To B Operation Growth Methodology

In recent years, for PMs who have been engaged in the commercialization of Internet To B products and are responsible for product revenue, "difficulty in acquiring customers and difficulty in increasing business revenue" should be the biggest feeling.

The product that we painstakingly planned, designed and launched has very few paying customers. Despite constantly trying new growth methods, it seems unable to change the current situation of weak growth.

1. Current growth status of To B business

Although the epidemic has led to a surge in demand for enterprise information services in the past two years, as To B business manufacturers in the market develop and launch new products at a higher frequency, and although the number of newly established companies is increasing, supply and demand are far from balanced, and there was once a situation where supply exceeded demand.

The market is saturated and competition is fierce. Many companies that originally lacked core competitiveness and technological barriers have gradually lost the attention of users, making it extremely difficult to acquire customers.

In the past, because To B business mainly provided services to corporate customers to achieve the goal of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, domestic small and medium-sized enterprises usually purchased standardized products from leading manufacturers in related fields due to their weak level of informatization and limited funds.

Because the needs of large enterprises are often complex and personalized, they cannot be met by general small and medium-sized product and service manufacturers, so they can only develop their own.

This results in startups doing To B business not having many channels to sell their products.

Simply put, in a fully competitive market environment, with the economy in a downturn, it is becoming difficult to make money from corporate services.

Although the current situation of business growth is generally difficult, it is still possible for businesses with confidence and a sense of mission.

When faced with growth difficulties, we still need to have the courage and sense of purpose to “be greedy when others are fearful”, so we must also establish an effective business growth idea.

2. Growth path: product, channel, and customer management

Last year, I was in charge of the product commercialization and growth of a business line, which included public cloud, private cloud products and a variety of product types.

The product's target customers also cover multiple types, mainly including big B, small B and small C.

After a year of continuous experimentation and iteration, and after achieving some results.

I have summarized a growth idea that I believe is applicable to most types of businesses and products: polish products, combine online and offline channels, accumulate customer data, and create a growth flywheel.

To put it simply, it can be summed up in one formula: product × channel (online + offline) × CRM.

From this formula, there are several key objects: products, channels, and CRM.

Products and channels are relatively easy to understand. The source of product growth is the product, and the path of growth is the channel.

A product that can meet customers' pain points and is sold through appropriate channels can complete a growth loop.

So how do we understand CRM? The essence of growth is to encourage customers to continuously purchase and renew their products through scientific and effective methods.

One of the key points is "customer".

Throughout the product sales process, the concept of effectively managing customers is essential.

When the visitor and customer information obtained by the product through online or offline channels is finally deposited in similar lead management and customer management systems, it will continue to bring new profits to the company through refined operations in the later stage.

Therefore, the "CRM" in the formula here expresses more of a customer management idea, rather than being narrowly understood as just a customer management system.

For this formula, I tried to use the growth flywheel diagram to expand it in specific layers.

It is mainly divided into three layers: product services, operation channels, and customer management.

1. Product Services

ToB product services usually include vertical user scenarios and industry solutions.

When most customers in this field come looking for solutions with the purpose of solving their own problems, if you can meet their needs, it means that your product has a high PMF level and has the prerequisites for growth.

ToB products have higher requirements for customer value because customers have long purchasing decision cycles and high expectations, and they hope that the explicit value of reducing costs and increasing efficiency for the company will be more prominent.

Therefore, if your product design is in line with market customer needs, growth is inevitable.

2. Operation channels

Channels allow customers to access products and are the key to the successful monetization of products.

Usually when we operate products, we mainly use two channels: online and offline.

Online channels mainly include online official website access, event operation, advertising placement and SEO keyword guidance.

Offline sales are mainly through BD expansion, conversion of the company's own channel resources, referrals, etc.

3. Customer Management

For ToB companies, customer information is the most valuable asset.

Only with customers can a company survive, so how to manage customer resources and how to do a good job in customer operations are the most important things a company should do well, which is even more important than human resource management, project management, asset management, etc.

