To get to know your customer’s business, or that of a prospect you’d like to become a prospect, get to know the answers to these questions:
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- Who owns the organisation? Are they part of a Corporate Group?
- What type of business entity is it? What subsidiaries do they have?
- Do they have a web site? Have you visited it? What key data was available?
- What is the current sales turnover? What market share do they have?
- Did you originally open this account? If so, with whom and are they still there? If not, who did, and who with and on what basis were you chosen as a supplier?
- Who are their major 3 competitors? Have you visited any of their web sites?
- What is their true sales trend? – Their true profit trend? {Growth – Plateau – Decline?}
- Is their market growing/declining/stable?
- When is their financial year/When do any Contracts Renewals fall due?
- What are their 3 most profitable sales items/products/services?
- Can you name their 6 key customers? Have you visited their Web-sites?
- What is their main competitive advantage offered to their customer base?
- What is their annual budget spend in your product area?
- How many other similar suppliers do they use? Why is this?
- What factors affect their buying policy?
- What are their key business growth objectives for the future – next 2-3 years?
- What strategy are you considering putting in place to assist this growth strategy?
- Where are the decisions made? HQ/Regionally/Autonomously?
- What does the Decision Making Unit comprise of:
- Decision Makers/Influencers/Roles and Responsibilities
- What does the Decision Influencing Unit comprise of:
- Decision Influencers – those with and without “authority”, balance of power?
- Who holds financial responsibility for the budget in your product area?
- Where does the economic purchasing influence lie?
- Where does the technical purchasing influence lie?
- On what basis do they select a supplier? Do you know the Top 6 factors?
- What do they currently buy in total? (Noof lines/products/services etc.)
- Which of those items do we supply – now? Does this include all the add-on options?
- Which of those items are we not supplying? Do you know why this is?
- What account development strategy is currently in place for this account?
- What amendments do you now have to consider making to that strategy?
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