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This is why sales representatives dedicate a lot of time and energy to them, with unfortunately very low success rates, most of the time.

 

So, what are the secrets to success for publishers who win their calls for tenders?

 

1. They maintain a privileged relationship with their Key Accounts

The primary key to success in maximizing your chances in your responses to calls for tenders is to initiate and then continuously maintain a quality relationship with your key account prospects.

 

If you have worked – as we hope! – on your sales model, you know who your gold, silver, and bronze clients are. And you have considered the allocation of your sales resources (distribution of working time and assignment of accounts) based on this classification, that is, by prioritizing your gold targets, then silver, and finally bronze. As a result, your sales representatives have begun to identify the key contacts within these accounts and establish lasting relationships with them.

 

Objective: to create and establish trust in order to gather valuable information about the internal organization and the strategic issues of the moment for the company.

 

Marketing can effectively support them in this task by producing « tailor-made » content to nurture a personalized relationship in a logic of « value creation » with their contacts (articles or infographics corresponding to their centers of interest, for example).

 

It's also a good way to stay top of mind and ensure you're 'on their radar' when they choose companies to consult for a new project!

 

2. They Know the 'Playing Field' of the Call for Tenders Perfectly

It is this long-term relationship of trust that allows sales representatives to work on another key point to improve their conversion rate with major accounts: account mapping. This is one of the key elements of Method 1, and an essential point when you want to control your sales process and stop making your sales results depend mainly on the "luck" factor or uncontrolled external factors, as Caroline Jurado, CEO and founder of the start-up Linkky, points out in her testimonial about our collaboration.

Internal organization, influencers and decision-makers within the account, apparent and invisible relationships, specific or collective internal issues, priority objectives, sector constraints and market context…

These elements of detailed prospect knowledge allow you to understand their expectations (conscious or unconscious...) and target the offers that best suit them.

And also, as we will see later, to construct the discourse to which they will be most receptive.

 

This is a step that should not be overlooked, with one key point to keep in mind: account mapping is never static. It evolves not only over time and with internal changes, but also differs for each deal. It should therefore be reconsidered for each new call for tenders: the sales director may have been your best internal advocate when implementing a CRM solution, but may turn out to be a staunch opponent when implementing new marketing tools, if the latter calls into question the working habits of their team, for example!

 

3. They ensure they always stay one step ahead.

Another determining factor in any major account sale, but even more so when it takes place within the framework of a call for tenders: having privileged and priority access to information!

 

Since the legal framework for calls for tenders is extremely regulated, once the consultation has been launched, many constraints restrict the actions of salespeople: a single, imposed contact person, a duty of confidentiality regarding the other companies consulted and their positioning, a prohibition on directly contacting decision-makers, extreme formalism in the call for proposals and responses, etc.

In fact, the only effective way to influence the outcome of a call for tenders by refining the relevance of your commercial response is before its official publication!

 

Consider that if you discover the call for tenders the day you receive it in your mailbox, you already start with a serious handicap, because you have very few commercial levers to act on, and they are not the most encouraging (the price...).

Those who understand this devote a lot of attention and energy to points 1 and 2 mentioned above, especially for this reason. If a relationship of trust exists and if exchanges are regular, there is a good chance that you will hear about a consultation while it is still only at the project stage... However, it is at this moment - and only at this moment! - that you will be able to obtain key information from the various internal contacts most familiar with the file.

 

4. They know how to make a difference...

If you have integrated the first 3 points into your sales methods and your sales organization, then you have tools that will allow you to differentiate yourself from your competitors: you have an idea of the planned budget, the internal organizational constraints impacting the project's execution, the key stakeholders and their expectations, and the arguments of the internal project "opponents," etc.

 

And from then on, you are able to "play your cards" in the best possible way and determine in a relevant way: the offers and services to highlight, the type of support to offer the client, your price positioning, and more generally, your sales tactics for this deal.

 

Last point – and not least –:

you are able to construct the discourse that will be effective with your interlocutors.

Presenting an offer that matches the client's expectations has certainly allowed you to pass the pre-selection stage. That's good. But it's useless if you're not the best afterwards, at the oral presentation stage!

 

It is during this final stage, which determines the ultimate outcome of the consultation, that the sales approach, patiently developed from the beginning, becomes fully meaningful and bears fruit: the detailed knowledge of the account and its key contacts that your sales representatives have acquired over the preceding months will allow you to develop an original narrative around your solutions and to focus on the points that will resonate most with your contacts.

 

Knowing their personal challenges, you can even afford to turn your contacts into « allies » during your presentation by inviting them to express themselves, give their opinion, and « co-build » the choice of solution with you during your presentation.

 

What better way to make them want to work with you than to involve them in choosing options and getting them to envision the rest of the project with you?

 

In any case, this is an approach that has enabled many of our clients to significantly improve their conversion rates and the amount of business won!

