[Book Sales Industry × New Business Development Success Story] Breaking Away from Referral-Based Sales: How a Small E-book Publishing Service Company Built a Stable Approach System of 2,500 Contacts per Month

FUTUREWOODS Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Yuto Obama) has published a case study of Company J, which operates an e-book publishing service. By utilizing the B2B sales support tool 'FutureSearch', Company J successfully broke away from a referral-dependent sales structure and achieved stable generation of new business meetings.

[Full Case Study Article]
https://www.future-search.jp/guides/publishing-business-case-study

■ Sales Challenge: Growth Limitations of a Referral-Only Model
Company J is a small enterprise with a few employees based in the Kansai region. It provides support for brand building and visibility enhancement through book publishing for small business owners who leverage their 'individual expertise' such as lecturers and instructors. While customer satisfaction was high, creating touchpoints with new prospects was a long-standing challenge. Specifically, because the majority of orders relied on referrals from existing customers, the number of monthly meetings fluctuated significantly, making it difficult to establish a stable business plan. To overcome this, they considered DM approaches but lacked the know-how for collecting target lists and crafting effective copy, preventing them from taking the first step.

■ Implementation Background: Start Small, Gain Traction, Then Full-Scale Adoption
Amidst this, they learned about a sales method utilizing inquiry forms and decided to implement FutureSearch. Inquiry form sales is a method of delivering sales messages through forms on company websites, characterized by higher visibility to decision-makers and responsible parties and higher open rates compared to email. Company J started with the Basic Plan, which includes standard features. As the team became more proficient, the need for a larger-scale approach grew, leading them to upgrade to the Expansion Plan after about three months. This rapid expansion of their usage scope has allowed them to maintain stable operations for over a year since implementation.

■ Usage Method: Precisely Listing 'Business Owners with Book Publishing Needs'
Using FutureSearch's company search function, they extracted unlisted, small-to-medium-sized companies whose business descriptions include keywords like 'lecturer' and 'instructor'. Furthermore, by excluding competitors with exclusion words, they narrowed down the target to 'business owners who have not yet published a book and might be interested in increasing their visibility through publishing'. For distribution, they used the 'Continuous Distribution Stop Filter' to prevent duplicate sends within a specified period while conducting approximately 2,500 form sales approaches against the created list.

■ Implementation Results: Over 5.8% Unique Visit Rate, Stable Distribution of 2,500 per Month
Currently, Company J has achieved the following results: Monthly form sales distribution: approximately 2,500. Unique visit rate: over 5.8%. They have consistently maintained a rate above the average benchmark of around 5%, demonstrating that both the precision of target selection and the effectiveness of the messaging resonate well with business owners.

■ Summary: Moving Away from Personalized Sales and Achieving Stable New Lead Acquisition
Company J, which felt the limitations of a referral-dependent sales style, built a system for stable new approaches by implementing FutureSearch. The key to success was accurately verbalizing the target audience that would resonate with the proposition of 'increasing visibility through publishing' and reflecting this in the list, as well as creating continuous touchpoints through form sales. Companies facing challenges in building a stable prospect pool for new business development in book sales and publishing support services are encouraged to consider using FutureSearch.

[Full Case Study Article]
https://www.future-search.jp/guides/publishing-business-case-study

■ Free Online Consultation (Booking Page)
https://timerex.net/s/futurewoods-online-web-meeting/e6451292

'FutureSearch' is a B2B new appointment acquisition support tool that handles everything from creating sales lists to conducting inquiry form sales.
Service Details: https://www.future-search.jp

◆ Company Information
Company Name: FUTUREWOODS Co., Ltd.
Location: PLANEX813 Bldg. 3F, 1-8-13 Mukogaoka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Yuto Obama
Established: September 25, 2015
URL: https://www.futurewoods.co.jp
Business: Operation of DX support tool 'FutureSearch' for sales and marketing; operation of 'SalesRadar', a sales DX service for marketing departments; consulting and research support related to data analysis; planning, development, and support of other marketing solutions.

◆ Customer Inquiries
Contact Name: FUTUREWOODS Co., Ltd.
TEL: 03-3868-0517 (Weekdays 10:00 – 18:00)
E-mail: future-search.info@futurewoods.co.jp