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Strategic new Business Development

24.10.2016

Successful companies usually have ambitious growth goals. However, in many cases the performance of their current business is not strong enough to reach these goals. As a result, companies have to realize new growth potentials. To do so, we recommend a systematic approach.

Here are three steps which have been successfully tested in practice:

1. Increase your Share of Wallet with existing Customers

Check whether it is possible to increase your share of wallet with existing customers. Which other suppliers are they currently buying from? Are your customers satisfied with them or are they possibly looking for alternatives?

2. Leverage Cross-Selling Potential

If you know your customers very well, then you know which other products/services they might need. Do you have appropriate solutions to meet these needs? If not, could you purchase these solutions from somebody else? The key question here is: What will be the benefit for the customer if he purchases these products from you instead of buying them from others, as he did in the past?

3. Enter new geographical Markets and Applications

Can you sell your products abroad? Which adaptations are required for that? Would there be a need to develop completely new solutions from scratch? Which regulations have to be observed in this context? Alternatively, ask yourself the question if new applications are possible. E.g.: Gelita, the world market leader in gelatine products, successfully serves the following, quite different industries: Food, Pharma, Photo, Technology, Health & Nutrition and Pet Food (Source: Gelita website).

Identify Opportunities, manage Risks

The strategies described above involve different levels of risk. Option one has the lowest risk level: The company stays in its traditional business and increases its market share and share of wallet with existing customers. Option two involves a slightly higher risk as you are offering something ´new´ which still has to prove its worth to the customer. Option three has the highest risk, in particular when a company diversifies and develops completely new products for new markets and applications. Studies show that diversifications are more successful if they are closely-related to the existing business and if they are based on a company´s core capabilities.

To discover opportunities for new business development, suppliers first have to analyze existing and potential customers in detail. The objective is to identify problems and challenges and then offer convincing solutions with clear competitive advantages.

Ideally, a supplier directs the customer´s attention to a problem which the customer was not even aware of! Possible areas here are, e.g., inefficient processes or new market trends which the customer didn´t have on his radar screen and was therefore running the risk of missing a big opportunity!

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