Time is a valuable resource, and your sales representatives are short on it. In this webinar, KESTIO explains how to save them 50% of their time:

It's high time for you now to take action and translate this great strategy into effective field practices to achieve your goals.

 

Don't know where to start? KESTIO guides you with the 5 key questions you need to ask yourself at this stage.

 

1. What will be your marketing and sales mix?

The distribution of roles between marketing and sales is an issue to be addressed carefully and well in advance: with the development of SaaS offerings and the increasing digitalization of sales methods (Inbound Marketing, Social Selling, Sales Automation, etc.), the share of resources allocated to marketing is constantly increasing (the 1 to 2 ratio between marketing and sales is reversing).

 

It is absolutely necessary to have a clear vision of the stages of your sales funnel and to differentiate between those that fall under marketing and those that fall under the action of your sales representatives.

 

2. Should You Prioritize Inside Sales Representatives or Field Sales Representatives? 

 This is an essential aspect of your sales organization, and it depends primarily on the nature of your offer and its distribution method.

 

 If you sell perpetual licenses with maintenance subscriptions, you will most likely opt for a partner network capable of managing the installation and follow-up. And in this case, you will mainly need field sales representatives to meet them, supported.

 

 And in many cases, you will have to manage the cohabitation of these 2 models and determine all the more precisely the account allocation criteria and the allocation of sales forces that results between your inside and field sales representatives.

 

 3. What skills should your sales representatives master?

It is also useful to ask yourself about the skills that your sales representatives will need to master. In direct connection with the first two points mentioned, but also depending on the profile of your customers, you will thus determine the sales methods, techniques and tools to implement.

 

According to the latest EY-Syntech study, the two main clients of software publishers in France today are the banking and industrial sectors. If this is your case, your sales representatives must be well-versed in "Key Account" sales methods, such as the Chessboard Method, and complex sales.

 

The public sector ranks 3rd in this classification. If it is one of your priority targets, your sales team should focus on mastering the tender process and the associated sales techniques.

 

In a predominantly digital sales model, the role of salespeople is very different: with qualified contacts identified and nurtured upstream by marketing, "Inside Sales" essentially has the role of refining the qualification of needs, guiding the client in the choice of options, creating ambassadors for the solution within the client's organization, or even mapping out the decision-making powers.  

 

Customer loyalty is also becoming increasingly important. We are also seeing the emergence of new sales roles, such as Customer Success Managers (CSMs), who are responsible for ensuring the quality of the Customer Experience.

 

In any case, a consultative sales approach – based on demonstrating the ROI of your solutions – is beneficial in your sector to showcase the value you bring.

These are all elements to keep in mind when implementing an HR plan (recruitment, training plan, etc.) in line with your business strategy.

 

4. Are you planning to expand your sales internationally?

 Another key consideration for organizing your sales force is the proportion of revenue generated internationally and the strategic importance of international clients to your company.

 

While French publishers still generate a very large majority of their sales domestically2, the share of overall revenue generated outside of France continues to increase, particularly driven by SMEs and start-ups resolutely focused on international markets from their inception, such as Criteo or Allegorithmic, for example.

 

A point that significantly impacts the sales organization to adopt for these companies: once the strategic geographic areas have been identified, you can determine whether your dedicated sales force operates from within France or directly on-site. Consider all the resulting factors: whether or not to establish a physical, relocated branch, the country's social and commercial legislation, and the opportunity to favor an English-speaking 'master version' of your solutions over a French-speaking one.

 

And from the point of view of your sales organization stricto sensu: adapting your promise and sales arguments into several languages and according to local cultures, the need to homogenize sales processes, sharing information between potential subsidiaries, deploying a CRM internationally, implementing cross-border management and steering...

 

5. What will your performance indicators be?

The last crucial point for your sales organization: its management, and therefore the monitoring and analysis of results. Indeed, the choice of key performance indicators and their analysis determine:

    • The effectiveness of managing your sales activity
    • Calculating the compensation of your sales representatives (a sensitive subject, to say the least!).
    • The type of sales management adopted

 

And therefore, more generally: achieving the objectives that you have set for yourself! The current evolution of sales methods is reflected in the choice of KPIs present in the reporting.

 

Today, the 5 main indicators tracked by software vendors are:

 

    1. The distribution of revenue by type of sales: licenses, SaaS subscriptions, or support/maintenance (on average today, almost 1/3 for each!)
    2. New orders recorded: the « booking » 
    3. The evolution of monthly recurring revenue, or MRR
    4. The revenue per country
    5. The « churn rate » or attrition rate (contract non-renewal rate)

 

 It is noted that two of them (MRR and churn rate) are directly correlated to the development of SaaS. In this new model, reducing and maintaining churn between 0 and 1% becomes a goal to achieve in order to ensure the profitability of the system as a whole.

 

Considering that customer acquisition costs are 5 to 25 times higher (depending on the sector) than the cost of customer retention... this indeed encourages paying particular attention to customer loyalty and the commercial levers that support it!

