While this way of thinking is important, it increases the risk that developing new business partners will be neglected, business growth will halt, and the company's management will fall into disarray if it unexpectedly loses an existing customer.
Especially in B2B businesses, the rapid changes in the market environment and intensifying competition make it essential to continually acquire new customers. This is because syria b2b leads the long-term business relationships and high unit price transactions that are unique to the B2B market can have a major impact even if a customer is lost just once.
The year is 2024, and we live in an unpredictable era known as VUCA , making it even more risky to rely solely on existing customers.
In this article, we will introduce strategies for developing new business partners in the three departments of B2B business: marketing, sales, and customer success. Let's reconsider best practices for developing new business partners in B2B.
What is new business development?
In the first place, developing new business partners refers to the process by which a company finds new customers and business partners and builds business relationships.
This activity is often thought of as the sole responsibility of marketing, but in B2B businesses, this perception is not always accurate.
In reality, business development is an organization-wide effort: Marketing is responsible for generating and nurturing leads, while Sales (and in some companies, inside sales) is responsible for finding new accounts through direct outreach and negotiations.
In addition, the Customer Success department indirectly contributes to developing new business partners by improving satisfaction among existing customers and creating success stories.
In reality, it is ideal for each department that has contact with customers to work together. The role of each department in developing new business partners can be defined as follows:
What is new business development?
Through collaboration between departments, we can provide new business partners with a consistent experience value, from discovering potential customers in the purchasing funnel to closing the deal and providing follow-up afterwards. In other words, developing new business partners is not just about "selling" to new customers, but it can only be said to have been a success if you are able to build a relationship with them afterwards.
Why is it important to develop new business partners?
First of all, why is it important for B2B companies to develop new business partners? Here, we will first explain the importance of developing new business partners for B2B companies from three perspectives.
The collapse of Keiretsu left the company vulnerable to market changes
It is becoming easier for buyers to gather information
To ensure sustainable sales
I will explain each one individually.
The collapse of Keiretsu left the company vulnerable to market changes
The collapse of Keiretsu is thought to be one factor increasing the importance of developing new business partners for B2B companies.
Keiretsu is the Japanese term for a corporate keiretsu, which refers to a joint relationship formed by multiple companies based on specific interests. As the name "Keiretsu" has spread to English as well, it is recognized overseas as a business model unique to postwar Japanese culture.
Examples include former zaibatsu business groups such as Mitsubishi and Sumitomo, banking groups whose parent is the bank to which they lend, and supply chains whose parent is a final product manufacturer such as in the automobile or home appliance industries.
An article in Foreign Affairs magazine, published by the US Council on Foreign Relations, states that Keiretsu in Japan includes approximately 26,000 parent companies and 56,000 affiliated companies, totaling 18 million employees (approximately one-third of Japan's workforce) , which gives an idea of how deeply rooted Keiretsu is in the Japanese work environment.
The article also points out that Japan's GDP has declined significantly in recent years, and that the reason for this is that "Keiretsu has taken too deep roots in the Japanese market" and "Keiretsu is solidly secured by existing transactions, making it extremely difficult for new suppliers, let alone overseas suppliers, to enter the market."
However, it has also been pointed out that the Keiretsu system is extremely vulnerable to changes in the market due to its large size. The collapse of Keiretsu is due to the emergence of companies that are unable to respond to recent market changes caused by the Internet, which will be described later, and are finding it difficult to secure profits.
