Due to the impact of the pandemic, companies are experiencing both opportunities and challenges. Some industries benefit from pandemic trends, with factories running at full capacity and orders booked until the end of the year. On the other hand, some businesses see a decline in orders due to less urgent demand for their products. However, regardless of the situation, it’s crucial for businesses to continue developing their customer base, especially during these times. Leveraging online resources can be a smart move to introduce your company to potential clients and lay the foundation for future international partnerships.
In this article, we’ve compiled 12 “Sales Automation Tools” for B2B customer development, analyzing them based on their difficulty, time consumption, and cost to help you determine which strategy suits your company best!
【Sales Automation Tools】- Low Cost
Method 1: Product Keyword Search
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Time Consumption: ★★★☆☆
Cost: ☆☆☆☆☆
For gathering B2B leads, you can utilize mainstream search engines in various countries. Simply input product keywords followed by terms like “Supplier,” “Distributor,” “Service Provider,” or “Solution Company” to find local agents and distributors. For example, if you sell “Window Coverings”, you could type “Window Coverings Supplier.” to search for the desired customer.
If you excel in other languages, use the local language to target local agents effectively. Even if you don’t speak the language, tools like “Google Translate” or “Chatgpt” can assist. Although it takes time to build relationships with customers, encountering agents with high loyalty means they might have repeat orders . Therefore, it’s worth spending time every day to collect customer development lists of this type. After the list collection is completed, remember to research the customer’s official website and write a customized development letter to your dear customer.
To accelerate customer list collection, you can use our B2B Leads Generation Tool.
Main Search Engine
| Frequently Used Countries | URL |
| Global | www.google.com |
| Global | www.yahoo.com |
| China | www.bing.com |
| Russia | www.yandex.com |
| Brazil | www.uol.com.br |
Method 2: Customs Data
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Time Consumption: ★★★☆☆
Cost: ★☆☆☆☆
“Customs Data”, which includes import and export statistics published by customs authorities worldwide, can be valuable for market expansion. It allows you to identify potential buyers abroad and understand your competitors’ supply situations and monitor your existing clients’ purchasing behaviors.To know more “Customs Data” , feel free to Whatsapp or Email us.
▲ Search “window coverings” to find buyers by “Customs Data”
(Read More: 3 Search Ways to find buyer and their Emails via Custom Data)
Method 3: LinkedIn
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Time Consumption: ★★★☆☆
Cost: ★★☆☆☆
LinkedIn LinkedIn is the world’s largest business community website, specifically designed for B2B professionals. As of February 2021, it boasts nearly 740 million members across more than 200 countries and regions. It is particularly popular in Europe, America, Singapore, and Malaysia. Registered users introduce their past work experiences on the platform, and many use it as a job matching and networking platform. Because these professionals provide detailed company names and job positions, it helps us find people in specific positions at specific companies!
As a business developer, it’s essential to use LinkedIn to package your professional image and further connect with key individuals through the “Build Relationships” feature. Additionally, if you want to know the email of a key individual or deeply connect with unrelated people, you must pay for the LinkedIn Premium.
Since LinkedIn Premium only allows you to email 50 contacts per month, you could consider our “Email Finder” instead. We could provide more than 50 contacts. To know more , feel free to Whatsapp or Email us.
(Read More: 7 Methods to Develop B2B Customer via LinkedIn! )
(Read More:B2B Companies should chose LinkedIn Ads or Google Ads? Detailed Comparison of 6 Ad Features )
Method 4: Exhibition Lists
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Time Consumption: ★★★★☆
Cost: ★★☆☆☆
Researching relevant exhibitions in your industry can provide a list of potential leads. Focus on exhibitions held in the past two years to ensure relevance. Attending these exhibitions, either physically or virtually, allows you to network with potential clients and know their company size. Once you have an exhibition list, you could use our “Email Finder” to find key contacts. To know more , feel free to Whatsapp or Email us.
(Read More: Decoding Online Exhibition Trends! How to Utilize Online Exhibitions to Expand Overseas Opportunities?)
Method 5: Government Resources
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Time Consumption: ★★★★☆
Cost: ★★☆☆☆
Utilize government resources such as trade networks and economic departments to access potential leads. Although these lists may be slower to update, they can still provide valuable contacts for your business development efforts.
Method 6: Cross-Industry Collaboration
Difficulty: ★☆☆☆
Time Consumption: ★☆☆☆☆
Cost: ☆☆☆☆☆
As a salesperson, we may meet friends from different industries through various sales courses and activities. Remember to make good use of this valuable network of contacts. Think about whether your company’s products have customers with the same industries. Ask the other party’s business to recommend your company to their customers. Conversely, you can also offer such reciprocity to this manufacturer.
