As we run our businesses we are seeking to keep our competitive advantage and push the potential of our businesses farther. One simple best practice that has the greatest return is ‘know your audience.’ Simple as it sounds, it is one of the most frequently neglected marketing tools.

1,2,3 Easy. Capture your existing client data. Track your marketing and sales communication activities. Analyze the client data to make smarter business choices. Customize your approach to achieve more powerful results. Sounds like more work than the return. Where does it payoff?

Optimize Time. Save money by optimizing the use of your team’s time. Utilizing a centralized CRM (Client Relationship Management) system makes your client data consistent, easily accessible, and it streamlines the opportunity for the company to grow. Retention of data is essential not only for growth, but as your business experiences employee turn-over, the highest cost comes when the client data and relationship goes with them.

Measure Success. That which is measured gets done. CRM data systems provide metrics for line of sight to how the sales funnel and sales team is performing at any time. Performance is what counts. What marketing and sales activities are working and which ones are not? Eliminate what is not producing results, but use data to make the decision. Using a CRM provides visibility and historic reference to sales cycles and effective activities. Empower your employee’s success; CRMs are a valuable tool for creating a performance culture and assisting employees in knowing what is expected of them and how they are doing.

Customize Solutions. In a saturated, competitive market people choose to work with people they feel like understand them. Do you know your clients, what makes them tick, what cycles are they experiencing, what are the driving forces behind their decision making process? Sounds like a lot of data. Utilizing a CRM helps you track your client data. With more information, your business can provide a custom solution with specific timing and a message that emotionally connects with your audience’s experience. Sounds great for repeat customers, but when you know your clients, you also know your prospective clients. Your Salesforce is more powerful when the size of their dart board is focused, and they are equipped with strategic marketing tools to truly connect.

Marketing strategy can feel complicated, but as you unweave the web and put in place scaleable processes the results of your efforts show up in revenue. Save time, reduce overhead and optimize your spending are all numbers business owners can understand.

For a free marketing assessment and one hour consultation, contact Kelly Vail at kelly@strategicbranding.net and mention MB/I.