How to Find Hidden Profits
in Your Customer Base
If you're a B2B (business-to-business) marketer you already know that using the same media as retailers to sell your products (newspapers, television, radio, billboards, etc.) may not be cost effective. Even though your market area tends to be broad, you have a smaller number of potential customers. A sharp focus is needed to identify those potential customers to reach them with your sales message.
How can this be done? The key is INFORMATION. Using an accurate database of information on businesses can help you zero in on potential customers.
Know Your Customers!
What do you know about your customers? Test yourself by answering the following questions:
- What types of businesses buy my product? What industries are they in?
- How many employees does my average customer have?
- Where are most of my customers located?
- How big are my customers? Small Mom & Pops or large corporations?
Don't feel bad if you are unable to answer them all. Most business owners or sales managers are not able to answer these questions even though this knowledge can be a literal gold mine for their business!
Why should you know the basic profile of your customers? Your best prospects are companies that most closely resemble you current customers. Once you know the characteristics of your existing customers, it then becomes much easier to find new customers!
How to Profile Your Existing Customers
What is "profiling" your customers? It is simply learning about your customers. Once you know their key characteristics, you become better equipped to find new customers. This very simple concept is too often ignored.
To start putting together your customer profile, go back to the questions above. Once you have answered these questions thoroughly, you'll be amazed how easy it is to target the best potential customers for your business.
D&B MarketPace Pro desktop marketing software is the easiest and most effective way to profile your existing customers. It costs very little, yet it can be one of the most powerful tools you'll ever have for acquiring new customers.
MarketPlace Pro will match your customer file against the Dun & Bradstreet database of 10+million businesses to identify their characteristics. It analyzes them by SIC code (Standard Industrial Classification), number of employees, sales volume, geographic location (State, ZIP, Metro area). MarketMatch will then summarize the findings in an easy to use report that can really work wonders for your prospecting efforts.
Once you have this profile, what next? This information tells you who to target... Now you must decide on how to reach them with your sales message.
The Power of Direct Mail
When it's not possible to send your salesperson to call on a potential customer, the U.S. Post office offers you a sales force of over 255,000 carriers... And what an incredibly efficient way to deliver your sales message! Just compare the costs. It can cost on the average of $300 for a face-to-face sales call in a local market. If the call is out of town, it can be considerably more. But the U.S. Post Office will deliver your sales message for less than $1 in most cases.
Helpful Hints for Maximizing Your Direct Mail Campaign:
- Keep your message simple. You only have a few seconds to get your prospect's attention. Deliver a simple yet powerful message that clearly states what you are selling. Avoid too many details.
- Test, test, test! Many variables can affect the response to your mailing; the list, the offer, the price, the creative, etc. Test with smaller mailings to refine these variables before rolling out those big mailings. This can save you money by preventing costly mistakes.
- Analyze the response. Track your leads and orders so that you can determine the return on your mailing investment.
- Mail more than once. For maximum impact, mail at least 6 times a year to your prospects.
- Check out D&B MarketPlace software or D&B MarketPlace Pro. These premier desktop marketing programs offer a level of control, convenience and cost efficiency you can't get buying "lists".
There are many good "how-to" books on direct mail advertising available. For more information, contact the Direct Marketing Association at 301-604-0187 and ask for their Publications Catalog. Or you can write them at:
For just about everyone, when the phone rings, you grab it! You could say there's something "magical" about it. In a selling situation, the phone is a personal, persuasive way to deliver a message. Here you can use your personality and charm to get your point across and interact with your prospect to answer questions and handle objections.
Outbound sales calls are especially effective as a "follow-up" to direct mail campaigns. Here's a bit of advice when using outbound tele-sales:
