The Friday outline: A basic lead-segmentation process
This week’s outline continues the biz-dev theme, this time with a generic framework for lead segmentation. Although developed for colleagues in the consulting industry, slight variations have been used by salespeople in the industrial/manufacturing sectors, software marketing, and other areas.
Blah, blah, blah… why does anyone care about lead segmentation, right? Three reasons:
In other words, you need to divide the swamp/pie/universe/whatever of your customers into… segments. Here’s a quick way to do it.
GROUP: CONTACTS
Definition: The slush pile; the total universe of potential customers.
Contacted via:
- Presentations
- Letters
- E-mails
- Personal introductions
- Advertising or direct mail
Content:
- General capabilities
- Wide range of success stories (emphasis on value to the decision maker and/or overall enterprise.)
- Emphasize credibility with breadth of offerings — at this point, you simply want to capture anyone with an
interest in any of the services offered.
Key traits: No one remains a contact indefinitely; they either express an interest and become prospect or they cycle out of the contact list over a fixed period of time or fixed number of communication attempts.
The ask: “Can we send you more information?
GROUP: PROSPECTS
Definition: Those who have expressed an interest in learning more.
Contacted via:
- Email
- Personalized letter
- Small-group presentation or one-on-one meetings
Content
- Case studies / success stories
- Material focusing on a particular domain (e.g., public-sector work) and/or a particular discipline (e.g., media relations, investor relations, etc.)
- Emphasize credibility with breadth of knowledge — at this point, credibility is built by showing prospects how much experience you have in similar projects, industries or situations.
Key traits: A contact becomes a prospect when there is indication that they would like to learn more. This can be an active affirmation (i.e., positive response to “may we add you to our mailing list?” inquiries, etc.) or passive affirmation (a visitor to the web site or someone who fills out an online request for information).
The ask: “Can you tell us more about your needs?
GROUP: LEADS
Definition: Prospects who have expressed a specific need and indicated that they desire a solution.
Contacted via:
- Formal proposals
- Pre- and post-proposal communication (questions/clarifications, supplemental material that demonstrates precise expertise)
Content:
- Precise solutions tailored to client requirements
- Emphasize credibility with testimonials from past customers with similar issues. Remember that old chestnut about how “nobody ever got fired for picking IBM?” Show them that you’re the IBM for their solution.
Key traits: A prospect turns into a lead when they indicate interest that triggers customer-specific action, i.e., a pre-proposal needs assessment (such as a meeting or teleconference) and/or a proposal.
The ask: “Can we do business?”
GROUP: CUSTOMERS
Definition: Those we are doing business with or have done business with in the past.
Contacted via:
- Established preferences (phone, email, etc.)
Content:
- Reinforces comfort level of original decision
- Delivers information about complimentary product offerings to work already done
- Clearly asks for referrals and recommendations
- Emphasize credibility with execution.
Key traits: Once you’ve conducted business, your marketing and communications should continue to nurture the relationship — even if no future engagements seem likely. Why? Because customers are your greatest source of referrals/testimonials, as well as follow-on business.
The ask: “How can we continue to best serve you?”
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2 comments
1.
Andrew Graham wrote on 20. August 2007 at 3:57 pm
Alright, I’ll bite: stealing customers — there isn’t a category that competitors’ customers fall into.
Assume there’s a very small universe of customers buying what you’re selling. Further assume that most of those customers are perfectly happy with their existing relationship. But you want those customers.
Competitors’ customers are not-entirely-cold leads. How can they be swung? Reputation? Referral? Monetary incentives? And how are companies approaching them (besides very carefully)?
Broad question, I know, but every time a good post goes without comments, a kitten dies
2.
Greg Brooks wrote on 22. August 2007 at 7:03 am
Well, hell — I can hardly let a great question like that go unanswered, can I?
I’d argue that competitors’ existing customers fall right into the funnel at the contacts level — the only difference is that you may already have some of the knowledge you need to move them further down the pipleline.
In commoditized markets (and it’s a little irritating how often small shops in the marketing/PR world sell on that basis, but that’s another story!), the only differentiator is price. In sales organizations, there’s always a pretty significant percentage of the sales force that can never see past price and they’re always coming to management with a deal that they *know* can get done, if only we can budge on price.
Those people need to be fired.
But that’s another topic…
Assuming the market’s not commoditized, you have to do due dilligence to figure out where the pain point is. No vendor is flawless, and even happy clients will let themselves talk about what a “perfect” solution looks like — that’s where you figure out the basis on which to nab those customers.
I hate selling on price and think the customers you land via that method are usually short-term wins. However, I’ve seen plenty of folks (in my industry and others) sell on price *only* when they are trying to win work away from a competitor. Their logic goes something like this:
a.) The customer is happy, so the quickest/easiest way to get their attention is via price.
b.) This is an incremental win for us, worth more for bragging rights (”we’re the industry leader!”) than for the actual dollar value of the work.
c.) Accepting lower margins is fine if it’s a key win away from a competitor that weakens them in the marketplace.
Not sure I agree with that all the time, but I can see how it makes sense sometimes.