Making acquisition a success

Can acquisition be used as a tool for success?

In my previous article, I shared about the ‘thing’ acquisition. It is not always easy to find the right motivation to engage in this. Many salespeople are inhibited by their own objections to acquisitions, which prevents them from being successful. That is just like a soccer player who calls out beforehand ‘the opponent is stronger so they will win’. That way, the player predicts his own outcome! The trick is to turn that around and increase your influence on success.

Many salespeople are inhibited by their own objections to acquisition making it unsuccessful

What are ways to successfully use acquisition as a tool? This requires a number of steps. Key points that help form the basis for successful acquisition.

    If you are in the business of acquisition, targeting the right audience is essential. This should be a good interplay between sales and marketing. Who fits best with our products and services and where are they located? If marketing through the known socials is already working this target group through ads, vlogs, blogs or just what connects, the salesperson who is going to acquire can score more easily. When he starts calling, he will find more recognition with the selected target group increasing the chances of success.

    If you are going to make acquisitions do so with a clear goal. What do you want to accomplish based on your phone call. Is it a first introduction? Are you going for an appointment for yourself or a colleague? Do you want to know what is going on at the company you are approaching? All logical questions that you may want or be able to get answered during your acquisition call. Determine your main goal, for example making an appointment on location. All other information you get during the conversation is secondary but valuable.

    Good preparation is half of success. Therefore, before calling, think about what you are going to say and what reactions you might get. Write these down for yourself in a flexible script. The purpose of this is that you are able to respond in a substantive way to what the other person says so that you get to the goal of your conversation faster. You don't use the script to read from. Because as soon as a telephone conversation loses its natural course, you miss the connection with your potential customer.

    The beginning of the article already described what a personal attitude does regarding success. Therefore, as a salesperson, it is essential to go on the phone with a winner's mentality. Funnily enough, as a salesperson, you don't need the customer but he needs you! You have something to offer the other person that will make him better or make his business operate more successfully. Call with a positive curiosity about what resonates with the other person and look for hooks to connect with that.

    By letting go of your own objections to acquisition and by not letting a business rejection get you down, you influence your mindset in a positive way. As Emile Ratelband used to say, “Chakka, I can do it!”

    If you know who your target audience is you can also connect with them by putting yourself in their shoes

    If you know who your target audience is, you can connect with them by putting yourself in their shoes. Delve into your potential customers by forming a picture of when they are busy with. If you want to be successful with your acquisition moment, the trick is to call at a time when the other person is receptive to you. When I was in retail, I often called between 5:00 and 6:00 pm. My customers were no longer attending meetings and some of them were on the road. I was the pleasant distraction during their drive home. Find just such an ideal time with your customers so you can really connect with the other person.

    These are some of the steps that help form the basis for successful acquisition. Ultimately, it's just doing it! Schedule your moments and secure them. This is how it becomes Making acquisition a success.

    Acquisition remains a thing!

    Acquisition remains a thing, this sentence can be interpreted in two ways. It is a necessary tool to acquire new customers. At the same time, it remains a hateful subject that many salespeople would rather stay away from.

    I myself regularly run into my internal wall with objections regarding acquiring. And I am certainly not alone in this. 39% of salespeople indicate that they have difficulty making acquisitions. And this does not distinguish between cold and or warm acquisition. Many salespeople have difficulty initiating and consistently executing acquisition.

    39% of salespeople report difficulty making acquisitions.

    Many salespeople struggle in the acquisition process, especially when faced with rejection. Everyone knows that if you make a number of phone calls you will hear ‘no’ a number of times. The person who approaches you is not open to an appointment or serves you off in the friendly way with the phrase “please send an email with information.” The rejection is experienced by too many salespeople as personal. ‘It's just me’ or the thought ‘you see I can't do it’ feeds in. It is often confirmation of the pre-occupied objection ‘people are not waiting for me’.

    Yet all these salespeople then forget all the moments when success can be measured. Companies and potential customers who are open to an appointment. Where it is possible to set a hook based on a current problem. Acquisition is the first seed that the salesperson plants from which, in time, a long-term cooperation can develop.

    We initiate such initial steps toward the target audience, of course, using marketing, both through social media and on our own website. But at the same time, that is a reactive form of connecting. It is waiting for a lead. In acquisition, you are proactively approaching potential customers.

    You're doing more or less the same thing Steve Jobs once did with the introduction of the IPad. You didn't know you needed it yet until he introduced it. It's the same way with acquisition, the customer doesn't know yet that you have a solution to his challenge until you tell him. You find out about the problem by connecting and asking the right questions.

    acquisition, let the customer know what he needs, acquisition as a successful tool

    the customer does not yet know that you have a solution to his challenge until you tell him about it

    Make acquisition your thing. See it as an opportunity to make a difference within your organization and that of your clients.

    In the next article titled ‘Acquisition as a Means of Success,’ I will soon share more about things you can consider in order to acquire more successfully.