In the Dutch manufacturing industry, the focus is often on product development, technical expertise and innovation. In the process, sales and marketing are sometimes overlooked or considered less important. In this blog, we discuss why sales and marketing are essential for technical manufacturing companies and refute some common misconceptions.
Blogs, vlogs en podcasts
Kennis delen is belangrijk. Geef jouw kennis een energyboost. Lees hieronder al onze blogs.
Abonneer je op onze update en ontvang als eerste onze nieuwste publicaties.
Blogs, vlogs en podcasts
Kennis delen is belangrijk. We maken regelmatig blogs, vlogs en podcasts . Geef jouw kennis een energyboost. Abonneer je op onze update en ontvang als eerste onze nieuwste publicaties.
What does Artificial Intelligence add to sales?
AI revolutionizes sales processes by analyzing data, generating valuable insights and enabling targeted marketing. It improves lead generation and qualification, automates tasks, improves customer service and predicts sales results. By using AI strategically, companies gain a competitive advantage, make data-driven decisions, increase efficiency and provide a personalized customer experience. The added value of AI in sales processes enables companies to achieve better results and thrive in a dynamic market.
What is the best Call To Action?
Then you finally have visitors to your website. Hundreds. But they don’t convert into customers. Then something is not right. Are you offering your visitors enough good CTAs?
Three interview methods to get to know your customer
You want to know more about your customers’ motivations. Or from your prospects. To improve your service. Then you have to ask questions. To retrieve information. This can be done in three ways. By listening in person, having the target audience call or through a digital survey. There is a relationship between the quality (which is decreasing) the quantity (which is increasing) and the cost per interview conducted.
What question are you asking?
The fact is. People like to talk. We have a lot of knowledge and we share it. You too. So does your company. About your services. Your products. We talk a lot. In this blog, I tell you (!) what you can use to make your relationship with your customers sustainable. By listening. So don’t hook off. Read. Discover the value of the question.
What type are you?
You communicate with your (internal) customers. You do that in your own way. It is good to have an understanding of your own attitude. Maybe even in the attitude of your interlocutor.
Frodo’s customer journey
An important question in acquisition: "What stage is my customer in?" It defines the content you need to deliver. In this regard, "The hero's journey" is a fine tool. He shows that people have different content needs at each stage. That goes for epic stories like the...
Customer Factory 3.0
As we do every January, we share our plans for the new year. Whereas December is the month of reflection and planning with us, January is the month of execution. We are again bursting with new plans. We are happy to share those with you.
Six steps to new customers
Even if you are satisfied with your existing sales, you also know that you will eventually need to acquire new customers again. Follow this roadmap to achieve more customers and more sales in the short or long term based on two questions.
A sales plan in ten steps.
An effective sales budget is critical to making other important business decisions that affect your sales team and business operations as a whole.
What is the difference between a sales budget and sales forecast?
An effective sales budget is critical to making other important business decisions that affect your sales team and the business as a whole.
Taking good inventory is half the battle
Everyone maintains customer relationships. Anyone? Yes, everyone! Everyone, both privately and professionally, comes into conversation with people you want to achieve something with. Whether it’s your partner, neighbor, a police officer, a colleague, a (potential) customer, if you want to achieve something with people you should always take stock of where their needs lie.
What does the marketing and sales process look like?
By seeing the marketing and sales process as a production process, you can easily identify areas for improvement and improve. But what does this process look like? In this blog, we explore this in more detail.
A new website in five steps
As with all communication tools within your organization, your website needs a new look from time to time. The world changes, your business changes, or you enter new markets. Time for a new website? We do that in a maximum of five steps!
The Customer Factory Method
The most frequently asked question: how exactly do you guys do it? In this video, we answer.
19 Tips for video interviews
We are increasingly using video for discussions. The checklist below is what I use when I get to interview people remotely. It is also quite handy to use for a video call to make sure you make a good impression.
Sales is war!
We deny it all too often: To market your product or service, you regularly face competition. A good sales strategy helps to always be one step ahead of that competition and ultimately capture the flag. A well-trained sales team can compete.
Saying goodbye to customers
No commercial entrepreneur likes to lose customers, except a funeral director. Still, you occasionally find yourself in the position of saying goodbye to each other. It’s a moment you want to delay as far as possible. You can, if you do the right things before, during and after the relationship.
What is acquisition?
The cost of acquiring new customers is rising and the average value per customer is falling. This process has been going on for several years, and it does not look like it will improve anytime soon. Rather than tire you here with a story about the causes behind that trend, I will explain in a three-part section how a company ensures that there is a regulated influx of new clients at an acceptable cost. In this first blog, I describe the frameworks, because what exactly is acquisition?