 

Booking remains essential, as evidenced by the choice of this criterion as the basis for calculating variable compensation for sales representatives by 34% of software vendors (compared to 26% for revenue generated).

 

Addressing these 5 key questions will allow you to define the best sales organization with regard to your objectives and the strategy defined upstream. And to have a clear vision on how you will manage it and ensure its effectiveness over time!

To stay competitive and maximize your chances of converting leads into future customers, it is important to optimize the performance of your commercial assets. Find out how by watching this webinar:

Identifying the different stages that lead to a sale and defining the best internal organization to achieve it raises many questions. It's never a simple matter... And it's even less so for software vendors, whose economic and commercial model is currently being questioned as never before.

 

From "On Premise" to "SaaS": after the technological leap, take the plunge at the commercial level

 Defining a company's business model is like designing a car's engine: if you neglect this step, you can provide it with all the fuel in the world afterward, but it is unlikely to move forward or win races!

In other words, to place your solution at the top of the « EY-Syntech top 250 » and before recruiting an army of salespeople ready to fight, make sure you know what they will have to do, and in what order!

 

An objective that is by no means insignificant in the specific context of software publishers...

While the advent of the Cloud was initially seen as a technological challenge with a strong business impact (developing or migrating solutions to SaaS mode), this was not its only impact.

 

The progressive shift from the "On-Premise" model (based on license sales, often accompanied by a maintenance service subscription) to the "SaaS" model (on a monthly subscription basis) has profoundly disrupted the economics of companies in the sector.

The impact on their cash flow has been enormous: where previously they could count on significant cash inflows from the sale and then rely on a long-term "annuity" through maintenance and updates, they now have to wait 3 to 4 years for a SaaS solution sold on subscription to achieve a turnover equivalent to that of its "On Premise" version!

The time it takes to make a solution profitable on the market is not the same as before! Especially since you also have to cover the R&D costs of this transition.

 

A new economic model has therefore been established. However, publishers have not always fully grasped the evolution that this also implies at the commercial level... Yet, in this area too, making the shift represents a real challenge.

 

What is the best sales organization for a software vendor today?

Of course, not all publishers are equal in terms of integrating the Cloud into their offering and their maturity on the subject of commercial transition that accompanies it. It is difficult to compare the situation of new "born in the cloud" entrants who rely heavily on their technological advantage with that of established players who have embraced the transition along the way...

What is certain is that even if 'On Premise' still largely dominates today (in terms of the overall turnover generated by the sector in France), the trend towards switching to SaaS is significant and irreversible.

 

And you don't sell a subscription to a SaaS solution in the same way as a licensed software: the characteristics (technical, usage, etc.) of the product sold are not the same, and neither are the sales arguments. The pricing structures are completely different. The priority is gradually shifting from acquisition to customer loyalty. And online demos are changing the relationship with the buyer.

 

 The digitization of sales methods has gone hand in hand with that of the offer, and it does not only affect the world of software publishers.1 We have gradually witnessed the emergence of business models in which (Inbound) Marketing and Sales Automation occupy a prominent place. But paradoxically, publishers are not necessarily the most advanced on the subject... The famous syndrome of the "cobbler's children have no shoes"!

With few exceptions (pure Cloud players), the transition is gradual and the mixed model (both on the solutions sold and on the sales methods themselves) is even constantly evolving. With all the risks and uncertainties that this entails...

 

Software vendors, therefore, face the need to rethink their business model on a case-by-case basis. To do this, they need to answer many questions, including:

 

    • On which offers should we focus the most commercial effort (SaaS, Licenses, Maintenance, etc.)? 

 

 Defining priority customer targets, in particular, is a point to which it is useful to devote a lot of attention. Contrary to the intuitive approach that one might have in the first place (assigning "Gold" status to customers who have generated the largest sales revenue to date), a methodical and structured approach aims to cross-reference several criteria (company size, revenue generated, projects detected, etc.) in order to determine the development potential that each customer represents for you, the probability that you have of selling your products and services to them in the future. And to establish the ranking of your targets based on this criterion.

 

Taking some time to define a typology of clients as "Gold, Silver, and Bronze" will subsequently save you a great deal of efficiency in sales prospecting, improve the conversion rate of pursued deals, and therefore, ultimately, in generated revenue... At the same time, this work will form the basis of a clear and coherent distribution of the portfolio of prospects and clients among your various sales representatives.

This fundamental process must be structured and methodical to ensure the right choices are made. Ideally, these choices should be tested with iterative feedback between practical application and decision-making.

 

C’est ce que la solution KESTIO Live vous propose : une approche complète sur l’ensemble des axes de réflexion, une méthodologie structurée pour éviter les « trous dans la raquette » et un accompagnement dans la durée pour mettre en œuvre la stratégie définie et la faire évoluer au plus près de vos besoins et objectifs.

 

Once this definition work has been carried out, setting up an effective sales organization becomes much more obvious (this is what you will discover in our next article). And your car can start the race with the best chances!

