According to the data provided by the professional market research company, 80% of the failures in the first year of sales come from insufficient search for potential customers.

Looking back on my first year of sales work, it was probably the third month. I visited a customer who is engaged in industrial electric furnaces more than four times. As a result, when we finally confirmed the quotation, customers found it completely impossible to accept it because they didn't buy the products we provided at a price four times higher than that of domestic products. On the contrary, in another foreign-funded enterprise, they directly signed the contract for the products I provided, and the price discount was only 5%. I have only been there once, which is a kind of luck, but in a sense, it tells us that if we choose the right customer, we will save a lot of effort.

Cause analysis:

Because we are looking for an inappropriate customer, the time and energy invested in this customer are wasted;

Lack of standard evaluation of qualified customers makes the identification of potential customers biased and leads to inaccurate positioning;

Importance of customer search survey

Finding potential customers is the first step in sales, which largely determines our future goals and directions. I often discuss with my friends a physical formula in my junior high school:

W=FSCOSA

W- success

F-efforts

S displacement

Angle between force and displacement

According to the trigonometric function we learned in junior high school, we know that it is a decreasing function in the domain of 0-∏/2;

The greater the angle between your efforts and your goals, the less successful you will be.

This formula tells us that in the first stage of sales, if we choose the wrong direction, we will have to face failure, which is why it is important to find potential customers.

In fact, the direction is the first question, and the method is the second question, which is the so-called "do the right thing first, then do the right thing."

In the sale of industrial products, the search for potential customers we want to mention not only refers to obtaining simple basic customer information such as customer list, contact information and address, but also refers to finding a qualified potential customer.

Who are our potential customers? Who is it?

The sales of industrial products often have two functions: market and sales. The first is the choice of a direction:

1. Regarding the choice of industry, which industry has the greatest demand for products, or our products and services are designed and manufactured for those industries. These industries have great demand, product acceptance and purchasing power. For example, high-end instrument tubes and valve products are in demand in special gas and semiconductor industries, central air conditioning industry has a large demand for refrigeration compressors, and elevator industry also has a large demand for frequency converters.

2. What is the positioning of the product? Is it low-end, mid-end, high-end market, and enterprises of that nature and scale have such demand ability?

3. Who are the customers who can give full play to the value of our products and services? Who is the best customer?

By answering these questions, salespeople can be clear about their attack direction.

For example, the industrial controller products we are engaged in are located in the high-end customer market of printing machinery and injection machinery industry. Those industrial machinery and equipment with more analog processing requirements, complex algorithm requirements and high-speed and real-time network response are our target customers, and our market direction selection and customer target positioning are designed based on this.

What basic elements should a qualified customer have? )

Artificial method

Money: customers should have purchasing power;

Authority: purchasing decision-making power

Demand: demand: the early demand is based on product design, which is why we should design such a product. Understanding of industries: which industries are in demand?

Note: Salespeople should constantly calibrate their own direction, and use these three points to measure whether this customer is our qualified customer? Is it necessary to intervene? Because spending time won't pay off.

How to find qualified potential customers? What should we do?

Finding qualified potential customers is a way to get twice the result with half the effort, and it is also the first step in the sales of industrial products. Here is a brief introduction to the commonly used methods.

Although there are some other methods, such as sweeping the building and rushing straight, which are not suitable for industrial sales personnel, what we want to introduce is universal and effective.

Method 1: guide.

You need an industry guide. When you want to carry out an industry, you need a person who plays the role of a guide because you don't know the industry. The benefits he will bring you are:

1. A well-known center person with certain influence in the industry;

2. Professionals who have a deep understanding of industry technology and market;

3. Have extensive contacts in the industry;

What helps you is:

1. Development trend of industry technology and products;

2. Some key customer directions make you take fewer detours;

Shopping guides are often not customers, but maybe suppliers in a certain industry. However, due to the early entry, I have accumulated a deep understanding and grasp of the industry.

I have a friend in the printing machinery industry. He has a deep understanding of the industry and can objectively evaluate the manufacturers, company bosses and people who are suitable for our products. So, it makes my goal clear. He even told me that the bosses of these companies, as well as those friends who have a good relationship with him, can do it in the name of his introduction when I call.

Method 2: Exhibition

The first situation: visit the exhibition.

Exhibition is a good way to get potential customers. One day, a friend of mine asked me how to get potential customers in the printing machinery industry. I told him, "There will be an international printing machinery exhibition in Beijing in May this year, where you will meet the most famous printing machinery manufacturers in China and even the world, and almost all the top manufacturers will attend. You see, as long as you go to an exhibition, you can get almost the most valuable potential customers in this industry. " Visit exhibitions in a certain industry frequently, and you may even find that every time you meet those customers, everyone can say hello like old friends: "Hey, hey, meet again". This is very beneficial to customers who participate in the later stage.

Please pay attention to the following points when visiting the exhibition:

1. You can often see their products at the customer's site, study their products carefully and find out the compatibility between your own products and customers' products, and know that their current application is that competitor's products. Can it be replaced by your products?

2. Obtain the business cards of the relevant personnel of the customer;

3. Communicate with the sales staff or on-site technicians of these potential customers as much as possible to find out who is in charge of the fields related to your product application.

4. Contact as soon as possible after the exhibition to avoid memory failure and increase the difficulty of contact in the later period;

5. Take back the customer's product information and analyze it carefully, looking for opportunities.

In the second case, your own company participates in the exhibition, which requires good design and planning. The exhibition now is really bad. Choose large-scale exhibitions that have great influence in the industry or the customer's industry, and provide application solutions in this industry.

