Plagued by uncertainty over war, terrorism and other worries, companies continue to struggle in getting sales and revenue back on track. One way to accomplish this goal is to do better at bringing in new business.
This requires finding more customers and clients who fit the profile of current customers and clients. Doing that becomes simpler and more effective through the use of new profiling technology that lets companies analyze customers, identify important criteria and then determine how many new prospects exist in selected geographical areas that match the established criteria.
This technology saves companies time and money and lets them add clients/customers with some predictability. The technology analyzes a company’s customer base and searches for “like” customers, which in turn lets companies buy lists with less waste. It comes as close to cloning customers as one could imagine and gives hope to the struggle that often accompanies prospecting.
It’s not just the idea that is simple; it’s also the process. Once a company decides to use a customer analyzer and prospect builder tool, that company need only provide a list of telephone numbers from its existing customers. Those phone numbers are matched against a huge database that includes hundreds of millions of names.
After the match process, certain customer characteristics such as age and household income can be readily identified. A report is generated that provides a good picture of a customer profile. From there, it’s used as a guide to finding new prospects with the same characteristics.
Direct marketing … dollar for dollar. Though electronic media are omnipresent and highly effective, they are much less focused and not extremely cost-effective. It has been proven that dollar for dollar, a combination of direct mail and telemarketing will net the best results from a well-targeted audience, “well-targeted” being the key phrase. There is no good excuse today for failing to profile a target market. There are more than 70 demographic and lifestyle elements from which a customer can be profiled.
Consider a financial planner who wants to sell retirement plans to senior citizens in a particular region. As most marketers know, senior citizens are booming in the United States, making them a driving force in the economy. This refers especially to upscale seniors. These are America’s elite elders who control an impressive amount of discretionary funds. They might be buying new cars and condominiums or spending money.
Benefits of a finely tuned target market. By any direct marketer’s definition, a customer analyzer and prospect builder tool is cost-effective in that a company pays only for the names it chooses. Finally, from the time a company turns over its list of customer phone numbers, the typical turnaround to complete the analysis report is 24 hours. Easy to use, cost-effective and time-efficient – three benefits that are hard to ignore.
Small businesses need to get smart about how they spend their money, and technology is the quickest way to get there. They must at least be able to track the effectiveness of their marketing dollars. Finally, technology offers the best solution by virtually eliminating waste from customer lists.
Access to this technology saves endless time and money and is effective in driving a business to higher sales conversion rates and increased revenue. It also helps make the salesperson’s job easier. Finally, it’s possible to actually find the needle in the haystack. The sooner companies become aware of it, the better off they’ll be. n