 

To go further and learn more about the concept of social selling, and the various communication tools, you can watch this webinar:

Ce contexte encourageant s’accompagne néanmoins d’importants défis à relever pour les éditeurs français de logiciels, tant dans le domaine technique que d’un point de vue RH ou commercial.

 

C’est particulièrement vrai pour les start-ups et PME du secteur, dont la réalité diffère sensiblement de celle des grands acteurs historiques.

 

1. Tirer parti de la croissance actuelle face aux leaders du secteur

L’édition de logiciels connaît une croissance significative et confirmée ces dernières années, de l’ordre de 10% par an et jusqu’à 16,5 % en 2017, sous l’effet conjugué de tendances qui tirent le marché : cloud computing, mobilité, gestion de l’expérience client, Big Data et sécurité du SI en tête.2

 

Cette bonne nouvelle pour l’ensemble des acteurs du secteur ne doit cependant pas masquer une autre réalité, qui est l’extrême concentration de ce marché : 7% des éditeurs représentent à eux seuls 70% du CA global généré.

 

Dès lors, tirer le meilleur parti de ces nouvelles parts de marché à prendre est un enjeu majeur pour les start-ups et PME du secteur.

 

2. Se développer à l’international

Autre tendance clé du secteur : les Français passent à l’attaque et s’internationalisent ! Avec une différence considérable en fonction de la taille de l’entreprise, cependant : si les grands éditeurs comme Dassault Systèmes et Ubisoft sont résolument tournés vers l’international – avec respectivement 91 % et 92 % de leur chiffre d’affaires à l’étranger -, il n’en va pas de même pour les start-ups et PME du secteur dont 75 à 83 % du CA reste encore réalisé en France.

 

Cependant, plus du tiers des éditeurs de l’hexagone est déjà implanté aux États-Unis et la part croissante de chiffre d’affaires global du secteur réalisé hors de France s’explique aussi par l’émergence de start-ups tournées dès leur création vers l’international.

 

Les perspectives de développement considérables offertes par l’internationalisation incitent donc les PME du secteur à envisager un déploiement au-delà de nos frontières.

 

3. Recruter et fidéliser les meilleurs développeurs

La croissance du secteur s’accompagne de la création de nombreux emplois, notamment sur le volet R&D. La maîtrise du savoir-faire et la dimension stratégique de l’innovation sont primordiales pour les éditeurs, et les entreprises se confrontent aujourd’hui à une véritable « pénurie » de talents sur ces postes clés, qu’elles choisissent majoritairement de conserver en France.

 

Il s’agit donc non seulement de repérer et d’attirer les meilleurs développeurs, mais également de les fidéliser, en leur proposant des perspectives motivantes à court, moyens et long terme, notamment par le biais de la rémunération, de l’intéressement et de l’entrée au capital.

 

D’où la nécessité encore plus grande de développer un projet d’entreprise offrant des perspectives de développement attrayantes et sécurisantes !

 

4. Financer les investissements R&D

Si elle fait partie de l’ADN des éditeurs de logiciels, l’innovation reste une gageure économique pour les entreprises les plus jeunes et/ou dont le CA annuel ne dépasse pas 10 millions d’euros : elle nécessite d’investir massivement dans la R&D, non seulement lors de la phase de pré-commercialisation, mais aussi durant toute la phase d’exploitation commerciale des solutions.

 

Or, le financement de l’innovation reste encore majoritairement internalisé (auto financement ou endettement), ce qui impacte directement la rentabilité des éditeurs de logiciels. L’engouement des marchés pour le secteur reste en effet timide en France, malgré l’existence d’outils dédiés (FCPI, PEA PME…), et les programmes de recherche Européens semblent complexes et inaccessibles pour les PME. Les crédits d’impôts (CIR et CII) et l’accès simplifié aux marchés publics demeurent donc les mesures publiques plébiscitées par les éditeurs.

 

Une problématique financière que les dirigeants du secteur doivent intégrer dans leur vision stratégique en favorisant les contrats assurant un apport important de trésorerie.

 

5. Affiner leur modèle économique et commercial

Le secteur est également traversé depuis plusieurs années par une tendance de fond : la disparition progressive du modèle des logiciels On-Premise au profit des solutions SaaS.

87% des éditeurs de logiciels proposent désormais tout ou une partie de leur offre en mode Saas.

 

Depuis 2010, la part du CA global des éditeurs de logiciels issue de l’activité SaaS n’a cessé d’augmenter, atteignant 32 % en 2016. Aujourd’hui, les éditeurs de logiciels français font le choix de se concentrer sur cette activité, quelle que soit leur taille, mais c’est particulièrement vrai pour les start-ups.3 

 

Une transformation technologique importante (adaptation et développement de services pour le web, hébergement sécurisé des solutions et des données…) qui pose aussi question sur le plan commercial : le passage du modèle sous licence perpétuelle à une logique d’abonnement à durée déterminée modifie en profondeur les modes de vente.

