By Michael Greenberg | COO
We all know what’s coming. A blizzard of emails. Tweets of new specials every day, if not multiple times a day. A sale every weekend. Web only specials. Private savings events. Early access. The noise will be absolutely deafening.
Cutting through this will take some old-fashioned sales and marketing. I’m still convinced that sales today are won during the 10 minute search and research phase, whether the purchase happens instore or online.
Here’s a few ideas for winning that 10 minute battle with your best customers. These don’t make sense for all customers, but make great sense for proven high-value customers.
1. Individually connect with your best 10,000 customers. How much revenue do they generate? Doesn’t it make sense to assign someone to build a bridge with them? Get two or three of your better salespeople, put them in a room, and have them spend the next month emailing, tweeting, and connecting with your elite customers. You know what they buy, their preferences, where they live, and with a little research, who they know. Use that to suggest specific items and services that will be relevant and follow up. Give your company a voice and really connect.
2. “No questions” guarantee with your best 10,000 customers. There are generally three ways that people buy – impulse, researched, and prompted. Researched purchases have swamped the other two methods, primarily because even impulse and prompted purchases go through a quick research cycle nowadays. For customers that you know will not take advantage of you, consider a “no risk to them” approach. That is, worry-free returns, price match and best price guarantees, improved warranty or service levels, that is, anything that will remove the element of risk in their mind. That way if a competitor prompts or impulses a sale, you stand a good chance of these customers taking the sale to you instead. And reduce the risk of the customer taking a sale you generate (through marketing or merchandising) elsewhere. Its a great way to reward customer loyalty.
3. Orient yourself around gift recipient personas. If someone walks into a store you owned and says they need a gift, what’s the first question you’d ask? “What are they like”, most likely. And then progress through a couple of questions to pin down what kind of person they are before making recommendations. So take that same approach in your preparation for the holidays, and arm your associates, your marketers, your call center, and anyone else touching the customer with a highly targeted guide to gift giving. Think of it as transferring the brain of your best salesperson to as many people as possible.
These are just a couple of ideas to improve customer retention this holiday, but the underlying assumption should be clear. Your top 1% customers account for (probably) 10-15% of sales. So use some of your budget to cater to their needs and ensure you keep them throughout the holiday.