Participating in exhibitions often makes salespeople contact a large number of potential customers in a short time and get relevant key information. For customers with key intentions, you can also make key explanations and make an appointment to visit.

1. When submitting your business card, you can write some instructions on the back: For example, customers only know that you are a frequency converter, but they don't know that you are an elevator-specific frequency converter. You can write: elevator special inverter for customers in elevator industry, or write some tips to make customers pay more attention.

2. Keep records of key customers, such as: What did I talk to him today? What did he mention? Today, did the staff of this potential customer and I promise to send a message and make an appointment to visit, so as to remind ourselves and give a reminder when we call in the future, because there are so many people at the exhibition, if you don't have these records, it's like you don't know them.

3. The product introduction should be concise and clear, ask questions quickly, and judge whether the other party has the conditions of potential customers and is interested. Before the exhibition, we should design the customer's problems and coping strategies.

At the end of each year, the sales staff should list the exhibitions of related industries in the coming year, which can be done through the network and friends of exhibition companies, and then post them in a prominent position in the workshop and mark them on the schedule, and then remind themselves to take time to visit.

Method 3: Non-competitive salespeople

An uncompetitive salesperson refers to someone who is also engaged in sales, but does not conflict with you in terms of products. For example, the sales of door machine system and frequency converter of elevator, control system of printing machine and cylinder of central air conditioner are all non-competitive sales, but they have the same customer direction.

Many times there are some member clubs on the Internet, which have activities on the theme. This is a good space and environment, but please note:

1. When forming a circle, don't be too eager for quick success, which will cause a lot of passivity to yourself; Gradually build trust, and then discuss the issue of resource enjoyment;

2. Abide by the rules of the game in the circle and don't use the banner of the introducer; Because your behavior will affect your friend's reputation. And this will affect whether you can gain trust and win the possibility of long-term resource enjoyment.

You can also get more information about potential customers through friends and relatives. You can try to get help from their industries and people you usually contact.

In foreign countries, there is often a concept of sales leadership club. They will form an informal organization through sales in different industries and provide information to each other, which is also a method that can be tried.

Method 4: Customer recommendation

If the old customers provided by your previous occupation or sales work are very different from those provided by your previous company, you can use these resources without direct competition.

Existing customers with high satisfaction will also be a good source of potential customers:

1. The industry circle is actually a very small circle. When I visited the central air-conditioning industry, I found that the engineers there were very familiar, even incredibly familiar, and had a good relationship with the engineers of rival companies. You will find that salespeople, technicians and after-sales service personnel in an industry often have good personal relationships, because they may be former colleagues or friends formed through frequent contact.

They know that competitors in the industry may be able to apply our products, and they have strong professional judgment. If they tell you, it is often a qualified potential customer.

Let customers introduce you, pay attention to the following points:

1. Let the recommender know that you will handle this matter properly. For example, you should explain to the recommender how you will treat the person he recommended, "I told him that you trust us and hope to share our good products and services with him", and I will brief you after contacting him. By the way, I will tell him that you haven't seen him for a long time, and he appreciates your professionalism and your personality in this respect.

2. Confirm with the recommender whether to tell the other party's name, and thank the recommender for his feedback after making an appointment.

You know, references actually provide you with a guarantee of credibility. You can't live up to this kindness, or even this customer will suffer today.

Note: Proper explanation and handling will win you a good reputation in the industry. You will get their approval and give full attention, because you have become an insider.

Method 5: Internet search

With the rapid development of Internet, powerful search engines, such as Google, Baidu, Yahoo and Sohu, can obtain information about potential customers.

We can get the following information through the Internet:

1. Basic contact information of customers, but you often don't know who is in charge of that department, which requires telemarketing cooperation;

2. A brief introduction of the client company to let you know his current scale and strength;

3. You should pay attention to the products of the client company, and understand the technical parameters and applied technologies.

4. There are also some professional websites in the industry on the Internet that will provide a directory of enterprises in this industry, which will generally be divided by region and will also provide some more detailed information. For example, websites such as HC International and Alibaba often provide more information due to industry analysis and research.

Searching on the Internet is mainly about choosing the right keywords.

For the sales of different products, we can get more accurate positioning information with the help of different search keyword combinations, and the combination of multiple keywords will achieve unexpected results. This work should be carried out through various product-related keywords.

Our company's website can also cooperate with internet search engine service providers to provide searchable keywords according to customers' habits, so that our company can easily appear in the forefront of search results and some customers looking for you can easily find you.

Method 6: Professional channels

This includes the following methods:

1. Professional industry journals, magazines and websites;

2. Industry analysis report and customer list provided by professional market research companies; Of course, this often requires fees and needs to be paid by the company;

3. Technical seminars and industry exhibition seminars sponsored by industry associations;

Method 7: Sales Call

Sales telephone is a tool for sales staff, which is different from telephone sales companies that sell products by telephone, but it can also be used for reference.

Sales phone can be used as a method of potential customer search or intervention. To a greater extent, we do not recommend this method at the stage of not contacting customers, but as an appointment when our peripheral investigation work is completed.

On the question of telemarketing, we will give a special explanation in the following part, because this is the most common method, but it is also a method that must be given full attention. (See Chapter 2 of Industrial Products Sales-Sales Telephone).

In short:

The more information you have, the more helpful it will be to your work;

Looking for potential customers is not only about finding out the company, but also a series of background investigations around the company.

On weekdays, we should broaden social contacts in order to establish a wide range of information channels for ourselves;

Constantly analyze your own methods to improve it.