How do I achieve a good product-market combination?
A product market combination is a unique combination of a product for a specific group of customers. Each company provides a set of services or products. These services/products can fill different needs of different types of customers. But how do you come up with a good product-market combination?
The 7 phases of the purchase model
Sales is an expensive business for many companies. Time is lost in interactions with people who are not yet ready to buy. To make the sales process effective, you want to know what stage your prospects are in so you can have salespeople and marketers do their work at the right time. In this blog, we describe how to see what stage your (potential) customers are in.
How do I create a stakeholder folder for my account plan?
3 key questions to ask prospects.
Entrepreneurs, salespeople (and marketers) are too often telling stories, when in fact their core job is to ask questions. This creates long acquisition processes and the company invests a lot of time and money in pointless bids. Ask these three questions of a prospect and determine in one conversation whether you will ever get to business.
Trend research
We conduct research on marketing trends within b2b. The purpose of the survey is to find out what challenges b2b companies have in the marketing field. The examination takes an average of 5 minutes. Busy loading...
Customer says “yes,” but does “no”
It’s a recognizable situation: You’ve managed to set an appointment with a potential client and during that appointment the prospect is immediately excited about your product or service. The prospect and the salesperson shake hands, agree on an offer and agree on a quick order. No big deal, you think.
17 tips for successful account-based marketing
Seventeen tips? Yes indeed! And that may not be all that is possible, but we have to start somewhere. This is THE list of ABM tips to help set up your Account Based Marketing Plan, at the interface of marketing and sales. Reach and engage your prospects and customers, fill the funnels and create fans and ambassadors for your product and/or service.
Sales and Marketing work together within Account Based Marketing
Anyone who looks at the fields of Marketing and Sales over the years will see that there is a traditional battle between the two fields. Smaller companies tend to be sales driven and within larger companies there is almost always a healthy tension between “them of sales” and “them of marketing.”
Five questions every executive should ask themselves about sales
In the projects that I have had the privilege of carrying out for clients over the past ten years, I have been struck time and again by how little attention Dutch companies pay to the cost of sales, not to mention the revenue from sales. I find that strange, because the cost of sales is probably between eight and 15 percent (CMO survey, 2017. p 22) of your revenue, and with relatively simple interventions, a higher return can be realized from your sales process.
How do you score a family business?
Within the recruitment industry, we like to do business with large companies. Rightly so, because these are companies where many personnel changes take place, a flexible shell is a permanent part of the personnel policy and is thought of more in budget than in cost. Unfortunately, this is the pond in which many secondment companies fish and your distinctiveness as a specialist is undervalued. I suggest looking for family businesses.
How do you achieve more quality appointments?
Many entrepreneurs have to deal with it. So how do we effectively organize as many quality appointments as possible? if The search to actually optimize appointment generation 100% is similar to the search for a top commercial programmer with excellent vision of marketing and image. Yet we can often go a long way by having experience with the market, knowledge of marketing & sales and by thinking logically.
How do I market my services?
This blog is about differentiating repair, installation and maintenance companies. In doing so, I run the risk of writing a boring blog, because the differentiation is usually in the service. So how do you show a potential customer that your company is just that little bit better than your competitor’s?
Where supply and demand meet in the 21st century
Those who know our history also know that the Netherlands has been a trading nation since the early Middle Ages. It started with wood from Scandinavia, and the ships we built with that wood traveled all over the world to bring supply and demand together. Whether we can be very proud of “the VOC mentality” depends on the times in which we live, but I note that it has not hurt us.
An accountant doesn’t have to be able to do everything
Accountants and accounting firms often have the same answer when asked for whom they work: for everyone!
The SME entrepreneur on the hunt for new customers
At the lower end of the SME (up to +- 50 FTEs), we often talk to entrepreneurs who have sweated and toiled to get the business they run to where it is today. Often they have the same need: new customers. There is always a need for new customers. The only question is how do they come to me?
3 tips for tech companies in need of new customers.
A major pillar of the Dutch economy is its high-end manufacturing industries. Often small to medium-sized companies that specialize in a technical feat and find a suitable clientele to go with it.
Human traffickers and resume sliders
After the slump of recent years, the staffing industry is recovering. The feeling about that market is summed up with a deep sigh by most companies that survived the crisis by saying, “We’re still here.”
Value proposition, what is it and why is it important?
There is often talk of a company’s value proposition. However, there is confusion about what is meant by it and why it may be the most important thing in your business.