Developing new business strategies in B2B markets by combining CRM concepts and online databases

This paper illustrates how online databases, available from commercial vendors, can be used as the foundation for developing new business strategies. Emphasis is placed on the use of customer relationship management (CRM) ideas to identify new prospective customers for a high‐tech B2B firm. Specifically, the concept of customer lifetime value was used to evaluate current customers and match their profiles with the profiles of new prospects from the database. Once high‐quality new prospects were identified and prioritized, the company’s salesforce had a much clearer path to follow towards success. The paper contributes to the competitive strategy literature by documenting the successful use of a CRM approach to develop marketing strategies and tactics for a B2B firm that is seeking growth by acquiring new customers.