Your Biggest Revenue Opportunity? Your Customer

I am an optimist. So is a colleague of mine at a large financial services firm. As marketers, we have come to the same conclusion about identifying and leveraging revenue opportunity in the current downturn. She articulated it best: For years our focus has been on the prospect, now it’s all about the customer.

Finally! Our mission at CBD has always been about getting marketers to think about their customers. In a recent survey of the CMO Council, more than three-quarters (76%) of senior marketing execs said they’re not realizing the full revenue potential of their existing customers. And only 46% of them have good insight into retention rates, customer profitability and lifetime customer value. Wow. What an opportunity for growth.

So, how best to get started? Begin by talking to your customers. At CBD, we’ve designed a small, well-targeted research package that allows you to quickly understand critical customer issues:

Biggest challenges
Perception of your company/brand vis-à-vis your competition
Awareness and effectiveness of your marketing program(s)
Where they are turning for information and guidance
How they’re managing budgets
Purchase intent
Your own sales and nurturing process, as voiced by your customers

In less than four weeks you’ll be armed with the information you need to fill gaps in your sales process, drive messaging and develop actionable revenue sources. From there, you’ll be able to reach out and tell them you are thinking about them. Give them something they are not currently getting from you (and can’t get from their competitors) like a new way to afford your products and services. Provide them with exclusive information, or a special offer, you are not making available to the general public.

Now is not the time to be paralyzed with inactivity. Please let us know what else you’re implementing to realize revenue now.