calling customers: it's about time to stop guessing
DESCRIPTION
Find out how predictive analytics can advise when sales reps should contact a customer for a sale. Predictive analytics can predict when a customer is ready to buy. As presented at AA-ISP May 2011 Leadership Summit.TRANSCRIPT
Calling Customers: It’s About Timeto Stop Guessing
Parth R. SrinivasaPresident, Valgen
Why get timing right?
How is it a paradigm
shift?
Where does
predictive analytics come in?
Summary: What can
you takeaway?
Session Overview
McKinsey & Co. study finds that:
35% … calling too often
8% call too little/ignore; 29% lack knowledge
Customers can tell calling for calling’s sake!
Timing, Relevance , Sequence critical to each touch
72%“destructive”
Why Get Timing Right?
Fundamental shifts in the sales-customer dialogue
Need for proactive, constant touches that are relevant
“Customer 2.0”, where sales is not engaged until much later in the buying cycle
Convergence of sales and marketing: it’s not just the rep alone
Enabling tools: CRM + Predictive Analytics + Data Driven
Where do you fit in your existing customer’s buying cycle?
Aware Discuss
Share/ Learn
Call
Timing pattern… think traffic pattern
Wait until customer is ready (nurture)
Prioritize, merge (engage)
Move, align message + channel (sell)
Traffic lights have their own “algorithm”… number of vehicles, elapsed time, rate of vehicles etc.
Likewise, timing “algorithm” takes into account elapsed time, and buying rate compared to other customers etc.
So what is nurturing all about?
Reps don’t always have to CALL – can be service, marketing, management; Receptive to hi-touch
Top of mind relevance:- “Customers like you” trends- New products and services- Timely industry info- Follow-up service
How is timing the call paradigm shift?
1. Go from reactive to proactive the way customers see it
2. Give consistent calling guidance to reps, realign their thought process
3. Benefit from social and mobile trends, plus analytics and technology
Define proactive from the customer’s perspectiveWhat is being proactive? What we think is proactive is actually not.
From customer viewpoint:-- Calling everyone is not proactive.-- Calling when they’re not ready is not proactive.
Making the call is not necessarily proactive!
Accurate predictions bridge the gap between knowledge and actionImagine preparing now for customers with predicted likelihood of buying need next week.
That’s proactive.
-- Sort customers to call next week.-- Learn about their predicted needs.-- Think and plan what to contact them about.
Shifting focus to stage of buying cycle drives cohesiveness of purpose
Not:How many calls did you make?
Instead:Whom did you call this week?
Different purpose for each call
Calling Guidance: Shift denominator to whether customer is within or outside buying cycle
Not Ready
Call now
Missed
Too Late
Re-prioritizing accounts allows new growth to emerge
Prune portfolios
Keeping gravy accounts can hurt your sales. Give up to get more.- Remove low probability customers who haven’t ordered in a while- Move them from inside sales to web, other cost-effective sales methods- Helps inside sales reps get better experience with better customers
Replace “person to call” with “purpose to call”Variety is the spice of… sales- Mix different types of calls- Wards off boredom, builds experience- Blend service, warranty, other call purposes
Common theme: call based on predicted buying
Prioritize within sales reps’ hours by improving quality of time spentDealing with trade-offs: Make this call or make that call?
When you can predict average order size, reps can call for the $1,000 order firstbefore the $200 order
Customers receive less of what they consider “destructive behavior”Sales 2.0, Customer 2.0 and inside sales
Think about your customers and analyze their history and buying cycle before you call
Use buying cycle to your advantage
Call customer precisely when they are needing your call
Sustained profitability gains can come from “the other 80%”
typically these customers are top of mind
other customers are under-served, resulting in lower future value
Reps can focus beyond their best customers on demonstrated evidence of future growth
Best created by applying statistical algorithms
Predictive Analytics as part of the technology suite of enablers
Predictive AnalyticsTechnology & CRM Platforms
Marketing Automation
Each building block weaves together a story from customer’s perspective
Predictive analytics provides accurate, tested, scalable contentLarge volume of data not easy to analyze by reps, and could be redundant/erroneous
Feed predictive algorithms to CRM system
Push recommendation to sales rep level(versus reports for management)
Actions, actions, actions… backed by science
Integrate
… with tools and systems already in place; focus on a pressing goal
Involve
Don’t try it in isolation; involve sales from the beginning
Iterate
Set baseline and forecast, test, measure, adjust, test, measure...
Done right, predictive analytics helps support paradigm shift
What you can take away
Timing calls is not a nice to have; it is critical in the “customer 2.0 buying cycle”
Demonstrate value and benefit of shifting to new paradigm and the power of collaboration to gain sales
Build a data-driven guidance system for inside sales, using/embedding in CRM; start small and grow
Thank You!More at www.valgen.com/blog