How to sell better and more ?

23 April 2008

You are en entrepreneur, company director or department manager, all eager to gain in efficiency and productivity ? Drive away all preconceived ideas and use online tools at your advantage ! Undertake an online survey and kill - not two - but three birds with one stone !

0. Knowing your clients to sell better and more !

The intrinsic value of an online survey lies within the objective of improving companies’ and organisations’ performance globally with an ultimate goal : selling better and more.

Online surveys are a tool that allow interaction between internal and external actors to a company and also allow to gather these various actors’ opinions in relation to various objectives linked to performance improvement or decisional efficiency :

At some point or another, many companies face business slowdowns, periods when sales are scarce and lead times longer. Let’s take the example of a multilingual translation agency and let’s explore how an online market survey contributed positively to the decisional performance of the company and how it allowed it to refocus its commercial resources on more buyoant market segments.

A translation agency based in Brittany has developed a client portfolio for the past year or so. However, reaching out to direct clients is proving more difficult. Aware of this situation, the company decides to gather economic intelligence in relation to regional companies and their potential requirements in order to validate or invalidate the following hypothesis : do regional companies have ad hoc or recurring needs in terms of translation services ?

Which company director would not dream to obtain quality services whilst optimising his return on investment ? If you wish to give your approach to market and client relation a more business and professional orientation whilst killing three birds with one stone, then read on !

 

1. Understanding the market to better match customers’ expectations !

Genuine economic intelligence tools, online surveys and market studies empower companies with a much sharper understanding of their existing and prospective client base at highly competitive prices. This newly acquired business intelligence provides companies with a decisive competitive advantage, giving them a headstart in order to proceed with the constant adaptation of their products and services and sales strategy, according to the ever changing needs and expectations of customers.

An online market survey allows businesses to validate or invalidate a number of hypothetical scenarios (market data, competition, purchasing behaviours, pricing policy, etc.), particularly in the absence of a market research conducted prior to launching a service, a product, a website, or even prior to creating a company.

In order to move its project forward, our translation agency turns to an e-marketing consultant with whom the company defines the market research objectives. An online questionnaire that included 10 well-targeted questions is designed. This questionnaire along with the email inviting respondents to reply were customised using logo and brand identity, and then sent to 200 companies based in Brittanny.

 

 

2. Enhance your company’s image !

When customers or prospective customers receive an invitation to respond to an online survey, they are more enclined to adopting a positive attitude towards it and perceive your approach as being qualitative. Indeed when carefully questioning your targets, you are not "selling" anything to them. You are merely requesting their opinions and suggestions. You are adopting a positive and qualitative attitude by involving them directly in the company’s performance improvement process. They, in turn, feel valued, so does your company and you are hence fostering a genuine win-win situation.

Placing our translation agency’s logo and brand identity in front of prospective customers’ eyes contributes on its own to developing the agency’s image and reputation.

Online surveys or studies allow companies to develop their brand image in a professional and non aggressive manner, particularly when addressing prospective customers. More traditional emailing campaigns on the other hand may often be perceived as intrusive for an initial contact, albeit appropriate later in the customer relationship.

 

3. Boost the efficiency of your sales’ strategy !

Have you already thought about online surveys as powerful tools for winning new clients and cross-selling to existing ones ? Launching a direct marketing campaign towards a new market segment by initiating an online survey will convey a professional approach, making respondents feel mobilised and involved in the process as opposed to more intrusive direct selling methods particularly disliked by salespeople and prospective customers alike.
   
Your company learns about purchasing habits of its current and prospective customers, detects purchasing intentions that it can then convert into hard sales thanks to a telemarketing campaign carried out by sales teams. As said earlier, the "cold calling" method - yet still used by a large number of companies - being much disliked by salespeople, the online market survey allows to prepare the ground by « showcasing » the company amongst prospective customers, hence gaining much valuable time during follow-up calls. These calls are then not perceived as aggressive, but are rather highly targeted according to responses gathered during the survey. Salespeople gain valuable time, see their motivation rise and above all commercial efficiency is boosted !

Our translation agency proceeded just this way and survey results confirmed the absence of recurring needs from regional companies in terms of translation services. In order to truly wrap up the entire process, a telemarketing campaign was then launched on 30% of the targeted population. Once again, results were confirmed. If the telemarketing campaign seemed to be successful at first with 22% of prospective interested customers being identified, 100% of respondents confirmed using their internal translation services or ahaving solely d hoc requirements in terms of outsourced translation services.

Allocating commercial afforts efficiently

Mission accomplished : hypothesis confirmed, the translation agency may now concentrate its commercial efforts and resources on more buyoant markets outside the Brittanny region, so as to increase both its turnover and profit margins.

 

Conclusion

Conducting an online market survey from the outset , for instance prior to the launch of a new product, service, website or before creating a new venture/business, allows companies, at reasonable cost, to gain valuable time and focus their efforts and resources in terms of commercial prospection on more buyoant market segments. An overall gain in time, productivity and increased sales perspectives thanks to an accelerated decisional efficiency.

Keywords

Added-value Building customer loyalty Brand image Competitive advantage Customer satisfaction Decision-making Drafting Economic intelligence E-marketing E-newsletter Evaluating Needs Online surveys Market research Market survey Opinion Perception Polls Product launch Purchasing behaviour Questionnaire Qualitative approach Reputation Result-oriented Sales Selling argument Targets Winning customers