This thesis was created for the case companies called Luxus Worldwide and ID BBN, which are currently undergoing company merger. The purpose of this thesis is to research the sales practices of the two companies prior to the merger and then develop a new joint approach. This thesis' aim is to answer the research question: what are the optimal sales practices for the company after the merger.
The essential part of the thesis is also to know the case companies in this thesis and their background.
Purpose of the thesis and the research question
The case companies Luxus Worldwide and ID BBN are one of the pioneers in marketing. Luxus Worldwide and ID BBN have developed their own prospecting plans to gain new clients on their portfolio, which will be introduced in this thesis. The aim is to propose the most optimal practice for the new company after the merger process that the case companies go through.
While they are in the same industry, the target customers are similar between these case companies and the focus point in this thesis is to investigate what are the important actions to take in order to turn prospects into customers.
Thesis framework
The company introduction will provide background on the case companies, Luxus Worldwide and ID BBN. The second chapter focuses on the company merger, which is the process that the case companies are currently going through. This chapter introduces the theory behind company merger, description of the collaboration of Luxus Worldwide and ID BBN and the reasoning behind the decided merger.
This chapter focuses on the background of the case companies, Luxus Worldwide and ID BBN.
Case company background: Luxus Worldwide
Client prospecting and customer journey – Luxus Worldwide
The partner introduces the company to the prospect and performs the preliminary screening of the prospect's needs, regardless of whether Luxus Worldwide's offer fits it. The main channel for the inbound marketing is the professional blog visible on the company website and promoted across social media accounts with direct links to the sales team. After the first stage from the flows, the prospectus will be offered with the first meeting, where the introduction of the company will be given with Luxus' offer and customer references.
The aim of this first meeting is to obtain a clear vision of possible development needs or new project needs from a perspective and decide on further discussions.
Client portfolio – Luxus Worldwide
Partnerships
Luxus Worldwide also partners with multiple global technology companies, such as Amazon AWS, Dell and Adobe. As a partner of global business technology companies, Luxus Worldwide can provide the services and advice to customers to choose the most suitable technology solution for them and set up the chosen solution, as well as continue the technology support and provide the further development .
Case Company background: ID BBN
Client prospecting and customer journey – ID BBN
There are five different prospecting groups: personal contacts, non-personal contacts reached by third parties, and contacts that come from inbound marketing. After the prospect has been contacted and shown interest in the company's offerings, the first meeting takes place. In between meetings, the prospect is nurtured through emails and given the opportunity to subscribe to the ID BBN newsletter, which showcases the interesting topics about their industry.
Client portfolio – ID BBN
Partnerships
Co-operation between Luxus Worldwide and ID BBN
The first official collaboration project was carried out for the world leader in air travel, a software company called Amadeus. The aim of the project was to renew the entire ecosystem worldwide, from backend to frontend development. The project for Amadeus took 9 months and had grown into an end-to-end project from project planning to executing the plan and building a three-year roadmap for Amadeus.
This project had the elements that can be seen in the future of these two companies, as there were particles in the mentioned projects that neither company might have been able to fully on their own due to the size and requirements of project. After a successfully delivered project, Luxus Worldwide and ID BBN continued to work closely together in several projects, which has convinced both parties that merging the companies would be an optimal option for the future.
Product-extension merger
Description of the fusion for these companies
It is important to understand the sales practices that were in place before the merger process began. Customer acquisition and approach varied and knowledge base information on ways that worked better than others is valuable. The practices will be clearly presented and will support the final research, where the focus is on finding optimal and working practices based on the research material.
Prospect groups
B2B Marketing Activities
Cross-selling
Up-selling
Client Journey Map
Touchpoints or pre-first contact actions are about how the customer interacts with the company's available information and how the company can be found as a solution to the problem the customer is facing.
Search categorization
Inbound marketing
Clarity in offering
Research design
Qualitative research
Quantitative research
Mixed-method research: Survey
Mixed-method survey has ensured that the research results can be analyzed numerically as well as have the "how" answers. The survey contained 14 questions, of which eight questions were numerical or quantitative and six questions were open questions, the qualitative part. The survey questions were based on the theories presented earlier in this thesis about the preferred and best selling practices in B2B sales.
The participants work in the following companies: MetsäGroup, Veikkaus, Wärtsilä, Luxus Worldwide, ID BBN, Apetit, Agco Group and GE. What do you find the most useful or valuable materials to consider for a possible collaboration/purchase decision. If you answered yes, did it support or have an effect on your decision to consider working with that company.
Do previous or current customers of companies (customer portfolio) influence your purchase/collaboration decision? If you have a known problem or area of development, how do you research the service providers. What is your preferred way to be contacted to propose an introductory meeting for a possible collaboration.
What information or materials should you receive before the first introductory meeting. What was your reason for declining an invitation to a meeting with a potential service provider.
Survey result analysis
Meeting themed questions
The research also collected the results of desired content before and after the meeting, as well as an important stage in the customer journey, which is establishing contact with a potential customer. The question was composed in such a way that the participant had to decide whether they wanted to be contacted by a representative of the company with whom they could meet, or a person from a third party-company, and 100% of the participants preferred the company to establish contact with meeting, instead of with a third party. Before entering the first presentation meeting, it seems essential that the buyer receives materials and information about the company with which he will have a meeting.
Most of the survey participants replied that especially the information about the company and information about the services they provide is an essential basis for the introductory meeting. Asked as a follow-up question in the survey that what might have been a reason for the participant to decline the invitation to the meeting and the answers resonate with the answers to the previous question as the most popular answer to this open question was that they don't know enough about the company or that the company didn't send the materials before the meeting. A popular answer was also that if the meeting agenda is vague or incomprehensible, the invitation to the meeting has been declined.
The purpose of the final question was to find out what content the person in the buyer role wants to receive after the meeting. All the participants in the survey answered that they wanted the presentation presented in the meeting.
Conclusion of the survey results
Reliability and validity of the survey
If the survey results match the real situations or theories, the survey has high validity. The survey was sent out to participants who are personally known by the author with a relevant position and who were a B2B customer at some point.
Empirical study
Combined development suggestions for sales practices
Client groups
According to the survey conducted, it is not an optimal practice to create leads, as 100% of the respondents answered that they prefer to have the first contact from the company. This should be taken into account when considering new ways to approach the prospect, as it can already send a negative tone to the prospect.
Marketing materials and activities supporting sales
The introduction meeting
When a clear agenda is drawn up, both parties are able to better prepare for the meeting in their own terms and could already think of points to present or discuss in the said meeting. Most of the participants in the survey said that the prices and a customized proposal would be optimal to receive after the meeting. The aim of this thesis was to find out the most optimal practices to support new business sales in the merging companies.
By combining the three factors in this thesis (sales as separate companies, research results and presented theories), the results of optimal sales practices were determined and presented in the thesis. More research into the background of the companies and the merger was an essential part of the thesis, as both companies carried out huge projects with companies, so it was important to find out how the companies went about acquiring customers. to close their big companies. From the beginning of the study, it was clear that the companies had similarities in their activities and materials, but it was necessary to select the most optimal ones and examine whether the practices were optimal to propose.
Mixed method research was key to suggesting sales practices, as the strictly targeted group was able to provide the knowledge needed for suggestions and the results were similar within each other, which made it possible to support the theories presented in this thesis.
