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3 questions to smart minds
Photo: Marco Hopp

Successful acquisition of new customers

For this 3 questions to Marco Hopp

HOPP ACQU!TIES GmbH & Co KG
Photo: Marco Hopp
27. July 2016

B2B new custo­mer acqui­si­tion is beco­ming incre­asingly chal­len­ging for compa­nies and your sales orga­niza­ti­ons. Commu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels are beco­ming more diverse and complex, and the target group of econo­mic buyers is beco­ming incre­asingly diffi­cult to reach. Market situa­tions are chan­ging at ever shorter inter­vals, but at the same time sales cycles are beco­ming longer and longer. Espe­ci­ally in phases of above-average, ambi­tious, stra­te­gic growth, available sales resour­ces are in short supply. In addi­tion, it is often not possi­ble to find suita­ble sales person­nel whose heart and passion beats exclu­si­vely for the acqui­si­tion of new customers. 


For this 3 ques­ti­ons to Mana­ging Direc­tor of HOPP ACQU!TIES GmbH & Co. KG

1. Acqui­ring new custo­mers at the decis­ion-maker level poses problems for most compa­nies. What are the solu­ti­ons you offer?

The chal­lenges we face on a daily basis with our clients can be found in the orga­niza­tion of new custo­mer acqui­si­tion ü̈over the successful acqui­si­tion process to the right approach to the Econo­mic Buyers, who ü̈have the budget and make decis­i­ons for coope­ra­tion or purchase of a product. 

We do not outsource the distri­bu­tion of the respec­tive mandate. We directly imple­ment B2B new custo­mer acqui­si­tion for compa­nies facing major chal­lenges in this area. We take care opera­tio­nally of the fast and successful acqui­si­tion of new custo­mers. This is one of the most diffi­cult sub-disci­pli­nes of sales. The problem, as I see it, is that sales tasks today consist of almost 90% exis­ting custo­mer support, meetings, work­shops and admi­nis­tra­tive tasks such as main­tai­ning CRM systems. For the acqui­si­tion of new custo­mers then remains only
little time in the company.

2. What do your acti­vi­ties look like in practice?

One of our clients is the world’s largest online market­place. Our task
consists of selec­ting major compa­nies and brands in Germany and Europe from
the top-selling areas such as fashion, auto­mo­tive parts and access­ories, home
& Living etc. at decis­ion maker level, present our client’s offer and close the contracts. This is ther­e­fore an offer that requi­res expl­ana­tion and a stra­te­gic decis­ion that the target custo­mer must make for hims­elf. We have to influence these posi­tively. In addi­tion, with a high impact rate and presence on the market.

There are always phases of excep­tio­nal growth in compa­nies where they need acqui­si­tion mana­gers for two to three years, who are both imme­dia­tely available and deli­ver successful new custo­mer acqui­si­tion. And it is precis­ely these experts that we keep in our company.

3. To be successful in sales and acqui­si­tion, you have to know the product or service you want to sell very well. How do you imple­ment this and how do you diffe­ren­tiate yours­elf from competitors?

There’s an old sales adage: “Busi­ness know­ledge inter­fe­res with sales.” Our expe­ri­ence shows that 70% of product know­ledge is suffi­ci­ent to successfully sell products or services to poten­tial new custo­mers. We acquire this 70% in a very short time with the help of our clients. As soon as nego­tia­ti­ons with poten­tial new custo­mers of our client go into depth, we draw on the staff resour­ces of our client’s specia­list depart­ments. We will take care of the signa­ture on the contract.

We offer a unique acqui­si­tion process, our so-called ACQT!ON® formula. Secondly, our strengths and the secret of our success lie prima­rily in our excel­lent acqui­si­tion mana­gers. Our coope­ra­tion with our clients for B2B new custo­mer acqui­si­tion runs on average between 1.5 — 5 years. In addi­tion to pure new custo­mer acqui­si­tion at the B2B level, we also support our clients in paral­lel in setting up or reor­ga­ni­zing their own acqui­si­tion and sales depart­ments. In this way, we also estab­lish our acqui­si­tion know-how with the client’s own sales staff through coaching on the job and other measu­res. This means that the client very quickly has expert know­ledge in the acqui­si­tion of new custo­mers and does not lose any time in the imple­men­ta­tion of growth targets.

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