What is commercial success? Case Study - Machine Tool Manufacturer
Have you ever wondered what commercial success is?
We could say Sell. Better still, re-sell to the same customer, more quantity or more referrals, i.e. Loyalty.
We agree.
But selling is a process that takes more or less time for each type of product, and therefore we can measure the results at each stage of the process.
Moreover, in sales we must always take into account the customer's "Moment", and therefore both short-term results and a good system to generate commercial inertia that will give us results in the medium and long term are as important as a good system to generate commercial inertia that will give us results in the medium and long term.
In short: it is clear that in the medium and long term Success is to SELL and Re-SELL.
Bearing in mind that in companies with products with a long maturity period, associated more with investment than expenditure, in the short term we must understand success as advancing in the commercial stages to achieve real sales opportunities, but also generating commercial inertia.
We present this real case:
Judge for yourself whether this Real case is a success story.
We can certainly say that it is a good job.
This is a project we have carried out for a machine tool manufacturer belonging to a large group from Guipuzcoa.
Our client is happy with the results for several reasons:
- We have found and qualified new potential customers.
- We have contacted the right people in the right companies.
- We have been able to offer several million euros worth of special machines.
What about sales?
For now, zero sales. Selling is a process. And in the case of customised machine tools, a process with a long maturation period.
So why do you consider it a success?
This is a client with a long-term vision that, despite all that we have experienced in the last year, has achieved a strong commercial action with one objective:
Implementing a Commercial Inertia System
Do you want to know what the keys are for you and your business to replicate it?
Aim well at your target
Before developing any solution, you need to be clear about who you will target and what you will improve for them.
In this particular case, we made the following decisions:
- A very specific segmentation by manufacturer of specific products.
- Markets: Continental Europe - with special focus on Germany and France.
- Contact persons. We are looking for production or quality managers and directors.
Prepare the contact
For this we formed a team of 4 people in ONURA - Project Manager and Sales Team and we designed a commercial pitch adapted to the customers we were going to contact.
Adapted to the different channels we were going to use.
- Web and Linkedin of companies and individuals.
- Contact emails.
- LinkedIn invitations.
- Video calls.
Execute
In this case we have filtered the companies in their databases and added new ones that are potentially interesting (a total of 297).
To date, we have presented the proposal to suitable persons in 147 companies and have discarded 20 after initial contacts.
- 19 companies want to know more and have the potential to sell in the short-term.
- 103 companies qualify as potential customers, but lack a short-term investment project.
- 5 companies show a current interest and we enter the offer process.
Commercial inertia
Once all the previous process has been developed, it is time to implement our Allbound strategy of trackable content.
This is a system that allows us to prepare an optimal follow-up and maintain contact with the right people to detect their moments of interest and optimise commercial action.
In the near future, this Commercial Inertia will not only generate the first sales, but also keep conversations open systematically with our potential customers, thus improving results in an efficient and sustained way.
And how can we manage all this commercial activity? With a good CRM.
Do we want sales? Of course we do. Our profitability depends on it. And we are sure they will come if the offers are competitive.
In any case, the success for us is that the customer has renewed his contract with us for another year.
