts and deals to each other’s customers.
viii. Build enough social proof that speaks for itself
If you are into B2B Saas, are enough customers writing reviews about your product on G2, Capterra, and the likes? Request your happy customers to write a review, and it helps in building social proof. Don’t try to doctor it, or don’t try to game it by offering them incentives. It’s ok to recognize their gesture, but don’t game it. When your customers talk about you in their reviews, it also lets you understand how they perceive you + brings in more customers because they are authentic opinions based on experience.
ix. Empower your team to be product evangelists
Realize that everyone in your organization is potentially decentralized media. People trust people, and they connect with people. A brand is an entity powered by people. So, the more your team believes in your brand mission and the product’s vision, they will be media outlets themselves. Empower people in saying the right things and being aligned, and yet have their individuality.
x. Organic search still helps.
There are billions of searches on Google every day. So, create high-quality content relevant to your target audience and distribute it well. You don’t want to be invisible to search engines when the entire world is working remotely, and most decisions are based on what you see online. One of the best examples of how to do your content marketing right is Ahrefs. Just take a look at their blog. They get about 1.5 million visitors a month. And that’s probably their biggest source of customer acquisition.
#5 What problems or issues are they stressed with?
Whenever it comes to sales, one of the great insights to find out is what drives the company, what issues they are facing, or what they are looking to solve. Companies usually are looking for solutions or answers to the questions they’re having. Sometimes, it might even be the reason they’re interested in working with you or the motivating factor behind them reaching out. Figuring out what problems or issues a company is facing can be incredibly valuable when you’re trying to sell them or trying to move them along your sales process.
The issues or problems a company is facing are often pain points they’re having during their operations, or problems they’re having going from point A to point B, or a dilemma they’re looking to solve with an external solution. The pain-points of a company can provide you with great information about what you need to do and the type of solution you need to create. Through your products and services, crafting a solution that addresses some of their problems or what they’re looking to solve can be a great way to pitch them why your products are best suited for them and a great way to separate yourself from the competition.
If you’re able to figure out the problems they’re having or the issues they’re facing, you can incorporate it into your pitch or proposal and show them how you can solve xyz or solve it for others in the past. Some of the time, companies will be interested in speaking with you or working with you because of an underlying problem or issue they’re facing. If you’re able to discover what that is, you have a crucial piece of information that you can utilize to craft your pitch, create a solution, and prove to them how and why you can solve it.
Summing up…
When searching for new B2B clients, various questions can help you before you begin on your quest. Figuring out where your target demographic or potential clients are can expedite your process of finding them and increasing the likelihood of you locating them. Whether it’s in your web copy, your email, or your sales pitch, the messaging you choose to utilize is a great way to find more qualified customers and remove any non-interested parties from your interested parties.
The answer to why a company should choose you is significant for any business because it ultimately is the way you separate yourself from other companies and the driving factor behind your competitive advantage. Figuring out a marketing budget that not only pleases the financial analysts but also obtains the desired results you’re looking for can be a great way to figure out what channels may be worthwhile to you and where you might get the best bang for your buck.
Digging further, if you’re able to figure out what issues or problems a company is facing, you can utilize that information to help you craft a more effective sales pitch. You can craft a solution that solves the problems they’re looking to solve and show the different examples of work you’ve done in the past that have been successful.
All in all, there are a variety of different questions that can be incredibly impactful and important to answer before you decide to embark on your new journey to find, locate, and sell more B2B clients and customers.
