Don’t guess. Use real data, mined from your CRM system, to segment leads and existing customers to prioritize accounts that have the most potential for growth. In our work with industrial and technical manufacturers and distributors, we’ve identified five metrics that are particularly helpful. Here they are, along with an explanation as to why we think they’re useful:
- Current volume. How big is this customer? If they’re relatively large, you’ll want to focus your efforts on protecting this business by keeping them happy. You might consider offering reward programs or other special treatment for your largest customers to hold onto these bread-and-butter customers.
- Potential volume. This one takes a bit more work, but is critical to helping you focus sales efforts on the accounts with the highest potential for increased wallet share. To determine potential volume, compare current volume of the customer to the volume of similar-sized customers in the same sector, and identify products you could be selling them but currently aren’t. Your salespeople can also help in determining this by talking to your customers.
- Last sales visit. Does this customer have high current or potential volume, but hasn’t been called on in a while? You might want to pay them a visit. Or, have they been visited frequently despite low volume? You may not be getting very good ROI on this account – consider replacing some of these visits with phone calls from inside sales.
- Last quote. How much time has passed since you last quoted for this company? It could be that they recently experienced a problem with their last supplier, so have your salespeople be on the lookout for ways they can scoop up this business. On the other hand, if you’ve been quoting this company a lot but haven’t seen a sale, you might be just a third bid. But don’t just refuse to quote – bring data to the customer that shows them why, and ask them what needs you’re not meeting so you can improve.
- Last sale dates. When you connect your CRM with your ERP system, it’s easy to view the sales history for each customer with a click or two. What you want to pay attention to here is changes in sales frequency. If you’ve seen regular orders up until a certain date, you may have disappointed the customer in some way, and you need to learn what’s going on. Or, if orders are ramping up, the customer might be working on a new project. Find out how you can help them be more successful in their new endeavor.
Selltis CRM was built with these powerful metrics in mind, and can also track customers by sector, product code or line. Being able to view your data in the context of any of these metrics makes it easy for you to segment customers for focused sales efforts and targeted marketing campaigns. Explore Selltis.com’s features page to learn more.