Meeting with Potential Customers

My weekly newsletters talk about sustainable export and international sales as connected topics. I look at how a system for sustainable export should be built inside companies.

I have written about the sales pyramid we developed with my colleagues at ODS Consulting Group and how we run sustainable export.

01Ways to Meet Export Prospects

Today we have reached the second step of the sustainable export and international sales pyramid. In the previous two weeks we properly listed our target countries and the potential customers within them. And we recorded them in the CRM.

Up to this point is, in our experience, 51% of the work. Yes — the first step of our four-step pyramid alone is 51% of the work.

Because we have seen time and again that if the first step is not done right, even with a very good, very talented sales team you are wasting time unproductively on the wrong targets. The exact opposite is also true: if targets and potential customers are identified very well, an average sales team can produce above-average results.

02What Are Active and Passive Communication?

Sitting at our desk, there are two main ways we can build relationships with potential customers. Under these two main methods there are various sub-methods.

Active Outreach Methods:

• Cold calling
• Direct customer visits
• Face-to-face or online meetings

Passive Outreach Methods:

• Our website
• Digital advertising
• Social media posts

Active outreach methods are the kinds where we see the customer in front of us and can communicate with them in real time.

Passive outreach methods are the kinds where we do not see the customer and communicate with them indirectly.

It is common knowledge that we no longer have a one-way relationship with customers before they make a purchase decision. Today everyone searches the internet to learn about a product before buying it. That means passive outreach methods have gained incredible importance in recent years.

That does not mean active outreach methods are no longer valid. It means we can no longer carry on with active outreach alone.

03Which Active Outreach Methods Are Most Effective for Meeting Export Customers?

Imagine you are a company in Türkiye that makes pumps for high-viscosity liquids.

If you have done proper market research, you can use all three of the methods listed above very effectively and hold sales meetings with your customers.

Critical points to watch:

• These meetings will take a lot of time.

• To organize these meetings, you should have one person working on this continuously, or on certain days of the week.

• Cold calling in particular remains one of the most effective B2B tools in terms of benefit to cost. That is why we always recommend doing it.

04Which Passive Outreach Methods Are Most Effective for Meeting Export Customers?

Because passive outreach methods are still new technologies, we see a serious gap in practice here. All three passive methods above can be used easily by a company at any level.

Critical points to watch:

• Having a website is not enough on its own. It matters that your website comes up when searched. (SEO)

• Having product information on your website is no longer enough. It matters that your company's website comes up when your products are searched. (SEO)

• Social media posts are an opportunity to build e-relationships with customers. Posting on its own is not important. What matters is that your social media posts build relationships with customers and bring in sales.

Next week I will continue by going deeper into the active outreach methods.