45. interviewing customers for articlesWhat information do they need to take the outsourcing decision and when? Check out what’s available in industry research – for instance, from industry journals, on-line communities of interest, blogs, Facebook
48. 1. Who are those most loyal customers, those most interested in those service values that best differentiate Cybage from its competitors? 2. What differentiates them from the mass of customers?
49. NEED CLUSTERS How many customers cluster into groups that care about each of various combinations of those needs?
50. Is there a relationship between needs and firmographics?
51. Step 5: Grade customers within each segment Revenue/LTV Time period
52. Segment Map The size of bubble represents the number of leads
53. Step 6: Validate your Segmentation Model and your Hypotheses Hypotheses: “Quick response, combined with a limited number of face-to-face visits, supported by telephone support for the account management combined with greater use of electronic media for information summary are top priorities for our customers in the E-commerce domain in the northeast US with annual sales volumes of $50-$150 million.”
A common approach in business-to-business markets is to apply a segmentation based on company size. The consumption levels of business-to-business customers are so widely different that this often makes sense due to large companies usually thinking and acting differently to small ones. A further sophistication may be to classify customers into those who are identified as strategic to the future of the business, those who are important and therefore key and those who are smaller and can be considered more of a transactional typology.These ‘firmographic’ segmentations in business-to-business markets are perfectly reasonable and may suffice. However, they do not offer that sustainable competitive advantage that competitors cannot copy. A more challenging segmentation is one based on behaviour or needs. Certainly large companies may be of key or strategic value to a business but some want a low cost offer stripped bare of all services while others are demanding in every way. If both are treated the same, one or both will feel unfulfilled in some way and be vulnerable to the charms of the competition.
instantly multiply their sales lead generation pool
Effort=no. of employes*salaryEffectiveness=hit ratio= positives/tot numberValue generated=money generated-money spent
But keep in mind that unless you also have a mechanism of getting all this information into your database, no single person – even the individual at the top – will have more than a few pieces of the total jigsaw puzzle. When a player leaves, so does his portion of the puzzle. And so each of you will be making critical strategic decisions that are based on only fragmentary information. (Is it any wonder that American business is a wash in endless meetings, trying to bring as much of that knowledge as possible together in one room?)A well-designed, well-implemented database serves as the repository of corporate memory. And every customer-contact person in your company, from your service people to your telemarketers, should understand that part of their job is enhancing the resolution of the images – making sure each pertinent insight is logged into the corporate database, through whatever processes you devise.
If you’re typical, 80% of your customers buy from you for one or more of just a handful of reasons – usually, no more than four to six. What are they? And how well do they coincide with the external service values you consciously have worked at developing?
You can fine-tune your grading system further by determining not just raw historic sales volume, but potential or projected Lifetime Value (LTV) of these customers to you – understanding that realization of that LTV has more to do with how you treat your customers after you’ve acquired them that with the method of acquisition. Given what it costs you to acquire, supply, and service this customer … the anticipated length of time you’ll retain its loyalty … and the revenue that this will generate … how much profit will it bring to you over the expected duration of the relationship, (expressed in terms of Net Present Value)?
A price-focused segment, which has a transactional outlook to doing business and does not seek any ‘extras’. Companies in this segment are often small, working to low margins and regard the service in question as of low strategic importance to their business. A quality and brand-focused segment, which wants the best possible service and is prepared to pay for it. Companies in this segment often work to high margins, are medium-sized or large, and regard the service as of high strategic importance. A service-focused segment, which has high requirements in terms of service quality and range, but also in terms of aftersales, delivery, etc. These companies tend to work in time-critical industries and can be small, medium or large. They are usually purchasing relatively high volumes. A partnership-focused segment, usually consisting of key accounts, which seeks trust and reliability and regards the supplier as a strategic partner. Such companies tend to be large, operate on relatively high margins, and regard the product or service in question as strategically important.