In today's digital world, businesses face unprecedented challenges. Customers are harder to find, competition is fiercer than ever, and the cost of acquiring new customers continues to climb. Marketers have more tools than ever to reach their target audiences. Yet it’s also become significantly harder to find new customers and drive sales. In fact, the average marketing lead response rate is a measly 2 percent. With so much competition in every industry, it’s essential for businesses to identify and target potential leads before they buy from competitors. The good news: There are several strategies you can implement today to begin tackling these issues and drive results tomorrow. These strategies aren’t groundbreaking—they have been around for decades—but their effectiveness hasn’t changed with time. In this blog post, we’ll share four key principles that will help you find new customers, optimize your sales funnel, deepen existing relationships and increase customer retention.
Be crystal clear about your business’s value
The first step in finding new customers is to be crystal clear about the value your business provides. While it’s important to understand your target audience and the sales process, you must start this journey with a clear understanding of your unique value proposition and how your product improves your customers’ lives. If a new lead doesn’t understand the value your product brings to the table, it will be difficult to convert them into a sales lead. A great way to discover your business’s value is to conduct customer interviews. Identify your top customers and interview them about their use of your product or service. What problem does it solve for them? What makes it unique? How does it improve their lives? Use this information to develop a short, memorable elevator pitch. Be sure to include your primary USP, your target audience and how your product solves a core problem. Keep your elevator pitch simple and make it memorable—people won’t remember a long, drawn out speech.
Be where your customers are
Once you have a clear understanding of the value your business brings to the table, it’s time to be where your customers are. This means conducting an in-depth competitive analysis to identify your core competitors and where they are spending their time and money. Are they investing in digital marketing? If so, what channels are they using? Are they investing in content marketing? If so, where are they publishing? Are they primarily targeting B2B or B2C customers? Once you have a clear understanding of where your competitors are spending their resources, it’s easier to figure out where you should be investing your time and money. From there, you can begin to proactively engage with your potential customers. You can also use this information to create a more effective sales funnel.
Continuously measure and optimize
Once you’ve implemented these strategies, it’s time to measure and continuously optimize your performance. It’s crucial to track key metrics that will help you understand how many leads you’re receiving, where they’re coming from and how they’re progressing through your sales funnel. You can then use this data to make informed decisions that will help you improve your overall sales and marketing efforts. To track sales funnel metrics, it’s best to use a CRM like HubSpot, Sprout or Salesforce. This will allow you to track important information like the source of your leads (where they’re coming from), the number of leads you receive each month, the number of converted leads and the average close rate.
Focus on lifetime customer value
Finally, it’s important to focus on lifetime customer value. This means understanding how your product can improve your customers’ lives in a meaningful way and providing them with an experience that will keep them coming back for more. This can be challenging in a world where engagement is at an all-time low and customers are notoriously fickle. However, there are a few things you can do to help boost customer retention. First, make sure your sales process is customer-centric. This means providing clear value propositions, removing any unnecessary friction (i.e. making your sales process as easy as possible) and delivering on your promises. Next, focus on your customer experience. What are your customers’ expectations from the get-go? How can you exceed those expectations? How can you improve their overall experience? Finally, make sure you have the resources in place to continue providing a high-quality experience. Continuously monitor customer sentiment and respond quickly to issues and concerns.
Bottom line
Finally, it’s important to remember that finding new customers isn’t a one-and-done situation. This is a continuous process that requires consistent effort. While these strategies will help you drive more sales, you can also use them to create better experiences for your existing customers. This will help you retain customers and reduce churn. In the end, it all boils down to one thing: delivering value to your customers. Successful businesses don’t find new customers because they want to; they do it because they have to.