Article 8 Suggestions for you to catch big customers

Among the enterprises, 80%of the performance is contributed by 20%of high -value customers, and the remaining 80%of customers can only contribute micro -profit, inaccurate, and even bring negative profits.

Almost all sales and service companies attach great importance to big customers, because big customers can bring great performance, big profits and big brands. Therefore, when talking about the development management of large customers, it seems that every entrepreneur and executives can put forward their own opinions.

Although few people will admit that they do not understand the development management of big customers, in reality, I have seen another fact: more than 95%of companies cannot escape the three spells of big customers' development and management -I can't get in , Can't do it big and can't keep it.

So what caused this?

Judging from my experience, the root cause of the problem lies in the perception of entrepreneurs and executives of the development and management of large customers: they mostly tactics and light strategies, light skills and systems, and systematically. Planning and re -sales process and comprehensive life cycle management.

From a certain perspective, their awareness of the development and management of large customers still stays at the level or line level, far from rising to the level of face or body.

Cognition determines thinking, thinking determines behavior, and behavior determines the results. To solve the problem from the source, the first thing entrepreneurs and managers must do is to reshape the awareness of the development and management of large customers, and to increase the cognition from tactical play to a strategic system.

Based on the 18 -year experience in the front line of corporate marketing, if you want to ask me: What is the most leveraged point that drives performance growth? My answer must be a big customer. Manage the big customers, and your business is 80%.

01

Big customer, the most critical 1% of the most critical

Why lock in big customers? Because this is the highest efficiency and the input ratio is the largest. Kevin Kelly, the founder of "Line" magazine, wrote in the book "Technical Elements": "The quantity is not the purpose, and the quality is the fundamental. Attention to 1%of super users is the key to improving efficiency. "

What does it mean? More than 100 years ago, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto gave the answer.

In 1897, Pareto found that 20%of people in Italy mastered 80%of their wealth. After some in -depth research, he found that this law is omnipresent in economic and social life. This is the famous "28 Law" -the key minority and secondary majority ratio is about 2: 8.

Similarly, among the enterprises, 80%of the performance is contributed by 20%of high -value customers, and the remaining 80%of customers can only contribute micro -profit, inaccurate, and even bring negative profits.

To clarify who is your big customer, you need to understand the three typical characteristics they have in advance.

1. Large demand

Compared with ordinary customers, large customers have high demand and high demand frequency. For B -end customers, the characteristics of large customers are a large number of orders. If we calculate the top 10 customers in the company, we will find that their performance contribution rate may reach 50%to 80%.

For C -side customers, big customers refer to heavy users who are extremely obsessed with a brand. Their biggest feature is that the purchase frequency is much higher than ordinary customers.

For example, as long as Apple launch a new mobile phone, Apple fans will buy crazy buying; Starbucks's heavy customers are also extremely obsessed with Starbucks products and drink at least one cup a day; even products with low repurchase rates such as motorcycles, Harley is Harley, Harley Heavy users will also have dozens of vehicles ...

2. Payment

Compared with ordinary customers, big customers are willing to pay a higher premium. Perhaps big customers account for less than 20%of the total number of corporate customers, but big customers determine how much corporate profits, because big customers are willing to spend more money on products.

Because large customers have far exceeded the products of the product, they are more willing to participate in the development of new products, and they are also stronger in consumer motivation for new products.

3. Big repurchase

Compared with ordinary customers, big customers will establish a longer -term in -depth cooperative relationship with enterprises, because they are the highest repurchase rates. Not only will they spend a lot of money to buy products, they will also invest in the product, and even voluntarily introduce more big customers to the enterprise.

In the case of limited resources and time of the enterprise, since the time and energy of developing small customers and the development of large customers are about the same, then the enterprise is better to press the focus on large customers, because the input and output of large customers is significantly larger.

For enterprises, big customers are the most labor -saving key fulcrum, and the engine to promote the continuous and rapid growth of the enterprise.

02

Three difficulties in the development and management of big customers

Kangde, the founder of German classical philosophy, said: "The reason why the world is like this depends on your cognition."

Only by changing the awareness of the development and management of large customers can enterprises understand the essential laws behind the big customers, and then design a large customer development management system at a strategic level.

If the enterprise wants to prescribe a good prescription, we must first find the source of the disease. What are the dilemma of small and medium -sized enterprises in the development management of large customers? What is the root of this common problem? After many in -depth investigations, I finally found the three typical dilemma encountered by the company.

Dilemma 1: Can't get in

Why are the major customers of many companies have poor development results? After several consecutive years of survey, I summarized the following four reasons.

① No strategy

The first reason is that the enterprise does not formulate a big customer strategy at all, and it does not stand at a higher level to carry out the top -level design of the system. A typical status quo is that many large and medium -sized customers are developed by the boss themselves, and several "hero" salespersons have developed large customers with their own understanding and luck. Such a single -horse -minded big customer development model cannot ensure the continuous growth of large customers.

② no organization

Through the organizational structure of many small and medium -sized enterprises, I can clearly see that many companies have not established the organizational structure of development and management of large customers.

