Six ways for novice salespeople to find big customers

Sales is an accumulation of time, professional knowledge, practical experience, and industry contacts. It definitely varies from person to person, and different salespeople represent different values ??for the product. So how do novice salesmen find big customers? Now, just follow me and have a look. I hope you will be satisfied, thank you. Six ways for novice salesmen to find big customers

Methods for novice salesmen to find big customers 1. Customer recommendations

In many industries, the relationship between peers is very close. If you can Let your existing major customers recommend your products or services to other customers for you, and the effect will be far better than our sales staff's relentless pursuit. So, how can we use the customer’s wisdom to help us do this? There are two methods: 1. Let interests serve as leverage. For example, referring someone to the next home will bring certain benefits to the customer. , the content of this benefit is different depending on the industry. For example, recommending customers can enjoy some resources of the recommended customers, and have greater discounts when purchasing products or services; 2. The most direct and effective method is to contact the person in charge It's a hospitable relationship, so it's much easier to ask him to open his mouth. If the above two conditions are met at the same time, it should not be difficult to let customers become your salesmen. However, customer recommendations only help us open the door to the next customer. After entering, we still have to work hard ourselves.

Methods for novice salesmen to find big customers 2. Become an expert in the products you sell

Big customers are different from ordinary customers and have high professional requirements. Therefore, sales personnel must be familiar with all products they sell. Whether the product being promoted is knowledgeable enough, professional enough, and able to give customers confidence has become a key factor in closing the deal. We are all easy to accept the advice of experts in a certain field, and it is easier to trust what professionals say. Therefore, being an expert on the products you sell is very helpful to promote business. On the contrary, you do not even understand your own products. , how can customers buy with confidence?

Methods for novice salesmen to find big customers 3. Pay attention to competitors

Why don’t big customers cooperate with you? It’s not that they don’t have needs, but that your competitors can better meet them. meet their needs, therefore it is important to pay attention to competitors. When we develop large customers, we often regard them as our opponents and put all our efforts here. In fact, what really affects whether we can reach a deal with a large customer is our competitors in the same industry. When we defeat our competitors, we basically have a large customer. Therefore, while we understand the situation of major customers, we must also fully understand the situation of competitors, including their strength, what value they can provide to major customers, what their bottom line is, what their weaknesses are, what their strengths are, etc. What we understand The clearer you are, the greater your certainty of defeating them. This is the so-called knowing yourself and the enemy and you will never be in danger. When we put the relevant data of competitors, the relevant data of big customers and our own data together for comparative analysis, the tactics to capture big customers will naturally emerge. However, it is difficult for a single business person to understand the information of all parties. It is best to use the strength of the organization.

Methods for novice salesmen to find big customers 4. Organizational system support

The various strategies and tactics mentioned in this article all involve organizations, because the big customers we have to face are organizations It is obviously too weak to deal with customers individually. Only with the organization's planned intervention and support can business personnel use their strength to complete the task.

When we develop large customers, we basically have a dedicated person to look after each large customer. However, when one person faces the comprehensive and professional needs of organizational large customers, he often appears to be insufficient. In this case, we can set up a The key account development support center is led by corporate decision-making leaders and sales managers, and is composed of full-time key account development personnel and employees from the sales department and planning department (part-time). If business personnel encounter any problems in the process of developing key accounts, they can contact us at any time. Think tank? Ask for help, resolve difficulties in time, and improve efficiency and success rate.

The center should have a database, including successful cases, successful skills, summaries of experiences and lessons learned, customer data information, support provided by the company, etc. Depending on the industry, the projects in this database will also be different, so that it can provide a lot of information for business personnel. The decision-making basis for thinking and action also accumulates valuable experience and data wealth for the organization.

Methods for novice salesmen to find big customers 5. Interactive key customer development

People who buy things are arrogant, while those who sell things are humble, like this This situation is very common in large client transactions, and the reason is caused by the asymmetry between initiative and interest. So let’s change our thinking: What will happen if we become a big customer of a big customer at this time? When the relationship is equal, the customer will naturally be much easier to talk to. For example, some companies now attract large customers in the fields of insurance, banking, telecommunications and other fields. You buy our products and we buy your insurance or credit cards, phone cards, etc. as a group. Although such an interactive and mutually beneficial model is effective, it has certain limitations and the scope of the industry is also limited. Let us expand our thinking and achieve mutually beneficial cooperation with target large customers through roundabout ways. The first model is for two customers with different supply and demand commodities: For example, a special steel production company negotiates with its customer, a real estate developer? If you buy XX water control valve from XX company, I will give you a discount of XX% We provide you with construction special steel at a reasonable price. Go back to another big customer, a metal valve factory, and negotiate with it? If you buy our XX tons of special steel, we will guarantee that a real estate developer will buy your XX valves. In this way, the three parties benefited. Although part of the profit was given to the real estate developer, two transactions were concluded, which was still a good deal. Another model is to target upstream and downstream customers respectively: for example, a timber company negotiates with a wood processing machine manufacturer. ?If you buy office desks and chairs from my big customer company, I will buy you XX wood processing machines, and in turn negotiate with the big customer who sells office desks and chairs? If you buy our XX meters of wood raw materials, I will guarantee that I will have the following of customers buy XX pieces of office desks and chairs from you. This is like a biological chain. If we connect it cleverly, we can gain profits and even create huge profits.

