Acquisition of new customers

Today, the customer and/or the marked are in the center of entrepreneurial activity. Marketing thus is of great significance. To simplify matters, we define it as the alignment of all entrepreneurial activities with the market, where the seller plays the role of the connecting element between the company and the market.

When working in the market, most sellers have to deal with two “groups of customers”: existing customers and potential customers that are focused by their acquisitioning efforts.

The techniques and skills that help sellers gaining new customers are increasingly interesting in the management of existing customers, because the fast pace of the market also results in the existing customers being subject to tremendous change pressure. Dynamic business strategies and rapidly changing product and service portfolios will also make areas of new customers to “new ground”. In addition, the emotional attachment of customers to brands and products decreases, even regular customers therefore want to be won over again.
Bonding customers to the products and the seller: in the process of gaining new customers sellers work very hard to convince customers when approaching them. In order to do this, specific needs of a customer or a special customer segment will be considered

• in order to open them for the seller, his products or his company and
• to emotionally bond them to the personality of the seller, his product and his company.

Efforts to gain customers principally can have two Targets a) short-term increase in sales, i.e. quick transaction (a unique action will be finalised with a given solution to a problem) or b) long-term safeguarding and expansion of the market position (in the sense of provision management or an investment in the future).

Acquisition in the center of the seller’s activity should always be a tool for long-term sales assurance in the sense of “provision management”. This is the only way you to durably consolidate your position against your competitors and continuously expand your market share. Acquisitions that are understood this way and that continue taking care of newly gained customers following the conclusion of the contract will also generate new existing customers.

During the acquisition work you can use multiple tools. Especially the tools for customer communication and customer approach are very important. They help informing customers and potential customers on your company, your products and your services. And your task consists in explaining the emotional values of your company to your target groups and the brand promises your products and services are related to.

All in all you have to “anchor” you offer in your customer’s mind providing a clear and attractive profile. This is important to show your product but also to explain the beneficial differences from competition. Today, customers have a lot of possibilities to quickly and simply get informed of the offers of different companies. Tools for addressing customers also serve to gain information on these customers, because communication is not a one-way street, but a mutual dialog. And finally these tools are meant to prepare and induce customer decisions. Depending on whether you want to address persons known by name and companies of a small target group or a large anonymous audience, tools for directly addressing a person or a large audience will be applied.

The target persons are known by name and address: Tools of direct address such as telemarketing, direct mailing or personal approach in events and of course individual sales pitch. In general direct feedback possibilities are available.

The target persons are anonymous: Tools of large audience approach such as advertising, PR and publicity work or sponsoring. In general, there are no possibilities to give direct feedback. Tools for direct approach will allow direct contact with certain persons of a target group. Information and offers can be conveyed to target persons according to their individual needs.
In this procedure, wastage is relatively low and performance review can be done immediately. The main disadvantages to be mentioned are the lack of broad impact and the quite high cost per contact.

Return on sales will be reduced; there is a lack of market activity which is marked by a surplus in supply and the corresponding drop in prices. The conditions will change the market to a buyers’ market which is very demanding on the companies’ part. In order to still be successful, it is important for the company, next to the management of existing customers to make an everyday effort to gain new customers or groups of customers. For this purpose, an intensive customer acquisition is required.

The attendees of the training will develop a professional understanding of gaining customers; they will professionalise their skills in acquisition, stick to critical sales standards, systematically work on their sales performance on a daily basis and guarantee high profits to their company.

Maintaining a long-standing customer base is not simple, but gaining new customers requires a lot more. The comfort zone must be left in order to find new contacts and the seller must be flexible and quickly react to new situations.
Our training to acquire new customers will, among others, treat the follow practical topics:

• The concept of acquisition for the targeted acquisition of desired customers.
• Mental prerequisites for the task of “gaining new customers” – successful ways to get out of the comfort zone
• Key principles for negotiations with potential customers
• Discreet contacts according to the company’s philosophy
• Repression and not being repressed: How to defend myself in an intensive competitive environment?
• Different types of conversation for a professional acquisition
• Acquisition call: Design, pitch, storytelling, arguments concerning the company, conviction and completion
• References: professionally ask a question concerning a reference; clarify prior willingness concerning the reference and specific whereabouts.
• Event call: Getting into contact and small talk with non-customers, discrete verbal agreements, networking at events.