B2B TURBOCHARGED Sales: The Art of Targeting New Customers Part 1

New Business Target Companies:

How to Find, Manage, Research, and Succeed!

The intelligent man is always open to new ideas. In fact, he looks for them.

—PROVERBS 18:15

DURING YOUR new business search process, if you want to arm yourself with good, quality information, you will need to do extensive research on your new business target companies. This information will then guide your decisions throughout your entire new business development search process.

Target Company Research Success Strategy

Your initial research should be broad.
You will need to start with a wide research area to gather enough ideas into your "net." You do not want to make the initial decision, right out of the gate, of being too narrow with the companies you are considering. This tendency will slow down your new business search process. In the beginning, more is better in terms of potential company ideas and industries you are going to consider contacting. At the outset of your search, you need a large pipeline. On your initial list, set a goal of approximately 100 to 200 ideas for companies to target.

2. Update your target company list constantly.

As you continue to gather more information in your research, you will be able to divide your potential companies and industries into "A," "B," "Maybe," and "Discard" lists. The more research you do, the better your decisions and choices will be. I suggest you create these lists in an Excel spreadsheet or a Word Document. You will need to constantly update your lists as you continue to update your data on the organizations and executives. This task will be part of your ongoing research. At this point, once you have narrowed and refined your "A," "B," and "Maybe" lists, you should have approximately 75 to 100 companies.

3. Never stop updating your lists or researching the companies you are actively interested in contacting and with meeting with to present your product/service to.

Research that is constantly updated and that is as current as possible will give you a competitive edge. You never want to stop updating your research. Keep researching right up until you receive a signed business contract. Knowledge is power! That's never more so than in this case. The more well-versed you are about an organization, its customers, its competitors, and its marketplace, the stronger you will come off during the presentation process. Being well-informed shows you care, that you are motivated to do the homework, that you are a top- class professional, and that you're knowledgeable about the firm and its business.

Today I am going to focus more on target companies. I'm assuming at this point that most of you already know what types of industries, companies your products and service realistically are a good fit for. Then there are those of you who have finished your new market/industry assessments and are now realistic about what time or organization you should be considering for your new market ideas.

We will discuss new market research and industry changes in another blog post. In the meantime, for those of you who are considering a major market change or are looking to stretch your product’s background to better suit the marketplace, I would suggest you look at Occupational Outlook Handbook by the US Labor Department to help you uncover new business target companies. They have a great section that shows you all the future areas of growth by industry and category. Read the “Projected Growth” area. That is where you will find the hidden nuggets of great new business potentials that will definitely give you a competitive edge.

If you would need professional help in the area of determining whether or not your teams are as strong and happy as you think they are, please call us at 847-304-4500 to discuss your options on understanding your team more fully in terms of their ability to support and achieve the business success you are looking for this year.

Have a great week and productive week, managing the changes and challenges that are currently going on in your company.

I wish you a wonderfully successful and productive week ahead.

Eleanor Anne Sweet

Dedicated to increasing your sales income. tm

sweet@B2BTurbochargedSales.com

Phone: 847-304-4500 (CST)


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Eleanor Anne Sweet, Hidden Sales and Revenue Expert, President and CEO of TURBOCHARGED Sales a Division of The Remington Group. She recently was an Adjunct Professor, Loyola University, - Quinlan School of Business, Guest Speaker for the past 4 years at City of Chicago - Business Education Workshops. She graduated from Boston College - BS - Marketing, and received her MBA from Northwestern University - Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Awarded Influential Women in Business (Daily Herald), Women of Distinction - Lake County (Shaw Media), and nominated for the ATHENA International Leadership Award. Eleanor is passionate about helping other achieve their goals and succeed! She is the proud mother of two young adults and in her spare times volunteers as a Mayor for her village, Village of North Barrington.