The leader who likes to end the performance is often not big, because entrepreneurs who attach importance to the construction of the organization are not personal abilities, but through the design of organizational structures and dispatched troops, putting suitable people in a suitable position, so as to use it in a suitable position for Stimulate the overall combat effectiveness of the marketing team to the greatest extent.

Therefore, when the enterprise has passed the entrepreneurial survival period, the boss should re -position his role: he is no longer selling special forces, but selling special forces coaches. The responsibility of the coach is to cultivate teams and develop organizations.

③ No portrait

Due to work, I have interviewed many sales staff. When I asked them: What is the portrait of the company's big customer? Is the product portrait for big customers clear?

Many sales staff are unclear.

Imagine that if these sales staff cannot accurately judge who may become their big customers, then developing big customers is tantamount to fishing for the sea, and the final approach is to grab the eyebrow beard.

Therefore, enterprises must establish clear customer standards to accurately lock the portrait portrait. The clearer the classification criteria, the more accurate the portrait of the big customers.

④ Unprofessional

Unprofessional sales staff can also lead to large customers in unspeakable. Compared with the sales of ordinary customers, the sales difficulty of large customers can be said to be index level. The biggest feature is that the sales amount is large, the decision -making chain is long, and the professionalism is strong.

If this process is compared with the well, the ordinary sales staff may be able to see the water for 5 meters underground, and the sales staff of large customers can be dug 50 meters to see the water.

In the process of digging well, accidents may occur at any time. If the sales staff give up halfway, everything will be abandoned before. If the company's sales staff does not have the professional ability to dig deep wells, it is difficult to get big customers.

Dilemma 2: Not big

The second typical dilemma I observed was "the customer came in, but it was not big."

During the consultation process, I observed some companies that bidded and found that most of them had a common "problem": the sales team took the power of nine cows and two tigers to successfully develop a big customer, but the big customers provided by the big customers Business can only bring small profits.

In other words, enterprises have invested a lot of resources on big customers, but the rewards that are finally obtained are not proportional to it.

Why don't many big customers do it big? After careful analysis, I found that there were at least three reasons behind it.

① No management

Why does the share of big customers give the company a small share? One may be that the company does not design a maintenance system for big customers, which causes customers to develop deeply or not. This is very fatal;

Another possibility is that the ability to develop products in the corporate marketing department does not keep up, and cannot match the needs of large customers to continue to upgrade.

② No mechanism

Many companies cannot do a core reason for customers: the problems of the mechanism have not been resolved.

The mechanism mentioned here refers to the internal and external mechanisms of science: How should the company's mechanism of incentive sales personnel set internally? How should the mechanism of inspiring big customers in the company be set? How to attract customers to carry out in -depth cooperation with the company?

To do a good job in the development and management of big customers, the first and second leaders of the enterprise must be a master of mechanism design, and they have not fully understood this.

③ No strategy

The third reason for "not big" is no strategy. Most of the traditional companies win the big customers depend on drinking and pulling.

However, a company can drink and pull a relationship, and its competitors can be better than it. Therefore, there is no difference in this approach, and it is difficult to help enterprises operate large customers for a long time.

In the future, the competition facing enterprises will become more and more intense, but customers do not care about who occupies the upper hand, and they only care about their own interests.

When choosing a product, there is only one logic: the best product. Of course, what the customer really wants is not the product of the enterprise, but the value behind the product.

Therefore, in the process of developing large customers, companies need value strategies and relations strategies. Only by relying on professional capabilities and relationships can we maintain long -term healthy interaction with large customers.

Dilemma 3: Can't keep it

Among the companies in my service, many companies are also facing a very typical dilemma: the customer's client pool is like a funnel. Sales staff desperately develop large customers at the front end, but the back -end is negligible to manage, which leads to the forefoot of large customers. As soon as I came in, my back was lost.

In fact, a healthy large customer model should be like a reservoir, and the enterprise continues to transport new large customers to the reservoir.

After these new customers come in, enterprises want to develop these customers to develop these customers to grow their customers so that these large customers can retain, repurchase, and even become the company's lifelong customers.

Only in this way can enterprises form positive circulation, allowing more and more large customers to precipitate in large customers.

Unfortunately, there are too many companies in reality that are funnel models, not pool models. The root cause is that today many companies have not set up customer service departments, nor have they established a real customer service system, and cannot conduct project system management of customers. A healthy marketing system should include three departments: marketing department, sales department and customer service department. These three departments have different division of labor. The duties of the marketing department are locks (locking big customers). Essence

Only these three departments form a complete large marketing system can the entire business system match customer needs efficiently.

03

Eight major countermeasures, escort big customers

All life cycle management

Now that the above eight major reasons have been found, then we must start to re -layout from the top floor, design eight major modules, and form a large customer value conduction system from pre -sale and sale to after -sales.

To this end, enterprises must design a large -life cycle management system that leads their competitors. From the three dimensions before development, development, and after development, it systematically constructs a scientific large customer development management system to achieve " Strategic design -organizational architecture -resource allocation -capacity building -process management -mechanism design -strategy design -project system management "business closed loop.

