Chapter 8

Business-To-Business

Direct Marketing

Business-to-Business Direct Marketing

• The goal of business-to-business direct marketing is to increase sales productivity while “cultivating” relationships with existing business customers

• Instead of emphasizing new-customer acquisition, cultivate existing customers and use that information to broaden the customer base

Business-to-Business Direct Marketing

• To uncover and meet needs that the competition is not meeting, seek to understand why customers buy from you

• Consider what needs your products or services fulfill and how your products’ features or attributes compare with those of competitive products or services

• Ask customers to rank-order this attribute/feature list to find new opportunities and to begin to segment customers

Business-to-Business Direct Marketing

• Identify how and when customers want to receive certain types of information

• Develop an effective contact plan and communication strategy that delivers it in that manner

Business-to-Business Direct Marketing

• Establish a contact center to manage all contacts with customers—ingoing and outgoing

• The contact center can acquire customer information for marketing activities and coordinate those activities

Business-to-Business Direct Marketing

• Develop strategies to penetrate existing accounts to search out additional sales opportunities and strengthen relationships

Business-to-Business Direct Marketing

• Use database information to identify attributes among current customers that will help you identify potential customers

• From these attributes you can build a target segment, identify the unfulfilled needs or external service values of that segment, and determine how to position the product or service in respect to competitive products or services.

Business-to-Business Direct Marketing

• Qualify leads before sending them to the sales force or other channel members

• The goal is to advance the sales process so that the prospect is converted into a buyer