|
|
| |
| « back
to Articles |
Boston
Business Journal, February 24, 2003
Even small businesses can benefit from marketing systems
Barbara
Bix and Melissa Josephson
Small companies that implement marketing systems to identify their best prospects
can dramatically increase revenue and reduce the time and cost of their sales
cycles. "Best prospects" are those companies that need what you are selling the
most, are ready to buy immediately and will pay top dollar.
Who needs what you're selling?
It takes a good system to pinpoint your best prospects. Companies can learn a
lot about their best prospects by looking at the information they have about
their customers from different perspectives. If you don't already have a customer
database, this is a good time to implement one for both sales analysis and lead
tracking.
Start by creating a process for capturing and analyzing data about prospects
and customers, such as length of sales cycle, industry, company size, revenue,
referral source, products purchased, price paid and services. Then you can slice
and dice the data on a regular basis, noting trends, natural groupings and patterns.
Take a hard look at current customers' buying patterns and characteristics, and
create a "best customer" profile.
Creating a best-prospect profile can yield immediate results. For example, after
reviewing its sales data, a financial consulting firm realized that it could
easily boost revenue by concentrating on larger companies. Although they required
the same amount of time to sell and provide service as smaller companies, the
larger companies were willing to pay more.
A litigation firm used similar techniques to streamline its marketing and operating
costs and increase its margins. The partner realized that if he specialized in
divorce, he could concentrate all of his marketing efforts on families and the
professionals who serve them, such as therapists and educators. Moreover, he
could now try all of his cases in a single court with a finite number of judges.
Knowing in advance who would hear the case greatly reduced the time it took him
to prepare his cases.
What are the similarities and differences among your customers? Which customers
are the most profitable to you? Are there certain customer segments that need
your products and services more than others—and would be willing to pay
a premium? Which customers have the shortest sales cycles? Which are easiest
to serve?
Once you pinpoint your best prospects, you can concentrate all of your firepower
where it will have the greatest impact.
Not everyone who has a need buys right away. Enhance your best customer profile
by understanding why some firms make purchases sooner than others do.
Look for "trigger" events that cause your customers to buy sooner. These can
be general phenomena, such as changes in legislation, or events that affect just
one company. A company's relocation drives the need for commercial real estate
agents, moving firms, furniture dealers and computer vendors. A company's product
launch creates demand for services from public relations firms, graphic designers
and printers.
What are the trigger events that cause your clients to accelerate their buying
processes? Always ask prospective customers how long they have needed your company's
products and services, and why they bought when they did.
Many small businesses offer a main product or service and charge a uniform rate
to all customers. A business owner of a small software company observed that
she was getting more calls from financial services firms and that they were making
quicker buying decisions than her other clients. She took this increased demand
as a signal to differentiate her offerings and raise her prices. She was able
to increase her margins and retain her customers.
Sometimes differences in buying patterns are more subtle and less obvious. This
is where marketing systems can provide a distinct competitive advantage. Businesses
that analyze their customers and the buying behaviors of those customers on a
regular basis often pick up early indicators that some prospects are better than
others, even before their salespeople bring it to their attention.
Demystifying marketing
Many companies think of marketing as the packaging, promotion, pricing
and distribution programs that happen at the back end of the sales process.
While these functions are important, usually the most significant contributions
that marketers can make are at the front end. By setting up systems that
help you figure out whom to sell to in the first place, marketers can help
companies quickly recognize such benefits as more sales, higher-revenue
sales—and, by extension, greater sales productivity.
Marketing systems that make it easier to identify your best prospects can help
your company take that essential first step to the successful selling of your
products and services.
|
| Sign
up now to receive
free articles on
ways you can accelerate revenues. Or, schedule a free
consultation to determine the
single most effective action that you can take now and
accelerate
revenue right away. |
|
|
 |
| |
|
|
| I
needed to find and evaluate specific information
very quickly. Using her extensive contacts
and knowledge of industry information sources,
Barbara was able to get me everything I needed
and more within just a few days." |
Thomas
Grape
Managing Director
ADS Senior Housing Division. |
|
|
| |
|
|