 

Cette évolution induit des process commerciaux au sein desquels le marketing prend une nouvelle place, déterminante.

Dans ce contexte, il est incontournable pour vous, dirigeant de PME du secteur, de :

    • Mettre en place une organisation commerciale performante
    • Piloter efficacement vos équipes commerciales, en France comme à l’international
    • Identifier et prospecter efficacement vos comptes clés
    • Intégrer pleinement la dimension marketing dans vos process de vente

 

Autant de défis qui viennent s’ajouter à vos nombreuses préoccupations stratégiques (évolutions technologiques, financement de l’innovation, recrutements, vision et développement de l’entreprise …) et qui vous semblent parfois éloignés de vos savoir-faire principaux et de votre « zone de confort ».

 

Raison de plus pour ne pas les négliger et pour vous faire épauler sur ces sujets, qui sont déterminants pour le succès actuel et futur de votre entreprise !

 

Nous sommes là pour vous y aider : c’est la vocation de KESTIO Live et l’objectif de la série d’ articles à venir, à paraître chaque semaine sur ce blog !

To discover more about using specialized and adapted tools to adopt, check out this webinar on optimizing the performance of your commercial asset:

The company, which has been in existence for over 20 years, distributes products from other manufacturers in related ranges, targeting medical analysis laboratories and hospitals, with a sales and customer relations team of around ten people. Its headquarters are in Puteaux and an operational unit is located in the Var.

 

Sylvie Saurine, Director of Operations, oversees sales administration, purchasing and inventory, technical support, regulatory compliance, and tenders. She testifies to the contribution of KESTIO to the use of the Salesforce CRM solution, a market leader: "We installed Salesforce in 2015 but experienced difficulties in setting it up. Without advice and support genuinely focused on our uses, and following some disappointments with our service providers, we called on KESTIO to make good use of the tool."

KESTIO: How did the mission start?

Sylvie Saurine : We started our collaboration with KESTIO with two days of face-to-face training with the sales teams.

The goal was to put them back in the general context of the company and to propose a common knowledge base on business processes, the use of a CRM, objectives, and common interests.

 

Then, we started regular online support with the KESTIO teams to train the Salesforce CRM project managers: the sales, marketing, and operations departments. This format allowed us to effectively address everyone's specific needs.

For example, the creation of certain fields or the import of ERP data with additional tools such as Dataloader, parameter setting evolutions. We discovered functionalities, uses, and optimized very quickly. We are on a rhythm of 1 to 2 sessions per month, which we each take in turn according to needs.

 

KESTIO: Is it enough for your needs?

Sylvie Saurine : For the moment, yes.

To be honest, we appreciate the relationship of trust and being able to go at our own pace, without being pushed to consume services and days. For example, we have had a session with three people without the bill being tripled! It's a long-term relationship, to help us grow. 

 

The consultants' goal is to make us autonomous, which is very nice. They are also very available: one day we had an emergency regarding an import issue, and the solution was found the same day.

KESTIO: What about the proposed support solution, via video conference?

Sylvie Saurine : From a technical point of view, the video session works very well.

 

We receive a connection link that we simply activate. We communicate without any problems and can even share documents. For us, who are spread between the Var and the Paris region, we inevitably save a lot of time, so it's a real performance gain.

 

KESTIO: Are the results following?

Sylvie Saurine : We still have a lot of work to do, but we are already seeing better use of the Salesforce tool by the entire team.

 

In fact, regular follow-up with KESTIO ensures that the CRM topic remains at the top of the pile and does not get diluted in the daily routine. As a result: we move forward and it boosts us!

Thank you very much for your feedback!

To learn more about CRM solutions and help you with your projects, find all of our methods and tools here:

Choose my CRM.com

Even professions that traditionally don't engage in prospecting, such as lawyers and notaries, are increasingly seeking ways to attract new clients!

However, there are ways to optimize your actions and attract customers without (too much) effort!

 

To know, to like, to trust!

Being known, being appreciated, and having a capital of trust, these are the three indicators that must be greenlit to successfully conclude a sales conversation. Also, if you want to minimize your prospecting efforts, you will primarily seek to engage in a commercial approach with a target that already trusts you, that already knows you, or with whom you will be recommended.

 

To achieve this, you need to rely on your networks, whether online or offline. If your goal is to find new clients in a relatively short time while minimizing effort, it's best to start with those who already appreciate you!

 

8 tips to attract your customers effortlessly

1. Take stock! List the people you are or have been in contact with, classify them by relationship history, and identify those who could become clients. Don't forget that you may have relationships in your network, even close ones (friends, sports, cultural contexts, etc.) who may never have considered what you can offer them professionally, simply because that was not the context of your meeting. And yet...

 

2. Adopt an attraction approach: this involves meeting your contact to get to know them better, making contact, warming up the relationship, and sharing information. Be interesting before being interested!

