Loading...
Answers
MenuWhat can I do to build trust to acquire corporate clients?
I run an online language learning platform and would like to expand to B2B clients - for those relocating or needing to brush up language skills for foreign clients.
Do I need to offer certification upon completion or something official to get B2B clients on board? What can I do to build trust and demonstrate results?
Answers
Offer the client excellent customer service. The level of customer service you provide has a major impact on the customer's loyalty and return. Publish customer's reviews and testimonials. Be transparent & Always put your customers first.
Hi. I felt you need to establish an MVP - minimum viable product - for this segment. Since this is a service it is easier to do.
Very briefly. Create a package and test this out on a small segment and numbers - say a language or geography or a language learning need etc. Depending upon feedback modify the package and keep doing fast it till you get feedback it is minimally viable to go to market. Alongside find out what your competitors are doing in this area. You will get very good feedback on questions that you ask and many more in this process. Then go a phase 1 of your sales campaign again in a geography or a high value learning where you offer substantial value compared to your competitors. Along side build a business plan on where you want to go 1-2-3 years ahead.
Hope this helps. Let me know if we should talk to flesh this out. All the best.
Hi,
The switch from B2C to B2B can seem massive - and the differences in requirements can be significant. BUT it is usually easier to pivot from B2C into B2B than starting from scratch.
You understand you current market - what your existing customers get from you and their reasons for using you. So your first step should be understanding what need you can fulfil in a B2B environment - that may be more formal than your current set up - e.g. certification on completion to appease HR and L & D departments, or it may be a degree of tailoring the solution through scaling e.g. a level and type of training designed specifically for that client and a number of their employees.
I would try to make some contacts within the type of businesses you would be aiming at, and see how much you can pick their brains on what needs they have that you could design a solution to solve. Once you understand the problems they have, creating a strategy to pivot into that space and fulfil that need will be more straightforward.
In summary:
1/ Understand your own strengths and current B2C USPs
2. Research into the market by talking to as many people as you can
3. Create a solution that is as close to what you already do successfully, to pivot into that space to solve their problem.
4. Plan a review timeframe.
Happy to discuss further if useful - Good Luck!
You can write a book. Writing a book builds your authority around a topic, especially with corporate clients and makes you look more trustworthy.
1) Define in a few words what's your product value proposition: a compelling offering will help clients quickly understand your service
2) Clients: build trusted relationships, avoid car-salesmen type approach. Clients come to you so you can solve their problems easily.
3) Become the trusted advisor: you have the expertise in your field and product and work in the best interest of your clients
4) Be ready to sell under your costs: cold-start is a tough problem to solve, your first clients are the toughed to build, foster and grow a base and you'll be rewarded in the long run.
You demonstrate results from your past and current work. You build trust through word of mouth and reviews (amongst other things). Just be able to display results.
Start talking to businesses about how you've helped people. The main difference is that now instead of talking to an individual about how it can help them, you need to think of how this helps a business - businesses operate for one reason only, to make a profit. So how will your services create value for the business? Once you can succinctly explain this, start reaching out to businesses and open a line of discussion. Try to determine a good target market, though, as there are nearly an infinite number of businesses out there - who can you help the most and how?
Related Questions
-
What is the best growth hacking strategy for a travel website?
Before you spend $ or time marketing your service / website, ensure that your brand itself is quite strong. For example, if your name or domain is awkward, ambiguous, or off-putting, then every dollar and hour you spend promoting your brand will work less efficiently in your favor than if you were spending the same amount of money and time marketing something more robust and attractive.JP
-
When working on a double-sided marketplace how do you work out cost of customer acquisition?
I'm the CTO of https://3dagogo.com a marketplace of proven to print 3D designs. We look at the two sides differently. There's not a single customer. In our case you have designers and purchasers ( sometimes the same person can be both ). Cost and methods for acquiring designers are very different than those to attract purchasers. I would clearly separate the sides and come up with separate cost structures. In my opinion when you're looking at the marketplace from the purchaser perspective, the other side's acquisition costs can be seen as fixed marketing costs.DA
-
I have started a wholesale business and I want to know how to sell to retailers as a wholesaler? How to contact them and sell to them?
How to sell to retailers? As a former Retail Buyer from Target, here's my suggestion. You need to first ready your sales communication and materials to explain how 1) You will drive sales at their stores (best told through sales traction and history in comparable or slightly smaller retailers than the one you are targeting 2) Demonstrate how you will support sales with a marketing plan. Marketing mitigates sales risk and that's a retailer's #1 concern and 3) Prove you will deliver flawless vendor execution. There are many hiccups that happen along the supply chain and it takes an experienced company to flawlessly deliver inventory to the right stores/DC's in the right quantity on the right day. The best way to prove this is by showing that you are currently working with retailers of the same magnitude. So in short, you have to scale up slowly - from small retailers to larger retailers - in order to manage risk, build sales traction, build brand awareness, and manage cash flow. How to contact them and sell to them? Use Linked In to find retail buyers. I have a short video on how to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwbfUMRHiq0 Trade shows are also effective; you can get the mailing address of retail buyers in attendance plus meet them face to face if they come to your booth. Also, network within your industry. You'll find your peers are wiling to trade buyer lists with you. But in short, don't bother reaching out to a retail buyer until you have talking points that address those 3 things I mentioned above all. I'm happy to do a clarity call if you have follow up questions.VT
-
How much should a business spend on customer acquisition?
To answer this, you need to have a working model for your customer LTV (Life Time Value). Most startups can't accurately estimate their LTV, so if you don't have good enough data, then building your CAC based on assumed LTV numbers can be fatal. In this case, it's better to evaluate your CAC costs based on the months of revenue it takes to recover the cost to acquire the customer, and ultimately this calculation should be net of any costs associated with providing the service on a monthly basis and, even more conservatively allow for a healthy degree of churn. Keep in mind that this calculation doesn't evaluate your true profitability only the capital efficiency of your customer acquisition spend. Hope this helps. Happy to talk this through in more detail and with more specifics to your business.TW
-
What are some marketing strategies that can be used to obtain your competitor's customers and gain more market share?
Lot of ways 1. Target their fans on facebook - if they are big (20k+) you should be able to select them as an interest 2. Bid on the same keywords as them on adwords search and/or display - this requires some technical chops but there are ways to find your competition's placements. If you can get there and present a better ad and/or outbid them, you can get the clicks they are used to getting. 3. Find where their customers are spending time online - another thing that will take some chops but you can find out what blogs, facebook pages, etc your competition's fans are looking at and get in front of them there. This is an indirect method. Most of the other options you will have are some variation on that theme. Make sure you have a way to stay in front of them (like retargeting or email marketing) if you want to make your investment go as far as possible! Good luckJR
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.