The Strategic (Ab)Use Of Data
Lip Service?
Definitely - if you observe the behaviour of sales staff at most retail stores, and even customer-contact staff working in professional practices.
A Guaranteed Sale - And Yet Nobody Took My Name …
About 9 months ago we were the victims of a break-in. Fortunately all that was taken was our music centre and the video recorder.
I visited several shops to compare prices / models - making all of them aware that I was looking for insurance quotes to replace several electronic items. This meant essentially a guaranteed sale for at least one shop.
While I was in the shops, I also looked at the digital cameras they had on offer. I spent up to 40 minutes discussing what products I intended to purchase within the next couple of weeks.
Perhaps because I am involved database marketing, I noticed something interesting. Not a single sales person took my name!
Without my name and contact details, they were entirely dependant on me deciding which one I would place my order with. They did nothing to increase their chances of getting a guaranteed sale.
Professional Services Also Need A Sales Tune-up
A similar poor-sales incident occurred when my wife Gill went shopping for sunglasses - firstly for herself, and then later on for our son.
She did not go to her optician - she has no relationship with her ( the practice sends out reminders every 2 years - which is way too long a period between contacts).
Instead, Gill went to a convenient practice in our local shopping mall, where she received excellent service - so much so that she went back s few weeks later to buy our son his sunglasses.
Two separate occasions, and not once did they ask her name, nor did they take down her contact details. As sunglasses are not regarded as prescription glasses, they treat the transaction as a cash sale - which means they capture none of your contact or personal details. What makes this really silly is that the company is currently spending a small fortune on prime time TV advertising to attract new business - and yet when they get it, they do nothing to establish a relationship!
Now the classic is - I wear glasses, and need a new pair. However - the friendly practice didn’t ask the highly relevant question of who wears glasses in the family (actually all 3 of us!), and obviously more importantly, are we interested in receiving regular offers via the mail. This was a serious back-end / recurring sales opportunity that was totally missed by the optometrist.
Make It You Mission To Collect Contact Details
Having worked in database marketing for over 10 years, it never ceases to amaze me how poor many companies are at collecting the most basic of customer information. Most offline businesses could learn a few lessons from online marketers, who often give away products just to get people to join their mailing lists.
These offline marketers are not aware of the modern marketing realities- they do not appear to realise how many hundreds of marketing messages are being beamed at their prospects and customers each and every day.
When they fail to get prospects’ contact details, they are setting themselves up for failure - as they are unable to use systematic processes to regularly ‘romance’ the prospect into becoming a customer, and to continue to provide value to their customers to lock in their customer loyalty.
Before You Waste Any Money On Systems …
Many offline business spend a small fortune on setting up CRM systems.
This is a total waste of time if staff don’t take the time to ask a person’s name, or if silly rules apply, such as you only need to capture the details of certain categories of clients. Its also useless to send out a single marketing communication to each customer - in the form of a reminder - once every 2 years. By that time, you are a very dim and distant memory.
Before you spend any more money on marketing / CRM software, give some thought to your overall sales and marketing processes - including the non-technical components and resources.
Start revising your process and policies - create a culture in your organisation where customer data is seen as the vital business asset it can become. Encourage and incentivise all your staff to become avid collectors of prospect and customer information.
Get Started On The Customer Harvest …
Once you have a decent contact list, you will find you have a tireless strategic asset.
You can start weaving some direct response magic to first convert prospects into customers, and then systematically work on your one-off customers to build a list of loyal, high repeat / high-value customers …..
