- Google Search
The lowest-cost step in the background investigation and analysis of customers is to make full use of Google’s search instructions and flexible matching to search and mine customer information. The mined content is as follows:
Company name
Corporate official website
Company decision-maker name + company name
Company name + SNS site name or website
Company decision-maker name + SNS site name or website
The SNS site is mainly locked on Facebook and LinkedIn
Company name + B2B
Company name + Exhibition
Company name + Report
Company name + Import Date
Company name + export date
Company name filetype: doc, excel, pdf, all
2. The official website of the customer company
The official website of the customer company is a place that contains a lot of valuable information:
Some company official websites will also have a customer message comment section. Carefully look for comments related to your products, and you can roughly analyze what potential problems may exist with the current customer’s supplier, what improvement needs the current customer still has, and from which angle of the product will be more able to impress the customer. If you can provide a solution to the customer’s concerns in the subsequent follow-up communication with the customer, how can the customer not like you?
In the “About US” section of the company’s official website, you will learn about the past of this company, the culture they are proud of, such as focusing on quality and service, and their business philosophy, and some will also tell you that they are the largest XX company in a certain place.
From the official website of the company, you can also judge the nature of the customer company, such as whether it is a wholesaler, retailer, or online store. You will also have a rough idea of the approximate scale, such as some customers giving photos of the company’s office environment and employee team.
Most customers will put the products they operate on the company’s official website. Through the products, you can quickly determine whether the customer’s product category and target positioning are in line with you. If it is determined to be in line, further in-depth research.
3. Social media platforms
After obtaining the customer’s company name, you can further search for information through social media platforms such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, etc., and don’t let go of any possibility.
Especially Linkedin is quite nice for the background investigation and analysis of foreign trade customers!
You can search for the corresponding contact with the customer name, and then learn about his job situation in detail through his profile.
But if the other party is beyond the 3-degree network relationship range of your Linkedin account, then you will not be able to access his Linkedin personal homepage. Therefore, it is really very important to manage a good Linkedin account, continuously expand the Linkedin network, and increase the number of Linkedin friends.
You can also search for the Linkedin company homepage with the company name to view the entire organizational structure, employees, general profile, and upstream and downstream business partners of this company.
4. Google Street View + Maps
This is still a Google tool:
This doesn’t need much introduction, it is used to search for the customer’s location. If the customer has his own store, Google Maps will show the real scene, which will help you better understand the customer’s scale and strength.
5. Whois Domain Name/Website Age Investigation Tools
“whois” can analyze the historical changes of the customer’s domain name, and at the same time can query the phone number, address, email, domain name, duration, etc. of the domain name registrant, so as to judge the establishment time of the other company.
6. Web.Archive.org Internet Time Machine
This tool, like Wikipedia, is a non-profit organization, also known as the Internet Archive, which provides free storage of digital data. It can be used to analyze the historical changes of the homepage snapshot of the domain name, and determine the earliest online time and update frequency of the other company’s website. So as to judge when the customer is engaged in a certain industry, whether he has been engaged in a certain industry, and whether he has changed industries in the middle.
This tool is very powerful when combined with “whois”. “whois” can see the relevant information of the domain name registrant. Although the information of many domain name registrants has been protected by privacy and cannot be seen, we can also see the registration time and expiration time of the domain name, and judge the age and establishment years of the website.
7. Similarweb Foreign Domain Name IP Query
“similarweb” is a free online platform that provides website rankings and competitive data analysis. Users only need to enter relevant information to evaluate the popularity of the website, analyze the overall traffic of the domain name, and thereby determine the main market, traffic source, and which keywords are used by the other party.
8. Amfibi Check Company Basic Information
Understand the establishment time and scale of the buyer.
9. Email Reverse Search Tool
http://bbs.fobshanghai.com/checkemail.html
The lazy tool of FOB, enter the email, and click the corresponding search engine to obtain as much as possible the inquiry information and related company information that the customer has ever posted on the B2B platform, social platform, etc.
