The most important guiding significance of "herding effect" lies in a highly competitive industry, and this industry
If a leader occupies the main attention in the world, then the whole flock will constantly imitate the leader's every move. Where the leader eats grass, other sheep will follow him.
Similarly, in sales promotion, how to find customers and what kind of customers are worth studying. The common form is: the company gives a list of prospective customers or everyone looks for prospective customers from a data source, so this phenomenon appears. When a customer appears, many salesmen will rush in, while other potential customers will be ignored.
Many years ago, a young man asked a man named Horace? The newspaper editor in grilli asked him where he could find opportunities. Grilli replied, "Go west, young man, go west." This answer is now a household name. If Greeley is a sales manager, his answer may be: "Search, young man, search".
Search is playing an increasingly important role in sales promotion. Obviously, a salesman must be able to attract potential customers if he wants to sell. However, where do potential customers come from and will they take the initiative to send them to your door? Sometimes it may be like this, such as a salesperson in a retail store. However, for the salesmen of insurance, photocopiers, machinery and equipment and encyclopedias, they can hardly sell anything just by waiting for customers to come to their doors. These salesmen must go out and take the initiative to find customers.
Even if personal quality and appearance are lacking, sales skills are problematic and knowledge is poor, if you can visit enough potential customers, you can still get some sales. On the other hand, if there are no potential customers, even if you have superhuman quality, outstanding appearance, ideal performance and rich knowledge, you can't sell a commodity. Therefore, it is necessary to actively identify potential customers. This process is called searching. For a salesperson, finding customers is as important as finding gold in the past.
Potential customers refer to individuals or companies that have the need or desire to buy products or services. Many experienced salespeople believe that finding a considerable number of potential customers is a very important aspect of their work. "Search" not only increases sales opportunities, but also plays an extremely important role in maintaining stable sales.
Over time, all salespeople will lose some customers.
Salespeople who don't keep looking for new customers will find their sales decreasing day by day.
Searching is like operating a Fisher wheel. Just like in an amusement park, waiting for someone who wants to go up next to a big wheel. The operator stops the wheel every once in a while to let some people sitting on the wheel get off and others get up. This will ensure that the runners are always full. A good salesperson must constantly look for new customers and replace lost old customers in a similar way.
If you can't find enough new customers, then you will face a situation similar to that faced by the operators of Fisher Wheel, that is, passengers are allowed to leave, but there are no new passengers to replace them, and finally the wheels are very busy. Shaanxi is empty.
There are many ways to find new customers, which one you choose depends on the products and services you sell and the type of customers you want to contact. For example, door-to-door sales are suitable for selling encyclopedias and not for selling aircraft engines.
Your company is the easiest resource to use, and it will definitely help you. Sales staff should make full use of all kinds of information, personnel and means that are helpful to find inside the company:
Current customer. Other departments of the company may be selling to some customers you don't know. You can get a customer directory and valuable information about these customers from these departments. These directories may include some potential customers that you neglected before. Because these customers are regular customers of your company, there is every reason to believe that they will be interested in the goods or services you provide.
Finance department. The company's finance department can help you find former customers who no longer buy things from the company. If you can determine the reason why they stopped buying, you have a chance to win them back. These potential customers are familiar with the goods or services you provide, and the company's financial department also recognizes their credit. In addition, the financial department of the company may also have various records of signing credit contracts with these potential customers. Now is a great opportunity to make use of this resource.
Service department. People in the company's service department can provide you with information about new potential customers. Because they are often in contact with customers who buy products from the company and need maintenance or repair, it is easier for them to identify which customers need new products. Professional salespeople should learn to encourage the staff in the service department to provide all kinds of information about potential customers and give them some rewards when they help them to sell successfully. The company's delivery staff can also easily find the needs of potential customers. Finally, don't forget to cooperate with the service personnel of non-competitive enterprises.
Company advertisement. Many companies have increased their orders because they have made a lot of advertisements on TV and radio, or made a lot of publicity in newspapers and magazines, or issued a lot of discount cards in specific areas. People's reaction to these measures is noteworthy. Why do they react like this? Generally speaking, people who have these reactions are called active potential customers. Try to give full play to the benefits of company advertising in your sales process.
Fair. Thousands of trade fairs are held every year. There are automobile exhibitions, tourism products exhibitions, furniture exhibitions, computer exhibitions, clothing exhibitions, home products exhibitions and so on. The company shall record the name, address and other relevant information of each person who visits the exhibition counter. Then, give this information to the sales staff so that they can follow up. Companies must quickly find and attract these potential customers, because other companies at the exhibition will also be interested in these potential customers. So, you must strive to have them first.
Telephone and mail shopping guide. Many companies will send a large number of reply cards or hire people to make telephone shopping guide contact. A large number of potential customers can be obtained by this method, and almost all companies can attract interested potential customers by this method. So, try to benefit you by applying this method.
In addition to the resources inside the company, there are many resources outside the company that can be used to find potential customers. Which method you choose depends on the goods or services you sell.
Other salespeople. Salespeople from other non-competitive companies can usually provide useful information. In contact with their own customers, they may find customers who are interested in your products. If you have a "good" relationship with other salespeople, they will inform you of this information. Therefore, salespeople should pay attention to cultivating this relationship and provide them with the same help when they have the opportunity.
Catalogue. At present, there are many special catalogues or data materials with names and addresses on them. You can buy the catalogue you need. For example, you can buy a catalogue of the names and addresses of all kindergartens, a catalogue of the names and addresses of all aquaculture farms in China, a catalogue of the names and addresses of all automobile sales agents, and so on. Many trade associations or competent departments have lists of their members or subordinate institutions.
Many business guides classify companies according to their size, geographical location and business nature. These catalogues are an excellent starting point for you to find new potential customers. In large public libraries or university libraries, you can find a large catalogue containing the names and addresses of company managers, factory addresses, financial data and related products. In addition, please be careful not to ignore the names or business directories published locally. Just as we get information from the phone book, we can get information from the computer now. Using a computer database is very simple. Once you enter the system, just point out the keywords you want to query.
Societies and organizations. Is your product or service only targeted at specific social groups, such as young people, retirees, bankers, advertisers, retailers, lawyers or artists? If so, then these people may belong to a club or community organization, so their directory will be very useful.
As long as newspapers and magazines pay attention to the printed materials, you will find many clues to potential customers. The news of factory or store expansion published in the newspaper is very helpful to the sales staff. You can find more business opportunities in business magazines and other magazines. Professional magazines are of great significance to the sales staff of many products. Salespeople should know about magazines in this industry and look for clues to potential customers.
Legal interpretation:
We don't lack suitable customers, what we lack is a pair of eyes to find customers.