Since the customers have had many years of business relationships with them, it can shorten the survey process and enter the sample and quotation stage. For example, if your company’s product is “fabric”, you can reciprocate with the “Heat Transfer Label manufacturer”, and both of your customers could be a garment OEM factory.
| • Online International Trade Customer Development Course • Physical International Trade Customer Development Course |
Method 7: Distributor Lists from Competitors’ Websites
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Time Consumption: ★★★☆☆
Cost: ☆☆☆☆☆
Some companies list their distributors and contact information on their official websites. You can explore collaboration opportunities with these distributors if they haven’t signed exclusive contracts with your competitors.Once you have a customer list, you could use our “Email Finder” to find key contacts. To know more , feel free to Whatsapp or Email us.
Method 8: Customer Referrals
Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆
Time Consumption: ★☆☆☆☆
Cost: ☆☆☆☆☆
Customer referrals are a cost-effective way to acquire new leads as they rely on existing satisfied customers recommending your products or services to others.
【Sales Automation Tools】- Medium Cost
Method 9: Website SEO
Difficulty: ★★★★☆
Time Consumption: ★★★☆☆
Cost: ★★★☆☆
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results, making it easier for potential customers to find you online. While it requires a lot of time to create content marketing and keywords surveys, it’s totally worth it after a few months. So, if you are very patient and willing to spend a lot of time to create your website content, please start it today.
(Read More: B2B Content Marketing Strategy – 4 Marketing Tools to increase Website Traffic free and Customer Lists)
(Read More: Six Must-Knows to Make Lead Generation via a multilingual website!)
Method 10: Google Ads
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Time Consumption: ★☆☆☆☆
Cost: ★★★★☆
In Google marketing, keywords are one of the most commonly used ad broadcasts today. Keywords belong to “passive” marketing, that is, consumers will “actively” search for the products they need with keywords, and the products will “passively” be found by consumers.
The Google search engine can save time and cost, but the amount of advertising is related to your product and keywords! If your product is an industrial product, it is usually a more obscure proprietary term. In terms of Google keyword advertising, it is easier to attract B2B potential customers who really need it. But if your product is a consumer product, it is easy for B2C end users to click, thereby quickly consuming your set advertising cost quota.
(Read More: B2B Companies should chose LinkedIn Ads or Google Ads? Detailed Comparison of 6 Ad Features)
【Sales Automation Tools】- High Cost
Method 11: B2B Platforms
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Time Consumption: ★★★★☆
Cost: ★★★★★
B2B platforms such as Alibaba、Global Resources、Tradekey、Ec21, etc., are excellent platforms for promoting products. The platform cost is approximately USD 9,375 per year. However, you have to pay extra advertising expenses later to expose on the first page, so it is a high-cost marketing method. The advantage of this platform is that the platform will continuously expose locally and the daily website traffic is very large.
However, the level of buyers is uneven, and it is difficult to determine who is the real buyer and who may be a scam. For long-term company operations, it is more suitable to operate SEO and pour traffic into your own official website!
(Read More: Top 10 b2b wholesale marketplaces – Highly Recommended by importers and exporters)
Method 12: Participating in Exhibitions
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Time Consumption: ★★★☆☆
Cost: ★★★★★
Find local exhibitions that match your product, but recently some customers have responded that the effect of the exhibition is not good, and regardless of the cost of renting a booth, manpower time cost, and pre-maintenance, it is expensive.
Here it is recommended to use the first methods “Product Keyword Search” more often, reserve a good customer list, and if you plan to participate in the exhibition, try to invite potential customers to see the exhibition in person to increase your and the company’s trust.
You can try to show the pre-recorded company image video, related factory equipment, and the production status of the staff, so that customers have a deeper impression of you on the exhibition!
Start a “Sales Automation Tool” to save 80% time
I believe that after reading the above 12 Sales Automation Tool and expansion and the star comparison table, you will know how to develop a new customer.
The most important thing to consider in customer development is the time spent and the marketing cost. If manpower, money, and contacts are insufficient, you can consider low-cost development methods such as “B2B Leads Generation Tool” and “Customs data””. Although the time spent in the early stage is longer, long-term operation definitely has the opportunity to find high-quality local agents or customers, and may place orders for a long time.
On the other hand, if the company’s marketing cost is willing to allocate a higher budget (at least USD20,000 a year), you can choose the “B2B platform” that already has a lot of buyer traffic or find a good “SEO company” to guide the traffic into your own official website.
These two methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. If you can use both active marketing and passive marketing at the same time, I believe it will achieve a complementary effect.
For more information about“B2B Leads Generation Tool” and “Customs Data” , feel free to Whatsapp or Email us.