Methods for novice salesmen to find big customers 6. Innovative public relations methods

Nowadays, the public relations and maintenance methods of big customers are basically to treat them to dinner, bathing and playing cards. We spend a lot of money and travel a lot of time, but the customers don’t appreciate it, because everyone does it. As the saying goes, if you eat dumplings every day, you won’t find them delicious anymore. Even the customers still refuse to accept the many invitations. If you are picky and compare who is better and who is more generous, not only will your efforts be wasted, but your customers may also think that you don't value them. If you don't treat them to a meal or drink, you won't be able to do business. I believe that we, the key account developers, feel this dilemma of whether to ask or not to ask. At this time, it is necessary to innovate the key account development model. Marketing is innovating every day, but the development of large customers has always stayed in a relatively low-level and old way. At this time, if we change our thinking and innovate the methods of developing large customers, we can squeeze out the big customers. When opening the door, find the side door that no one uses to achieve your goal. We can broaden our minds and avoid the red ocean competition of developing large customers by not taking the path that others have taken. Due to different industries and businesses, the forms and methods of developing and innovating large customers are also different, but there is one principle that can be followed? Everyone else takes the Yangguan Road, but I walk the single-plank bridge. Methods for novice salesmen to maintain key customers

1. Text messages

From the perspective of telephone sales, text messages will also be a better way to maintain long-term contact with customers. One thing to note when using text messages is to use product and service introductions with caution. When a salesperson is going to introduce a product or service to a customer via text message, it is best to tell the customer in advance. If you blindly obtain some mobile phone numbers from some channel and send text messages to them, the result will only be complaints from mobile phone users.

2. Letters and postcards

In order to keep in touch with his customers, car sales champion Joe Girard sends 15,000 postcards every month, so that customers always have no choice. Forget about him, even if you don't change your car for the time being, you will take the initiative to introduce customers to him. This has become one of the key factors in Joe Girard's success.

Telemarketers can also use this method to keep in touch with customers. The development of IT technology is now very different from the Joe Girard era. Many salespeople use emails instead of postcards and handwritten letters, which will reduce costs and increase efficiency. However, traditional handwritten letters and postcards can give customers a different feeling.

3. Mail gifts

When the holidays are approaching, if conditions permit, it is best to mail some practical gifts to customers. This is a necessary step in implementing emotional marketing. . For example:

A key account manager of a certain company called a customer many times, but the customer didn’t see him. Later, he gave him a new model of the company’s phone and called him again the next day. When I gave it to the customer, the customer's attitude changed a lot. Someone asked the key account manager: "What is the main reason for this?" The key account manager thought for a while and said: "Maybe he feels that I really care about him and care about him." ?This is exactly the case. Small gifts, not necessarily expensive, can make customers feel that you care and accept you immediately.

IV. Customer Networking

Nowadays, in order to better serve their customers, many companies have established their own major customer clubs and regularly hold customer networking activities with various themes. , to further enhance customer relationships, this method is particularly suitable for those marketing industries that are relationship-oriented and have obvious business areas. For example, telecommunications industry, financial industry, etc. Reasons why novice salesmen cannot grab big customers

After investigation and on-site visits, it was found that the sales volume of small and medium-sized terminal customers is relatively small, and most of them are low-ranking customers at the township level, or even village-level customers (where the author is located is the agricultural input industry), its radiation range and influence are small, and it is usually very easy to contact. They are very polite to the manufacturer's salesmen because they hope to get support and help from the manufacturer, hope to have more good products and resources, or they are greedy for petty advantages, hoping to get more promotional products from the manufacturer, or they do not want to do it because the business is small. I am willing to offend the manufacturer's salesperson.

As for large customers, especially large stores at the township level, the larger the scale, the more difficult it is to deal with them. Such customers do large business, are relatively strong and demanding, and are not easy to deal with and deal with. They have come into contact with too many factory personnel and dealers, and they have no patience and energy to receive a new salesperson. What's more, the competition in the agricultural supplies industry is fierce. Everyone is thinking of various ways to get large terminal customers to purchase goods and do business. Price wars, There are constant promotion wars and advertising wars. Big customers have everything they want. Why would they spend energy to receive and educate a newbie? To say the least, the business is really too busy. Customers come and go in the store, and there is no condition and environment to go there. Communicate more with new salespeople.

