When it comes to developing customers, we must first establish a Connection with the customer.

Everyone is familiar with Amazon and Facebook, and there are some self-built official websites. In fact, these three are all passive development channels:

I'll show my things, everyone passing by, don't miss it, come and see. The attracted customers basically have purchase needs and desires, so the follow-up progress is probably: (1) The customer obtains more detailed information; (2) This product is good and matches my needs; (3) For Product communication more specific details; (4) Sample testing; (5) Negotiation to place an order.

But for active development , no customers take the initiative to come to see you, we need to find a way to find target customers, this process is completely different, how do we start?
First of all, we must know our purpose: marketing and sales are both the thinking process for companies to create the value they want for consumers, establish and maintain relationships, and get rewards.

So what we have to do is to think: how to push the value that customers want to customers who need it.

There may be thousands of methods; but the principles are different. Grasp the principle, and you will find your own method; if you just pursue the method but ignore the principle, you will get into trouble. — Ralph Waldo Emerson (famous critic and poet)

The following content is based on the idea of ​​establishing a connection with customers based on this purpose. As for the specific method, you can adapt it according to the actual situation and think independently from different angles. This is the kingly way.

1. Market Segmentation

How to segment the market:

* mass market, niche market;

* Consumer customers, industry customers;

* Standard product customers, customized customers;

* Finished product customers, CKD customers;

We must figure out who the target customers are , divide customers into different groups according to their needs, behaviors and characteristics, carefully choose which customer group to serve, and which customer group to ignore, and provide products with a definite purpose /Serve.

2. Product matching

For well-segmented customers, our products have three matching strategies:

(1) Ignore the differences and provide only one product to the entire market.

(2) Pay attention to differences and provide different products for each segmented sub-market.

(3) Select only one subdivided submarket and provide corresponding products.

For most of companies, it is far from the strength to take the entire market, so strategy (1) or (3) is a more appropriate choice, either make a standard product, or customize it for a segmented market, and define it accordingly Our product range.

3. Value proposition

When customers buy a product/service, they do not need the product/service itself, but create value for them through the product/service. Therefore, we need to help customers make a good plan, and what kind of value can be carried by our products/services.

Innovation Newness: Brand new needs that customers have not noticed before.

Performance : Improvement in the performance of a product or service.

Customized Customization: products/services customized for certain specific needs of certain customers

Best-style service Getting the job done: Directly help customers complete work tasks.

Design : Design is very important, but it is also difficult to quantify. It is very important in the fashion industry and consumer electronics industry.

Brand : Customers can gain value by using or displaying a brand.

Price Price: Provide the same product/service at a lower price to satisfy price-sensitive customer groups.

Cost Reduction: Help customers save costs and increase profits.

Risk Control Risk Reduction: Reduce the risk of products/services purchased by customers.

Accessibility : Helping customers obtain products and services that were previously unavailable to them.

Convenience : Make products/services more convenient and easier to use.

A value proposition is the reason a customer chooses one supplier over another, it solves a customer's problem or fulfills a need. A value proposition can be innovative or a product with new features and attributes added.

Do the right thing first, and then do the right thing. The same is true for us in the process of developing customers. The most important thing is to find the right direction first, then set a good route, and then work hard to move forward. If you start off in the wrong direction, you're just running in the wrong direction.

"People say after seeing the ad 7 times you'll decide to buy the product, but after receiving 8,743 spam emails about that product, I still won't buy it!" - Erin Pavlina (Extremely Talented Consultant and Blogger )

People always ignore things that don't interest them, and our brain's main function is to act as a perceptual filter: distinguishing things that deserve attention and things that can be simply ignored.

Imagine two scenarios:

1. Every day at work, the mailing list received by customers is the same: Good product, Good price, Good service...

2. On the eve of Christmas, the customer received a bunch of holiday greeting emails, which are full of fancy pictures...

If it's you, do you feel good?

Content is very important if we want to effectively convey information to customers. If it is valuable content specially produced for the other party, then there is a great possibility to get the other party's attention.

For FMCG - Consumer Goods - Industrial Products - Solutions, the number of decision-making influencers is from few to many.

If it is a standardized fast-moving consumer product, the procurement time is relatively short, and the project changes are small, and there may be only 1-2 people involved in the decision-making, such as buyers and procurement supervisors.

If it is non-standard consumer goods, the procurement time is short, the project changes are small, and there may be more participants in decision-making, such as: buyers, purchasing managers, designers/product supervisors, etc.

If it is an industrial product or a solution, the procurement process is very long, the project changes a lot, and more people participate in decision-making, such as: buyers, procurement supervisors, R&D supervisors, product supervisors, and even the boss.

We need to find certain members of certain departments in the client company - they need products and services to solve existing problems or meet needs, as push targets.

Therefore, understand the customer's departmental structure, find the departments related to Business and Product - Management, Operation, R&D, Purchasing, Sourcing, Business Development..., and contact those who have the right to speak - CTO, COO, VP, Manager, Director , Head, Leader...Specific situation, specific analysis.

Linkedin is a very good platform. Small-scale companies and employees will register their personal profiles, and through some small plug-ins in the browser Chrome, they can obtain the customer's work email. Facebook and Twitter are also suitable channels, which require everyone to make choices based on the characteristics of home products/services.

With valuable content, there is also a channel to contact customers, and the next step is to contact and follow up.

Day 1: Call and email
Day 3: Email and Twitter
Day 5: Twitter
Day 10: Email and LinkedIn
Day 15: Email
Day 20: Call and email
Day 25: Email and Twitter
Day 30: LinkedIn
Day 35: Call and email

Notice:

1. Don't use a mass mailer to send a list of customers who don't know where to get it every day, and the content of the mail never changes.

2. According to the different positions of the contact person, it is necessary to write a development letter with different contents. The focus of each position is different.

Allow customers to continuously obtain valuable content from you, and will not be bored with your "harassment", and even recognize your professionalism, and will naturally think of you when there is a new project or when you switch suppliers.

Apart from the content, the two most important factors affecting customer acceptance are the specific delivery time. People show receptivity to certain items only at certain times. 

So what time period is the best push time? Many people have said: when the client just came to work; . . Customers are all human. If they are human, their work styles and habits are different. It is impossible to have a universal push time.

Still the same sentence: Master the principles, use various methods, and think independently.
You can learn about A/B Testing. This method was originally used to test what kind of page content is most liked by customers. We can extend it: you can send emails to customers at different time periods.

Try without money, try not to die.

After all the above steps are in place, there is still a high possibility that customers will ignore you. This is a normal thing. Maybe the customer has no project needs for the time being; maybe the customer is well served by the existing supplier, and he doesn't want to toss himself in order to fulfill you.

But there are always opportunities: we can provide Cost Reduction; customers may be for Risk Reduction; our products have newness; our products have better performance; we can provide customization that others cannot do; our service can do better In place...These values ​​may win the attention of customers once,

All we have to do is hold on, hold on, hold on.

God always favors those who work hard, why?

Success = (Talent + Effort) * Luck

Talent cannot be changed, but we can work hard. Luck does not come often, but as long as the opportunity comes, you can firmly grasp it.

This is not success learning. Traditional success studies, such as "Secrets of Billionaires", often attribute the success of celebrities to some habits, personalities or traits, so that people have a feeling that they can get rich by mastering these secrets (in the traditional sense "success") illusion.