Destiny 1: Before Development

① Determine strategy

Strategies should start with the end. From the future, the first task of strategy is to set the strategic goal to solve the problem of where the enterprise goes.

Therefore, only by setting up a clear large customer strategic goal and decomposing strategic goals into various departments and employees, can they truly implement the big customers strategic.

Entrepreneurs may wish to ask myself: Did I raise the development management of big customers to a strategic height? Have I set the strategic goals of big customers in the next 5 years or even 10 years? In the company's annual goal, did I set the proportion of large customer income in total income? Native

② Excellent architecture

Strategic decision organization, organization is the carrier of strategic implementation. After the strategic goals of large customers are settled, what to support the realization of the strategic goals of large customers? This depends on the organization to undertake.

In essence, the organizational structure is a power system, and its core is the professional division of labor. In the early days of entrepreneurship, corporate resources were extremely limited. All things related to customers, from early investigation to mid -term transactions, and later maintenance, may be done by the same person.

However, the surgery industry has specialized. After the development of enterprises to a certain scale, the marketing department needs to conduct more professional division of labor and allow people with different advantages to cooperate. The more detailed the division of labor, the higher the efficiency of the organization.

③ High selection

After the organizational structure is adjusted, the enterprise will start to allocate resources for big customers.

A corporate operation level depends on its resource allocation capabilities, and the company's core three types of resources are nothing more than customers, products and employees. In order to increase the return on investment, it is necessary to invest the best product resources and employee resources to the most valuable customers.

Locking the customer portrait is the core task of the enterprise. Enterprises need to lock those customers who can bring high returns;

Locking the product portrait is to better match the needs of big customers, so as to create weapons to win war;

Locking the portrait portrait is to tilt the best talent resources to big customers, that is, to transport the best special forces for the battlefield.

In response to these three types of core resources, enterprises must be based on the principle of "high selection" to recognize portraits and accurately lock.

④ Deep clearance

After locking customer portraits, product portraits and employee portraits, the company will prepare for the sales staff on the battlefield.

As we all know, compared with the sales of ordinary customers, large customers have difficulty in selling, long decision -making chains, complex decision -making structures, and confusing competition. If the sales staff is not professional training, it is likely that they will become cannon fodder as soon as they go to the battlefield.

Therefore, before developing large customers, enterprises should do professional training and match corresponding in -depth customs clearance of sales staff, but also to open the closed loop of customs clearance and training to continuously improve employee energy levels to increase the success rate of large customer development.

In summary, the strategy, excellent structure, high selection and Shenzhen customs clearance are the four things that must be done before the company's big customers must do.

Dimension two: mid -term development

What do companies need to do well in development after development?

⑤ Grab management

According to my observations, the biggest common problem in the marketing department is to focus on performance and light management, and everything is guided by performance.

This is because companies ignore the cause and effect logic of performance: performance is fruit, management is the cause.

Without a good process management, it is impossible to have good results. Therefore, when many entrepreneurs complain to me that they cannot develop in big customers, I will remind them to check whether the process management of the development of big customers is in place.

If the company does not scientifically manage each key node developed by large customers, then even if it produces performance, it is just luck.

What is effective process management? Many companies equate process management with process monitoring. I think this approach is too simple and direct. The real process management includes two steps. The first step is to transform strategic goals into a map of employees.

For example, the company's sales performance target of this year is 500 million yuan, so how to achieve the target of 500 million yuan?

Managers must first draw a strategic map that achieves the goal: who will sell? Who sells to? What does it sell? How to sell? How to quantify the sales action? What is the assessment mechanism? With this strategic map, the company also has a navigation map of a strategic goal. The second step is to effectively monitor and counsel the execution process of the entire strategic map.

Only with these two steps, can the results be guaranteed.

⑥ precision mechanism

After the enterprise clarifies "what to do" and "how to do", it will be solved by the problem of "why".

Many companies have designed process management movements, but employees have no motivation to perform. This means that enterprises need to activate the motivation of employees and customers through mechanism design.

Therefore, in order to do a good job in the development and management of large customers, companies must also match a good mechanism. Judging from my research on many companies, the lack of a good mechanism is one of the challenges facing the company.

⑦ 明 明

When the enterprise designed a good mechanism, the wishes of employees were mobilized. Immediately afterwards, companies need to clarify the development strategies of big customers.

Because the development of large customers requires relations and professional capabilities, enterprises must have a standardized and replicable relationship strategy and value strategy.

Dimension three. post-maintenance

⑧ Project management

The successful development is not the end of the sales product, but the starting point of serving the big customers. This is because any company develops a large customer that will consume a lot of resources. If the company will take office after the development of the big customers, then this is a huge waste of resources.

Since enterprises have invested huge resources, they must continue to have a huge return. Therefore, after the development of large customers, enterprises also need to lock large customers through project management, that is, through continuous management of large customers, the customers will be bigger, deeper, and thorough.

The above eight modules are a combination of fists, which must not be discarded. They can be regarded as navigation maps in the development and management of big customers. I hope to help readers establish a system framework and let Zhujun take less detours.

This article is an excerpt from "Big Customer Strategy", CITIC Publishing Group Book

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