 

3. Look for connectors, those who have a culture of networking and connecting people. Because getting in touch with them also allows you to access their network. They are quite easy to identify: just look at how they came to you. These connectors are relationship pointers, they like it, they function like "hubs"!

 

4. Multiply contacts. At each meeting you have, ask for a recommendation, 1 or 2 names that you can contact on behalf of your contact! If you have 10 lunches, you potentially end up with twenty names!

 

5. Restart an impactful approach, that is, think about what you can give in return, seek reciprocity. Being too self-centered is counterproductive and would attack the bond of trust.

 

6. Set yourself some benchmarks not of results but of means. For example, the time spent per week, the number of contacts, lunches...

 

7. Prepare the ingredients for success! Know how to pitch your product or service offer, prepare a brochure, a website or at least a business card. Be ready!

 

8. Adopt a follow-up approach: even if it doesn't lead to an immediate sale, maintain a relationship of trust.

 

Online: volume with less effort

With digital technology, the relationship between effort and efficiency is changing significantly: social networks, especially LinkedIn (see our article '4 tips to increase sales with social selling'), the professional network, allow your actions to be reproduced infinitely and without additional cost. In the real world, you can do at best 200, 220 lunches per year. With digital, there is no limit. 

With a well-crafted post offering interesting content, you can reach your entire first-degree network or even your second-degree network, resulting in a rapid impact on 500 to 2,000 people ! Of course, it's less engaging than a lunch meeting, but repetition will help you increase the 'to know', 'to like', and finally 'to trust' indicators.

 

We can see it clearly: while attracting customers effortlessly isn't possible, doing it at a lower cost is still feasible if you do it the right way!

The advent of new technologies has enabled the evolution of business in many areas, especially in communication and prospecting. To optimize business activity, it is essential to integrate these new prospecting methods into your strategy. Find out how with this webinar:

In other words: I can easily picture my company and my offer, so my prospects can too! That's possible, but not certain: therefore, I should make sure I am visible and not just assume it.

 

To do this, there are 6 key points to respect.

 

1- Plan, anticipate, forecast 

Increasing my visibility to clients requires strategic thinking to determine the most effective actions, allocate resources, and organize efforts. It's important to lead these actions rather than be controlled by them.

 

To properly answer questions during this phase, I need to know my prospects well, specifically where they are, how they gather information, and what type of information they need.

 

2- Act online and offline

To effectively increase my visibility to prospects, I choose online and offline actions. Regarding digital strategies, this involves identifying visited sites, main types of searches, variables based on age, social networks, the existence of blogs and influencers (especially in BtoC markets), etc.

 

Regarding the physical world, I identify events such as trade shows, conferences, traditional media, professional networks, etc.

The next step is a combination of the available and most suitable options to be visible. There are really no good or bad choices in absolute terms: what matters is aligning actions with the strategy, the marketing and sales plan: participating in a trade show or a round table, hosting a conference, being active and interacting on sites visited by prospects, producing articles...

 

3- Adapt my speech

The perception of what I say varies depending on the medium. Therefore, I will not communicate the same thing or in the same way if I am hosting a conference or posting content on Instagram.

 

Therefore, I need to adapt my approach. But be careful: adapting does not mean changing. The editorial and identity markers must remain present. Adapting my message also means positioning the volume slider in the right place, in other words, ensuring the message is sufficiently audible (quantity and quality of messages). 

 

4- Consistent actions to increase their impact

Imagine a trade show in November, with a booth and a presentation on a topic likely to interest target prospects. To increase impact and visibility, I plan an action before the show on available media to prepare the ground. But I also work during and after the event to develop awareness.

 

Thus, I benefit from the online/offline leverage effect: an Internet user may want to come and see the stand at the show for a real exchange, or a prospect who has attended the conference may want to contact you afterwards via the site. 

 

5- Don't forget traditional materials

The digitalization of the economy tends to make people forget about traditional media. However, they remain very effective if integrated into an overall system: local or professional press, billboards, flyers... are media that should be used tactically.

In connection with the trade show mentioned in the previous point, I can, for example, arrange to have articles on the topic covered before and after the event, plan an advertising insert in a professional publication, etc.

 

6- Temporality

Develop my visibility and a regular action, strategic and tactical, which, theoretically, never stops.

 

Firstly, because there are always new prospects to make myself known to, and secondly, to not leave the field entirely open to competitors. 

 

Ce qui va me permettre d’être véritablement visible par les prospects, c’est donc la rémanence, la persistance, c’est la répétition. Pour Fabien Comtet, CEO chez Kestio, « la maison n’est jamais rangée définitivement, autrement dit : il faut prévoir d’être toujours actif pour être efficace ».

 

The deployment over time ultimately allows you to become ingrained in people's minds and be seen as one of the key service providers. Thus, if a prospect attends a particular trade show, reads a specific magazine, and visits a certain website, I need to be present on all three platforms regularly, because the goal is not only to be visible, but to be visible in the long term. 

