Encouragement from friends, family and clients may be the top reason we take on new adventures in marketing… or possibly ignorance (a.k.a. stupidity). Such was the case recently, when I came to the career crossroads that led to the creation of my own shop to develop customer acquisition strategies. Thank God for a great client out of the gate and the support of folks who I have worked with to help me make it happen. So, here I find myself with the tables turned and in the position to put into practice for the benefit of my own business what I have been preaching.
What’s the first thing any company needs, new or not, to survive? A reason to exist, i.e. paying customers. As a part of my practice planning, I have had to design a lead-generation program to deliver a flow of interest to discuss what it is I can, and cannot, do for clients. For example -- I can generate customers using the web on a Cost Per Acquisition model; I cannot answer questions that require a crystal ball, like “How many customers will I have next week if I change the offer to a free trial today?”
Generating consumer interest on the web is a much broader funnel than generating business interest and much less costly. However, we can apply the same methodologies to either funnel to generate the best quality leads and lower that cost to acquire a new customer.
The first step? Boil down what the core customer qualities are to a series of questions to which a decision maker can answer yes or no. In our company’s case, it may look something like:
- Are you interested in generating a fixed customer acquisition cost?
- Does your current cost to acquire a customer exceed your marketing allowable?
- Is branding the focus of your marketing efforts?
In question three above, we are not interested in “branding focused” clients because we can’t help them. We build customers if a client is only interested in how many people remember the company’s name, well that is a big opportunity for us to fail the client. Branding in a CPA environment occurs anyway as an unavoidable benefit that self-liquidates the investment through each customer acquired.
But what happens after the decision maker says “Yes, I am interested. Tell me more,” is as critical as boiling down what your company offers to a simple series of questions.
Sales Models for Dummies
The entire “For Dummies” series probably speaks louder about me than my ego would like to admit. It is my Encyclopedia Britannica, the breadth of which I have found very telling as to my level of intelligence at times. It may be at the point where I need a 12-step process: “Hi, my name is Greg Morey… and I am a For Dummies junkie!”
As part of a direct marketing focused skill set, we have to be able to sell what it is we market, which means more times than not we have to be very critical of the sales model into which we place leads. If a sales model is lacking, we could have the best lead generating machine in the world firing on all cylinders, but still fail at converting leads into customers.
So here is my attempt at a Sales Models for Dummies:
First of all, add color to your palette. Consumer says "I’m interested," company says "Great, here’s what we offer, here’s what it costs, and here’s what we need from you next." If only it were that easy, there would be no need for blood pressure medication. The actual steps to achieve a sale have to take into consideration the possible roadblocks the consumer may raise and have a method of dealing with each one.
If the consumer has sticker shock, do we say “Okay, thanks for your interest” and move on or do we explain the value proposition in a different way to try and create a sense of value?
I have found the best method for building a Sales Model is to turn it around and become the customer. We are all consumers and presumably know how to buy and transact. Shop your company’s product or service and define the questions you would raise in your own purchase decisions:
- Are you getting all the information you need to make that decision?
- Are you getting too much?
- Why did you or did you not put your own credit card down?
If you are too close (or too removed) to the product to be objective, then hire a secret shopper -- either a business friend or a trusted source -- to go through your sales process and evaluate it on these questions.
The final tool for Sales Models for Dummies -- find a way to get to “yes” sooner than later. As marketers we are conditioned to think about all the wonderful ways we can position the awesome benefits of our company’s product or service, which is great, unless it’s just another way to say “fertilizer.” Don’t be afraid to have links to the details, but position them in bullets.
Evaluating the true value of a lead requires a hard look at your sales model and what it is costing you each time a lead does not convert or a bad quality lead enters your finely tuned sales model. “True Value” in direct response can boil down to what it costs to acquire a customer. The simplest answer is the better quality lead fed into a finely tuned sales model will always generate the lowest cost to acquire a customer. However, if you desire a strong machine then just like the great inventors of our time, you must be prepared to fail, re-test, monitor and apply what you learned from your failures, a.k.a. "optimize." Therein lays the true quality of the lead.
Greg Morey is the executive vice president of G.R. Wyse & Company, a customer acquisition strategies firm that creates lead and customer acquisition programs for advertising agencies and companies using the internet.
Morey has spent the last 18 years in advertising, media and technology developing promotions and marketing programs for consumer-focused companies. During the last eight years, Morey has focused his career in the online space including online concert promotions, cross media traffic promotions, and customer acquisition promotions.
Some of the company’s Morey has implemented online marketing and sales strategies for include Dell Direct, Pedigree, AOL, Columbia House -- Canada, Cosmetique, American Home Shield and Global Travel International.
As a direct marketer coming from the media side, Morey has been able to create a blend of consumer-focused strategies that create win-win partnerships between publishers and advertisers. His media motto carries resonance in his chosen field of Direct Response: “Charge for success, or charge nothing at all.”