In this case, the novice salesperson goes to the terminal customer once and is frustrated; if he goes twice, he is still frustrated, or the customer does not have time, or there are too many people to visit, and the new salesperson cannot get in. If you keep talking, you can't help, and you can't reflect the value of your work, you will become less and less confident, and you will want to go less and less. This happens all day long, a vicious cycle. The number of visits to large customers has been reduced, and the time spent visiting small and medium-sized end customers will naturally be more. The big customers don't piss off me, and I will support the small and medium-sized customers. This is how small and medium-sized end customers become die-hard customers for novice salesmen. reason. Novice salesmen cannot grasp the current situation of large customers

We often see the current situation of cooperation with manufacturers: although they are large customers of the manufacturer, they do not receive the favor of the manufacturer's personnel services, resources and investment. Factory salesmen spend most of their time with small and medium-sized customers, because small and medium-sized customers have many problems that are easy to solve, or small and medium-sized customers are obedient and cooperative. Instead, salesmen and large customers rely mainly on contact, with few visits and even fewer opportunities for face-to-face communication.

Once a novice salesperson identifies those small and medium-sized end customers as their die-hard customers, it often means that resources, visiting time, energy, etc. are consciously or unconsciously tilted towards the die-hard customers, and more promotional expenses will be invested. , spend more time visiting, apply for more resources, and occupy most of the salesperson's energy. Instead of investing 80% of manpower, material resources, and financial resources on 20% of large customers, this can only achieve twice the result with twice the result. effect.

It is easy for novice salespeople to fall into this misunderstanding: spending too much energy and resources on small and medium-sized end customers, but not seeing sales growth or market improvement. I once asked novice salespeople to do a simple test. They spent two weeks visiting customers during the day, and filled in a business trip log form as usual every night. When did they visit, how many customers did they visit, what were they mainly discussed, what expenses were invested, or The sales novices were required to fill in the information truthfully regarding promotional items and the results to be achieved. After two weeks, the results were collected and compared with each customer's visit cycle and investment costs, as well as each customer's sales volume. As a result, many novice salesmen were greatly surprised. :

I originally thought that the big customers were the ones I visited the most and invested the most in, but it turned out that small and medium-sized terminal customers took up most of my effective visiting time and resources!?

? How is this possible? It’s completely different from my idea. I don’t want to spend most of my time on those small and medium-sized customers. They do not and cannot contribute the value they deserve!?

?I can’t believe it. It turned out that it was not my work attitude that caused the lagging performance, but that there was something wrong with my working method, but I didn’t realize it!?

?My classification of customers And the investment ratio is seriously out of balance. No wonder my die-hard customers are not big customers, and they are not the core customers that support my sales!? What are the strategies for novice salesmen to grasp big customers?

There are big and small customers, and the difference is huge. , the contribution and value to manufacturers are completely different. Salespeople with excellent performance all understand the sales "80/20 rule": 80% of sales and profits come from 20% of customers, and the remaining 20% ??of sales and profits come from 80% of ordinary customers. These 20% of customers are our major customers, the main source of helping us create sales and profits, the key customers for the manufacturer's profitability and long-term development, the core of the manufacturer's sales staff's work, and the target of key support and services.

The current industry status quo, with serious product homogeneity and chaotic competition, makes manufacturers attach great importance to terminal sales. This also determines that most novice salesmen deal with terminal customers and help dealers with distribution. , product distribution, publicity and promotion and handling of end customer objections, and work around end customers. Therefore, the value of a novice salesperson's work is reflected in the end customers. Classifying customers, conducting hierarchical management, firmly grasping the hearts of big customers, and doing a good job in customer relations with big customers are the magic weapon for winning for novice salespeople.

New salespeople must fully realize the importance of major end customers to manufacturers, regional market sales and operating quality, provide differentiated customer service and management, and reasonably allocate their time and energy and resources, which must be reflected in new product launch, product layout, promotion policy, advertising, customer relations, etc., to form a community of interests, pay attention to the needs of major customers and meet their personalized requirements, and help major customers do their best. "Off-store business", serve as consultants and advisors to large customers, enhance their cooperation enthusiasm and sales confidence, let them become benchmark customers in the region, and ensure the stable growth and long-term cooperation of large customers.

Big customers should receive more investment and resources from manufacturers and should be treated as superior to others. Novice salesmen should make big customers look good and receive special benefits in terms of products, rebates, promotions, services, etc. The treatment should make small and medium-sized customers jealous, jealous, secretly promote the manufacturer's products, and be eager to reach a new level of cooperation with the manufacturer as soon as possible, so as to enjoy better services and treatment, strive to stand out as soon as possible, and be favored by others. Manufacturer's attention and support.

Finally, some novice salespeople may ask: I also know that big customers are very important, but what should I do if I just can’t deal with an existing big customer? The existing big customers just won’t take the bait. , Oil and salt are not coming in. I have visited N times but I am not welcomed. What should I do? At this time, I can only use the last trick: select existing small and medium-sized terminal customers to support them and develop them into large customers, because the business of large customers is also made by Growing from small to big means growing and accumulating step by step. Since existing big customers don’t accept you, then seize and cultivate potential big customers in the future.