To develop your company's communication tools, consider webinars! Webinars highlight attractive content and promote the company's activities. However, they require some rules: in this webinar, learn how to organize a webinar that generates more participants and leads.

Some questions...
Is it the client who brings in the most revenue, or the one with the most potential?
Is it the profile you address most often, or a segment of clients you would like to strategically develop?
Is it the client who brings you a lot of business or the one with the highest margin?
Is it the most loyal client, or the one who negotiates your rates the least?
Is it the client with the best reputation or the one who recommends you the most?

 

Behind these options lies the question of strategy and tactics, and their projection into the future. The definition of the ideal client does not exist definitively; it corresponds to a specific objective at a given moment.

 

In other words, defining the ideal client requires a multi-level and dynamic analysis over time.

 

The ideal client: a strategic perspective.

Depending on the current strategy and the objective pursued, the value of each client will vary based on their potential to meet this objective. We recently supported an SME that was looking to strengthen its position in its market and was in a conquest mode, which defined a specific ideal client, different from the one corresponding to a loyalty strategy, for example. Does the company want to develop its offer on a new market? Develop a new offer? On a new segment?… As we can see, before talking about the ideal client, it is necessary to specify the strategy.

 

To best define your strategic positioning, it is necessary, first, to consider the company's strengths in each of the potential market segments: its expertise, its brand image, its product range, the quality of its commercial relationship, its ability to control prices, deadlines, the adequacy of the sales force... In a second step, it is necessary to cross-reference with attractiveness criteria for each of the identified segments (opportunities, constraints, potential turnover, profitability, intensity of competition, etc.) to finally be able to specify the tactical approach.

 

The ideal client: a tactical approach.

Strategy is the overall plan, tactics are adapting to the situation. Thus, once the target segment is identified, and the prospect/client portfolio is established, finer segmentation can be carried out to help you organize actions.

 

L’approche que nous appelons chez Kestio le « Sales Model » permet, au sein d’un segment stratégique, de préciser des segments « tactiques » en fonction de la « valeur » des comptes cibles.

 

The ideal client, or more precisely the client value, is the result of a complex formula, based on variables specific to the company, its activity, its market, and its current ambition, which allows for better prioritization of accounts, and therefore to define and manage  the allocation of marketing and sales efforts in the best possible conditions.

From clients that sales representatives need to visit at least twice a month to clients for whom we will simply manage the relationship remotely, a scale is put in place according to customer value, to treat the entire market with the level of investment required to obtain an ROI.

 

Chez Kestio Live,  nous avons donc tendance à parler non pas du client idéal, mais bien DES clients idéaux !

To go further and learn more about targeting and building a customer file, you can also watch our webinar:

  1. : Source Invox
  2. : Social Media Guidelines, Orange, http://www.orange.com/sirius/smg/FR_Guides_Medias_Sociaux.pdf

Les utilisateurs de cette solution définissent les thématiques et planifient les campagnes de questions auprès de leurs collaborateurs. Une manière simple et agile pour récolter des indicateurs de performances, aider à la décision en termes de management et de gestion.

 

Créée en juin 2016 la startup comprend 5 collaborateurs et voit son CA doubler chaque mois. Une levée de fonds est en cours.

Caroline Jurado, CEO et fondatrice, a connu Kestio Live lors d’une conférence sur les processus de vente complexes. Ciblant principalement les grandes organisations, elle a pris conscience qu’il lui fallait monter en compétences commerciales pour aller chercher d’autres clients que les early adopters.

Kestio : Quels éléments vous ont fait prendre conscience de l’apport potentiel de méthodes commerciales ?

Caroline Jurado : Linkky commercialise son offre principalement auprès de grands groupes, donc sur des comptes complexes qui réclament des processus élaborés. Je souhaitais que l’entreprise devienne performante d’un point de vue commercial. En fait je me suis rendue compte que les contrats que nous signions étaient de toutes manière gagnés d’avance et qu’en revanche nous buttions dès qu’il y avait une difficulté. J’avais besoin de comprendre nos prospects, leur démarche, leurs enjeux, comment ils fonctionnaient. En fait, l’activité commerciale ne se résume pas à du feeling et une aisance orale. Il y a beaucoup plus de techniques et de méthodes que ce qu’on imagine.

 

Kestio : Comment s’est mis en place la mission ?

Caroline Jurado : Nous avons démarré très fort, à raison d’une heure par semaine pendant 3 mois. La priorité a porté sur les comptes en cours qui traînaient et que je n’arrivais pas à conclure. Très vite, j’ai pu les rattraper ! Ce qui a bien fonctionné c’est vraiment la dimension opérationnelle. Nous avons immédiatement abordé des questions concrètes, des cas pratiques, très loin des théories vues en salles. Ensuite nous avons abordé la Méthode de l’Echiquier, qui est une approche très pragmatique, avec une méthode qui structure. Nous travaillons sur un scoring d’opportunités qui mixe les points clés par décisionnaires, les enjeux.

