For any company, deciding whether or not to diversify is a major decision. Do you continue in your path and dedicate all of your attention and resources to a single market? Or, do you want to take advantage of a new market and opportunity? With the uncertainty of the pandemic, diversifying into multiple markets can massively reduce risk.
Consider expanding the company into a whole different market. A new market comes with new opportunities and opens up the bandwidth to capitalize on the almost limitless potential for growing your business. It means recreating brand awareness, likely building partnerships with international businesses, and taking a leap of faith in the belief that taking this new move will help you scale.
Doesn’t it sound exciting? However, success doesn’t come without its challenges.
Challenges While Entering the New Market
Let’s quickly go through the top three challenges businesses often face while generating leads in the new market:
#1 Identifying the Opportunities
Your brand isn’t that popular for the new audience. Identifying and attracting enough top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) audience to crack your first deal becomes a challenge. So getting started with finding potential buyers becomes crucial.
#2 Winning the Deals Against the Ruling Competitor
There’s always that one competitor who rules the market. The one that has been getting major customer loyalty and is an obvious choice for the business. Although you know your product is better, your audience will still consider them first until you establish yourself as a valid alternative.
#3 Getting Quick Turnarounds
You might be doing an excellent job getting the word out about your product. You have enough TOFU audience, and you have succeeded in getting enough potential leads into the sales process. Great! However, pushing them to become your first customer in the new market often takes time. So, getting the quick turnarounds from lead to customer becomes the challenge. The reason? If you’re not targeting the right companies, then they likely don’t have the same urgency as you do to close the sale.
However, these challenges are temporary. It’s all about getting momentum started. Given that, the solution to all three primary challenges boils down to having the right data for a lightning-fast start.
Pulling Off a New Market Entry Using Data
Let’s talk about how you can utilize company data to ensure a smooth entry into the new market.
So without further ado, here are some of the use cases where B2B data can set the foundation for creating a new sales pipeline.
Create Smart Short-Lists Using Company Data
Needs may differ based on the market, but the kind of organization that requires your product is likely to be similar. Find and reach lookalike accounts or businesses that match the profile of your current customers. This is a clever way to ensure that you are targeting the right audience.
SalesIntel allows you to filter companies with the attributes that match your ideal customer profile using dynamic firmographic data (including firmographic and technographic data). You can then send personalized emails, set up focused ad campaigns, and tailor your sales activities for the accounts you have chosen. This makes it easier to achieve the first milestone of 10 customers in your new market by focusing your efforts on best-fit targets.
Use Buyer Intent Data to Track Buying Signals
Before entering the new market, any business spends time studying potential clients. However, what if your competitor has already entered the market and has slowly started building up clientele? Since you don’t have brand awareness in the new market or a large customer base to demonstrate your worth, you need to think smarter than your competitors.
You should track buying signals to identify the potential customers who are actively searching for a solution. Buyer Intent Data helps you do exactly that. It helps identify and reach potential buyers who are actively engaged in a buying decision based on the type of content they are consuming.
SalesIntel has simplified Intent Data search so you can quickly get the actionable data you need to boost lead generation. For instance, if you are selling a sales reporting tool, you can get the list of potential buyers who are looking at content that revolves around how to save time while preparing a sales report or how to automate sales reporting. Reaching the ready-to-buy prospects can make it easier for your sales reps to quickly move into a productive conversation.
Identify and Prepare for the Opportunities
When you have more options to work smarter, the faster you can get the ball rolling. The next way to find opportunities in the new market is using technographic data.
Let’s imagine that your company has developed a platform or an add-on that can be integrated with Salesforce. After a successful implementation in your market, you want to encourage companies in the new territory to use your platform. With technographic data, you can identify prospects who are already using Salesforce.
Additionally, you can also see if they are using your competitor’s product or service. This information helps your sales reps prepare and tailor their sales pitch before connecting with prospects.
SalesIntel helps you identify and filter results based on the technology used by businesses. You can export the list of potential buyers to your CRM and pass it on to your sales team.
Know Your Competitors’ Position in the New Market
You can also identify opportunities by knowing the customer base of your competitors in the new market. SalesIntel allows you to get a list of businesses from a particular region that are currently using your competitors’ products. You can then target them with personalized email marketing or ads or content showing a comparison article or video. You can also ask your sales team to keep a pdf handy to explain the comparison over the phone. This gives you the best chance to nurture potential customers.
Final Thoughts
If you have reliable and accurate B2B data for the new market, your lead generation funnel will quickly be filled with leads who are genuinely interested in buying. With SalesIntel, you can filter your data based on firmographics, technographics, and Buyer Intent Data to give yourself a jumpstart and get over the initial difficulties of a new market.
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