The awareness of customer management has gradually emerged in the market. Take the CRM system as an example. From the initial simple sales management tool, after a long period of gradual evolution of customer operation needs, it has differentiated into various CRM types.

Among them, SCRM is a typical product case of changing from passive management to active customer acquisition.

III. Growth Process Methodology

1. Product Services

The process of To B product and service design usually also includes market research, demand analysis, business analysis, pain point insight, solution design, pricing design, marketing strategy and other general product work processes.

However, compared with To C, To B product design with growth demands requires a more systematic commercial thinking.

Everything needs to be considered, from the initial understanding of the market and customer pain points to product design and promotion operations.

At the same time, because To B products involve more customers and decision-makers, comprehensive considerations are also needed in product pricing design.

The key to increasing business revenue is to encourage customers to pay and place orders. Referring to the Fogg behavior model, the completion of customer payment behavior requires motivation, ability, and triggers.

Here, the motivation for the customer's payment behavior is the customer's pain points, the ability is the customer's efficient procurement process and sufficient budget cost, and the trigger point is product pricing and marketing strategy.

Therefore, a good pricing model is crucial.

For example, based on the product usage scenario, it can be sold by usage, user or number of times.

Depending on the market, supply and demand, and competitive information, traffic can be attracted at a high or low price.

According to product cost and gross profit margin requirements, linear pricing, tiered pricing, etc. can be used.

2. Operation channels

It can be roughly divided into online channels and offline channels.

The online channel utilizes the idea of ​​online product operation, obtains natural traffic through SEO, obtains self-promotion traffic through content/activity operation and advertising, and promotes conversion through product strategies in the later stage.

The customers obtained through advertising are more accurate, but the ROI>1 is required.

As far as product operations are concerned, online channels are the place where value can be best reflected.

There are many ways to operate, and during the growth process, low-cost attempts are usually made, so the development cycle is short and verification is fast.

For example, customer perception can be enhanced through online official website structure optimization and brand design.

Attract customers to retain information through attractive activities and deposit customer information into the CRM system.

Regarding online operations, I have also summarized the methodology of online operations growth based on the work process and the ideas of the AARRR model, focusing on the customer life cycle, for reference:

For offline channels, the business team can form a lightweight, professional and efficient business and sales team.

Professional teams are usually those that have experience in related fields and can clearly understand the industry rules and mainstream customer needs in pre-sales and sales. Therefore, it is easier for them to meet customer needs, win bids, and have a higher conversion rate for leads.

In addition, you can also participate in industry forums for product sharing, local promotion, etc.

At this time, you can refer to the idea of ​​SCRM, establish similar channel active codes to obtain customer information in a timely manner and then switch to private domain operations.

3. Customer Management

CRM is not only the construction of a business system, but also a set of sales management ideas for business.

For example, "transferring good leads to good sales" is a lead management idea, and it is also a lead transfer strategy designed by the CRM system.

Specifically, the CRM system can be large or small, and can be as small as a lead management background to complete the closed loop of the entire customer life cycle.

If the business is complex, it can be more systematic, with leads, business opportunities, projects, contracts, order collections, etc. all built up, depending on the business volume, customer type, and team resources.

4. Final summary

Generally speaking, the core ideas of the entire growth idea have three layers:

1. Product service layer: Develop products, services or solutions that meet the needs of market customers, gain more customer attention and paid conversions, and manage customer needs and feed them back into product design to complete a simple growth closed loop;
2. Operation channel layer: Through the continuous improvement of product and service design, the matching degree between products and the market will become higher and higher. Then, through product operation and sales expansion, good products will be promoted and publicized to increase product exposure and popularity, thus completing the preliminary preparations for rapid growth;
3. Customer management layer: Customer information obtained through online operations and offline expansion is deposited into the CRM system. Combined with the company's own sales management methods, leads are cultivated, refined, converted and revisited to maximize the value of leads.

Any theory is usually easy to understand, but when it comes to its implementation it requires long-term preparation step by step.

If the overall three-level work content can be completed, the To B business will have the foundation and conditions for sustainable growth.

Author: Wang Shu

Source: Product Department Representative