Sometimes it’s OK to ask: “What can your customer do for you?”
It’s a mad world out there. I’m sure that you would agree that through this recession, your sales department should be exhausting the obvious paths of least resistance to get customers into the buying process. But if it’s so obvious, why are the majority of businesses scratching their heads when it comes to the most obvious cache of most-likely buyers?
In their recent study “Routes to Revenue” the Palo Alto, CA.-based CMO Council cited that: “Despite a depressed global economy, a surprising 76 % of senior marketers believe they are not realizing the full revenue potential of their current customers. In addition, less than half said they have good insights into existing customer retention, profitability and lifetime value.”
Sponsored by Ricoh/IBM InfoPrint Solutions Company, the comprehensive report survived 650 international senior marketers during 2008. It revealed that initiating more relevant and personal forms of communications, as well as more targeted and timely action was among the top strategies for higher revenue and profitability for existing customers. Other strategies included pursuing under-penetrated market segments and finding ways to up-sell and cross-sell existing accounts.
The CMO Council study highlighted three key obstacles for not optimizing the full potential and long term value of existing customers:
- Lack of real-time data and analytics that captures insights from across all customer touch points.
- Information not only being selectively gathered, but often inaccurate or incomplete.
- Data being siloed and restricted in its availability and use across the organization.
“It is inexplicable that the vast majority of marketers are still struggling to source and extract meaningful insights from customer data at a behavioral, transactional and account value level,” said CMO Council Executive Director Donovan Neale-May. “Marketing must assert its role as the owner of both customer experience and information, and apply this to devising growth strategies that leverage better knowledge of customer opportunity and potential.”
When it comes to acquiring new business, the study showed that global marketers have a much broader and more comprehensive set of strategies. The top five include:
- Testing and launching new products aimed at specific market segments
- Establishing new partnerships and revenue-sharing agreements
- Stepping up demand generation and customer acquisition programs
- Expanding geographical presence and intensifying international focus
- Ramping up eCommerce and customer-direct communications
40 % of the surveyed companies stated that they were reducing head count, overhead and/or budgets to improve top-line and bottom line performance. 38% planned to automate complex and costly processes. 31% planned to outsource more services and 28% planned to reformulate products or minimizing packaging to contain cost.
Today’s marketers are seeking more efficiency and effectiveness. Almost 64% of CMO Council survey respondents said they were evaluating all areas of marketing spending to increase yield and accountability. Primary areas of focus included:
- Bringing more discipline and rigor to marketing budgeting and spend
- Leveraging existing resources within the organization to enhance customer communications
- Exploring new customized communications technologies
- Moving more marketing investments to Internet and mobile channels
- Improving behavioral targeting of advertising and online marketing campaigns
- Driving adoption and use of CRM and sales automation applications
“There’s a big shift to more individualized delivery of marketing messages,” noted Sandra Zoratti, VP of Strategic Business Development and Transformation for Ricoh/IBM InfoPrint, “The Routes to Revenue” findings clearly underscore the value of more personalized offers and interactions across all customer touch points, particularly regular monthly communications, such as statements and invoices.”
According to nearly 60 % of “Routes to Revenue” respondents, introducing better segmentation, profiling and targeting strategies topped the list of ways companies are trying to better engage core audiences. Other initiatives included:
- Adding or improving database marketing systems
- Acquiring new customer and market analytics capabilities
- Personalizing multi-channel communications and customer touch points
- Individualizing print, email, text messaging, call center or web interactions
- Building online customer communities and interactive channels
- Capturing more customer information via the web and at point-of-sale
More information on the Routes to Revenue study can be sourced from the CMO Council web site at http://www.cmocouncil.org/index.asp.
Recent Comments