Or: When sales forget how to acquire new customers

When it comes to driving B2B new customer acquisition, many companies often face challenges. In day-to-day business and without clear structures, new customer relationships are frequently formed through random recommendations or are generated by the sales team as a side task without a focused approach. However, on this basis, companies cannot expect sustainable long-term growth, because the fact is: around 95 percent of sales activities are dedicated to maintaining existing customer relationships or to administrative tasks such as meetings, workshops, or reporting. In other words, only about 5 percent of sales resources are actually available for acquiring new customers.

With only five percent of their time, no employee can successfully acquire new customers, because successful acquisition requires more than passion for this challenging task — it requires concentration. Focus. Chance cannot be the foundation on which companies build their profitability and growth.

Equating acquisition with sales creates an imbalance

For successful new customer acquisition, companies should clearly distinguish between customer retention and acquisition. Trying to manage both simultaneously or treating one as a side task is impossible — yet this is precisely the mistake most companies make. Sales employees are expected to acquire new customers while also maintaining existing ones. This requires a great deal of time to keep current customers satisfied and prevent churn. As a result, there are hardly any resources left to drive growth through new customer acquisition, which becomes problematic once existing customers leave. Beyond the question of limited resources lies the issue of specific skills and emotional soft factors among sales staff. These traits, rooted in individual personality profiles, are crucial for successful new business development. In other words, a good hunter is not necessarily a good farmer — and vice versa.

In the “evolution” of sales, there is a shift in working methods within almost every company. Salespeople who initially focus solely on acquiring new customers in a start-up and later take over their account management transform from new-customer hunters into existing-customer farmers. The drive and market awareness are inevitably lost over time, as it is simply impossible to manage existing clients and acquire new ones at the same time. When companies are then faced with situations such as declining sales, entering new markets, or expanding target customer groups, they often lack the internal hunting structures, strategies, and skills needed to respond quickly and effectively through successful acquisition processes.

Outsourcing helps maintain a successful focus

In addition to managing existing customers, new customer acquisition must be carried out continuously with the same level of effort and focus. However, many sales managers underestimate the intensity that successful new customer acquisition requires.

The fact is that salespeople within a company inevitably become involved in other processes. Physical separation is therefore extremely important, as successful acquisition depends on complete focus — meaning no distractions, no existing customer management, and no unrelated side tasks.

To help companies avoid these pitfalls and ensure growth on all levels, I founded **HOPP ACQU!TIES** in 2013. From identifying potential new sales channels and suitable prospects to initiating first contact, providing decision support, and closing contracts, the company takes over its clients’ acquisition objectives. My team and I work based on our self-developed and patented **ACQT!ON Formula**. Starting with an analysis of the sales situation and target customers, HOPP ACQU!TIES designs a tailored acquisition structure and prepares all relevant data and information in a target-oriented manner. The responsible team member then engages directly with potential new customers and manages the entire acquisition process — operationally and strategically — all the way through to contract completion.

Through our intensive communication with new customers, we achieve a significantly higher rate of contract closures — and therefore a higher success rate in driving business growth.

We focus entirely on the process up to the contract signing and then hand over the new customers to the internal sales departments for ongoing account management. With this approach, HOPP ACQU!TIES completes the cycle between client retention and new business acquisition.