Connecting the Dots: Turning Customer Acquisition Analytics and Data into Market Wisdom and Actionable Market Intelligence
InfoManagement Direct, August 2007
As a trusted adviser and partner to our clients, we commit to provide solutions that create wisdom from data. Wisdom is evidence-based, factual, experiential, timeless, truthful, selfless and insightful. The greatest challenge facing businesses in the 21st century is to identify usable methodologies (systems and people) which deliver wisdom, then translating that wisdom into action.
Just like a customer relationship management (CRM) solution is only as good as the data that goes into it, a sales lead is only as good as the wisdom behind it. If the contact information is not connected to a deeper level of information - such as what the market is thinking about, their needs and pains, the influences on their buying decisions, their purchasing patterns and schedules, and their decision-making chain - then you might as well be cold-calling or randomly selecting a name from a purchased list. The odds are slim to none that your message or product will resonate. You may not even be connected with the right person within the organization that influences or makes the buying decision, and you are totally reliant on meeting the statistical average of contacts before you stumble upon a halfway decent prospect.
Targeting your market with accurate data and verified intelligence can significantly improve your lead quality. Outreach to prospects becomes more effective at hitting their pain points, and you start reaching them precisely when they are ready to buy. Your message resonates in a way that they feel you know exactly what their needs are. At the very least, you are empowered with marketing and sales intelligence that can result in an exponentially better set of outreach programs and buyer contact strategies.
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If the intelligence is integrated into the marketing strategy, your customer acquisition results are guaranteed to steadily climb upward. It is critical for companies to realize that garnering market wisdom from data is not a feat that is accomplished in the short-term, but requires a long-term commitment and steady discipline.
Unfortunately, it is a common mistake for companies to suspend a lead-generation project early in its lifecycle because leads are not resulting in sales. Nine times out of ten, the reason that leads are not closing is because the message is wrong and/or the market has shifted. A performance-based outsourcer will not supply leads that don't comply with the predefined set of standards defined early in the engagement as a qualified lead. The most detrimental move at this point is to ignore what your market is telling you, because it is the exact point when you have your finger on the pulse of the market with the clearest idea of what barriers are effecting the conversion of leads to sales. When the message is not resonating, that is the point where an effective program would go into "overdrive" to unearth what the problem is. While this discovery process may take time and money, we have found that it is often the best investment our clients can make.
On the most fundamental level, if you want to know what's going on in the marketplace, just ask. To identify who is most likely to purchase your product or service, you need to talk to three groups: those who purchased your product, those who purchased from a competitor and those who did not make a purchase. Talk to your customers. Get opinions from prospects, both in the pipeline looking to make a purchase and those that purchased from a competitor or decided not to buy. Listen carefully to what they say and notice what they hold back. Leave your assumptions at the door, and hear their stories with fresh ears. Then implement relevant feedback into every level of the product or service.
What Customers Can Tell You
Customer feedback gives a rare opportunity to identify trends and translate them into pragmatic usage and best practices. For example, ask them what their experience in the market is, and how they view your client and the competition. Other questions might include:
- What made your product appealing to them as a buyer?
- What persuaded them to make the final buying decision in favor of your product?
- What dissuaded them against the competition?
- At what point in their purchasing cycle are they most likely to make a decision?
- Did the salesperson have the right training and information to provide adequate product knowledge and key differentiators?
What Prospects Can Tell You
Instead of just contacting the prospect periodically to test their interest level, take the time to form a much deeper dialog. The stronger relationship will allow you to drill down deep enough to mine precious data. Just by asking the right questions, you will uncover surprising pieces of intelligence.
In one case, senior-level management of a major technology provider assumed that they made the short list of vendors for most of their qualified prospects. Through close observation, however, it was determined that they were only considered by less than 25 percent of their prospects and made the short list in only 30 percent of the opportunities. They were, in fact, shot out of the market 92.5 percent of the time.
To validate our preliminary findings, the technology provider outsourced a survey initiative to develop intelligence on what factors cost them the sale. Prospects were asked:
- When you think of our product, which vendor comes to mind first?
- Who do you feel is the strongest vendor in the marketplace?
- If you take price out of the equation, now who do you feel is strongest?
Turning Data into Wisdom
Information becomes usable, relevant knowledge at the point in the sample where redundancy of answers indicate the sample size is sufficient. In response to the third question, "If you take price out of the equation, now who do you feel is strongest?", prospects collectively replied, "You are the strongest vendor in the marketplace until price enters the equation." The follow-up question to the prospect was, "What would it take for you to move from your preferred vendor to us?" Answers revealed that price was the single determining factor.
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