Hello everyone.

Last time, we looked at how people can contribute in the digital age from a CRM and on-site perspective, but this time we'll be looking more specifically at the importance of information about your customers' customers and nurturing them.

Information about your customers' customers

Here's a brief overview.

Company information ⇒ Company name, business office/factory name, country, address, industry, relationship with the company (customers, end users), sales, fiscal year, number of employees, major shareholders, parent company, previous year's transaction results (sales basis), cumulative transaction results (sales basis), etc.

Personal attributes: Name, surname, furigana, department, job title, phone number, fax number, email address, gender, contact method, relationship (deep, shallow, etc.), educational background, birthday, product classification (our company's products handled), rank, budget, attribute change history, etc.

Examples of information that can be mentioned include the following. What we want to focus on here is BANT information, which is generally considered to be highly valuable in sales. In B2B, industry information is an essential element for knowledge creation, so we will introduce it in another article.

BANT Information

No outs, runner on first, number 2 Shiramu in the batter's box. "Is this a sacrifice bunt?" you can almost hear the commentator saying, but it's not a bunt in baseball! Lol. I'll explain what the bant information means.

• BBudget: Do you have a budget? Or can you secure it?
• AUthority (authority to approve) - Is it clear who will make the final decision (stamp the implementation request)?
• Needs (necessity) ⇒ Why is your company's product or service needed? Is the purpose clear?
• Timeframe (implementation date) ⇒ Is the implementation date (plus date) specific?

The initials of each word combine to form BANT.

BANT information isConditions for narrowing down customers who are likely to purchase from the many customers obtained through marketing activitiesBANT information is generally considered to be highly valuable because it is highly anticipated in the field and is highly valued as information that contributes to sales.

On the other hand, at the site,It is actually difficult to obtain information from your customers' customers, and even if you do obtain it, it is difficult to keep the information fresh over the long term.We want you to be aware of this, and so the initiative we would like to combine with this is nurturing.

Nurturing

Although it is not a word you hear often, the English word "nature" means to nurture or develop, and in marketing activities,Nurture "customers who are not sure whether they will purchase or who have purchased once" into "promising customers"The term "process" has become established. It is also called lead nurturing.

Figure: What is nurturing?

For example, if your company's website receives frequent access to product introductions or specific case studies, and you receive an inquiry a few days later, it is highly likely that the need for the product has been inferred from the case study and that the company is considering implementing the product (or that the time may be approaching). Furthermore, more specific information may be obtained through communication activities such as phone contact. The collected information will be accumulated and updated as BANT.

Furthermore, scoring is a method of calculating and expressing purchasing potential and segmentation based on a certain algorithm in order to make it easier for companies to understand.

Figure: Example of scoring

In this way, companies are implementing nurturing processes to grasp changes and trends among their customers' customers, and are making efforts to complete and maintain BANT information strategically and over the long term in order to keep up with the times.

Summary

I hope you understand that BANT information and nurturing efforts are essential for surviving in a knowledge-creating society.

Next time, we will introduce the nurturing process in more depth. Stay tuned!