TURNING PROSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE
MARKETING AS A KEY PART OF EVERYTHING YOU DO
Marketing is much more than the message we proactively communicate to our prospective customers. To be successful, marketing must impact all aspects of our business. From the time a prospect first learns about your company all the way through to the time they have had a positive experience as a customer who is now referring your business to friends and colleagues, your marketing is making an impact.
TRACK is a five part methodology which will help you think about marketing as a strategic part of your small business. The assumption is that you have given some thought to what your business offers and now you're trying to find customers. You understand your promise and you're ready to deliver - now let's find some customers!
TARGET - It all starts with the target. There are two primary targets we focus on. One is the financial and marketing targets necessary to grow the business. The other target is the customer.
Financial & Marketing Goals: These target numbers are our quantitative way to measure success. We define up front what we think we need to do and then we adjust our figures based on the real world experiences we have. We set sales figures, gross margins, net profit, and new customer goals. We may have specific goals for individual marketing campaigns (such as 10 new clients or 5% inquiry rate).
We recommend focusing on absolute financial goals rather than percentage response to direct marketing efforts. Return on investment based on the contribution of new customers makes a lot more sense than an artificial percent goal. Anyone can get you a higher response as a simple inquiry percentage by making the offer incredibly attractive. Give away a FREE car to every 5th person who calls to inquire - you WILL get a higher response rate. Of course the response of people who ultimately buy from you will still be low and in fact you may waste your sales time with poor leads.
Some people focus on qualitative goals - "to get our name out" for example. While these may be easier to justify (since you will never know if you failed), they rarely make sense from the stand point of learning what is working and what is not. While any one campaign may not pay for itself, it still pays to know what you are getting from each effort. In fact, we may repeat some marketing campaigns or efforts (such as a trade show) that did not pay for itself directly because we know that over time everything contributes and the potential sales are still well worth specific marketing efforts. There is also a long lead time for some people and other times we have no idea where the prospect heard of us.
Customer: You should understand your customer in every way. The obvious demographics such as age, income, job title, geographic location all paint a picture of who your ideal customer is. Psychographics get into the mind of this person. You can start to look at the world from their unique perspective. Think about the problems they experience - the opportunities to bring something positive to their life. First pretend you are meeting your customer at a party - ask them all about their life and what motivates them. Over time, you should ideally have real face to face conversations with typical customers to hear first hand what they have to say. Get to know your target as well as you get to know your friends. Ask lots of questions and listen carefully as they share their view of the world - their hopes, dreams, needs, frustrations, joys, etc. These are the things your business will be able to respond to and in turn, become their favorite business. Think about your favorite businesses - don't you have the feeling that they understand what you want and expect from them? They seem to care about you - and in fact, if they are successful, they DO care about you and your needs. They ask for your opinions and they listen when you talk.
REACH - once we have defined target goals and a clear understanding of who our target customer is, we enter the reach phase. Reach covers how we will physically reach our target customers as well as what messages and images will resonate in the mind of the prospect. Reach starts with getting their attention. We put a lot of focus on headlines and images that will grab their attention. We try to be relevant to their point of view and speak to things that will motivate them to read on.
In addition to the defined marketing campaigns that serve to reach new customers, you reach current customers every day by the way you deliver on your promise. Your entire operation is a form of reach - are you reaching your customer's heart by the way you deliver every time you have an interaction with them? Your operations must live up to the marketing promises you make, or you will have one shot customers who will never refer you to their friends.
ACTION - What do you want to happen once you've reached a prospect or current customer? What do you want them to do to take the relationship to the next level? Action are those things your prospects and customers are asked to do, as well as actions that your business will take with or without their response. The prospect to client action path is the clearly defined steps that should occur for each new customer. It may start with a phone, fax, email, or business reply card inquiry. It could then involve a next step such as sending out more information. For some products that may be more involved, it is unlikely that someone will receive a post card for example and make a purchase. You may have 3 steps - reach prospect with direct mail, prospect calls phone number for free consultation visit, and report is provided to prospect highlighting how your business will solve a problem.
If the prospect does not take any action after a predefined set of actions on your part, you may define an action plan that your business will take. It could be a follow-up phone call or removal from your database, or a final notice stating that they will not hear from you again unless they state their potential interest now.
Are you easy to buy from? Analyze the process of buying from you - think from the perspective of the prospect. Try to go undercover and inquire into your business from the outside. Are you easily lead through the process or is it disjointed and confusing what steps come next in the process.
CLOSURE - Once an action step is taken by your prospect, you are in a good position to try to close the sale. If the marketing is well targeted and reached the right people, the closure of the sale should be relatively straight forward. You are helping the prospect solve the problem that has been clearly promised in your marketing efforts. The sales closure should be the process where you finalize the details of your offer and review the specifics needed to fulfill the promise. Your sales efforts should be very familiar with the marketing messages and the promise of your brand. Sales should have the benefit of knowing about any response information that was provided by the prospect during the action stage. If they filled out a web inquiry form and they took the time to write a little about their situation and needs, the sales person should clearly review what they know and understand about the prospect's world so that there is not a sense of starting over. This is your chance to show that you understand the prospect and can help right away. There are just a few details we need to confirm - but otherwise, we're ready to deliver on our promise now!
Closure also includes the successful delivery of your promise. If you don't deliver what you said you would deliver, you are not likely to have a successful new customer. Of course, look for any opportunities to over deliver on any promise. For example, "we committed to a delivery of 4 weeks, but we're able to deliver in 3".
KEEP - Keep includes up selling as well as cross selling and referrals. The best prospects for new business, are current customers - assuming there is a future need or additional service you can deliver. What else can you do for your current customers? Getting a relationship with someone is hard enough - offering new products to satisfy other needs is a relatively easy way to maximize the relationships you have. An active referral program is a helpful way to encourage referrals and make it clear to current customers that you will reward them for sharing the good word about your business. You can also help make customers feel part of the in crowd by communicating them via newsletters - delivered via email or US mail. Use your web site to keep current customers informed and in the loop with your business. One of the worst things you can hear is "I didn't know you did that! I just bought that from another company - I would have used you if I had known". What can you communicate to your customers (friends of the company) and prospects that tells them more about what you can do for them. The communications are obviously on your company - but the primary focus and point of view should ideally be from the perspective of the reader. We all receive far too much marketing messages every day - tell them things they need/want/desire to know. Business will follow as you develop the relationship naturally over time. You may become an expert in your field and publish articles in a magazine read by your customers and prospects. This will keep you in front of them and establish your company as a leader in your field. Think about how can you keep your current customers in love with your company and get them to share the word with others?
To successfully use the TRACK methodology, you will refine each of the pieces over time as you learn what works and what doesn't for your unique business. You may find that they love to be reached via email or they hate the web. You may learn they like to take action over the phone or they prefer the web. Only you - in your exact business targeting your prospects will know what can work for sure most of the time. Even once you learn what works, you can assume that due to competitive factors and the environment, things will change. Therefore this is a constant process of fine tuning and if implemented over time, will result in turning more prospects into customers for life!
The prospect's information will be stored in a marketing database. You can update the database as prospects move through this cycle and become customers.
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