Ce principe permet de classer les prospects et de valider la qualité des qualifications avant de décider où et comment orienter nos actions.

 

Kestio : Comment s’est instaurée la relation avec la consultante ?

Caroline Jurado : Laurence ne fait pas à ma place ; elle m’aide à réfléchir, elle me donne les clés. La méthode est très bien rodée et adaptée aux petites structures comme Linkky. Au lieu de passer une journée en salle avec une surcharge d’informations, nous passons une heure par semaine sur mes interrogations du moment. Ce mode d’organisation permet de digérer les apprentissages et de les mettre en pratique. J’ai depuis recruté une commerciale et nous pouvons partir sur une base commune ; j’ai pu la former, lui expliquer la méthode, les difficultés etc.  

Kestio : Les entretiens à distance sont donc efficaces ?

Caroline Jurado : Absolument. Je n’ai d’ailleurs pas rencontré Laurence physiquement. La visio apporte un gain de temps et des économies sans être préjudiciable à l’efficacité. De mon point de vue il n’y a aucune perte au niveau qualité.

Kestio : Et maintenant ?

Caroline Jurado : Nous arrivons à la fin des trois premiers mois. Comme nous avons progressé très rapidement sur la performance commerciale, je vais poursuive à raison de 2 séances par mois et alterner avec d’autres thématiques comme notre stratégie inbound.

Merci pour ce témoignage !

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Explanations

 

A good approach is sequenced in 4 stages:

 

  • Attract
  • Convert
  • Sell
  • Build loyalty

 

Attracting: The message, or rather the content that will be distributed, must be adapted not to the sender's offer (i.e., a self-centered view – "we make the most beautiful plastic molds") but to the current topics of prospects and customers (i.e., a view turned towards external problems – "plastic molds are revolutionizing the market").

 

The challenge for the Inbound strategy is to find the right content for the right target at the right time in their decision cycle.

 

Converting: To do this, through its publications, it is necessary to be identified as one of the solutions to address the prospect's problem. It's about making them want to go further in relation to the proposed result (and not the solution) and encouraging the user to act by means of a "call to action" for example (download a White Paper, subscribe to a newsletter,...).

 

The challenge for the Inbound strategy is to find the right setting for the conversion stage: the website must allow you to collect information about the visitor to continue the interaction, nurture the prospect, and make them want to go further. 

 

Selling: At this stage, we finally have the right to talk about our offer and present our solution! It must be demonstrated that it responds perfectly and better than others to the needs, and according to the way the customer wishes to treat them.

 

The challenge for the Inbound strategy remains to provide leads that are sufficiently qualified and identified as "ready", and to ensure immediate commercial handling for the transformation. 

 

Building Loyalty: We can build on previous work by transforming customers into advocates, maintaining the relational link, and identifying other needs.

 

The challenge for the Inbound strategy is to capitalize on acquired customers and create a kind of echo chamber to amplify the distribution of your own content. However, be careful: the race for likes and shares is not an end in itself; the challenge remains to be heard by your target audience! 


Discover KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

All topics related to sales performance with our experts: 

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, CEO

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director


Access our webinars

 

Key elements to being truly effective:

To be as visible as possible, especially when the client needs it, increase the actions that bring in audience: SEO, social networks, recommendations, etc.
The idea is to be identified as an interesting and useful source of information, which allows you to create an enriching relationship and become attractive.

 

Question your content in relation to your targets. It is better to start from their issues, their problems, their ambitions. It is also according to the stage they are in (becoming aware of a symptom, looking for a solution, selecting a product or service, etc.) that the content must be adapted. To reinforce your positioning, nothing prevents you from relaying related information: a regulatory change, a trade show, a technological innovation, etc. Ask yourself about the format, to be adapted according to the target and the stage. The formats available are numerous today and technology facilitates implementation: articles, case studies, videos, infographics, white papers, configurators, eBooks, templates, webinars, slideshares... 

 

Treat content as a company asset and respect the 5 steps to work on it properly:

 

  • Plan (the communication plan: for whom, which stage, which channel, which format)
  • Build (the content).
  • Distribute (choose channels, social networks, etc.)
  • Analyze (results, test content, titles, colors, etc.)
  • Repeat what works well, and reuse content in multiple adapted formats. 

 

Finally, structure the approach within the company: this is an important process for revenue growth, a complex approach that is continuously improved and cannot be done spontaneously and on an ad hoc basis. It is therefore necessary to mobilize internal and external resources so that the dynamic remains active and produces results.

 

Content production, making your brand a media, that is to say a relevant resource capable of aggregating prospects and generating leads, clearly consists of changing the way of doing things. It's giving yourself the opportunity to do business with contacts who a priori want to. As we can see, this approach must be able to mobilize widely internally, around marketing, sales and communication to be really effective.

 

The webinar is an Inbound Marketing tool that has become essential today: through its audience and content, it generates numerous leads. Find out how in this webinar:

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