How to Get More Leads and Sales from
Your Existing Customer Base

Even a novice salesperson knows that the more you have valuable interactions with a prospect or customer, the more money you will make.

The marketing problem faced by most service and retail companies are that they don’t have enough quality interactions with their existing account base.  And even when they do interact with their existing clients (most often in the form of a mailer, newsletter, salesperson contact or email), they don’t generate enough sales or improve their customer retention rates.  Most companies don’t even measure the impacts of their interactions on the profit line.

The Secret Behind Generating Leads from Existing Customers

Many times the path to riches lies in doing more with what you already have.  The team at Right On – No Bull Marketing recognized long ago the importance of selling more to and generating referral leads from existing customers.

That’s why our “Right On – No Bull” approach to existing customer lead generation revolves around:

• Setting clear and measurable performance objectives
• Using narrative stories and analogies to communicate marketing messages to clients
• Establishing a schedule of regular communications with existing customers
• Creating the marketing messages and necessary collateral to coincide with the communication schedule
• Implementation of the existing customer lead generation program
• Measurement for impacts and corrective actions
• Testing of messages and offers to find out what works best
• Use of Consumption Drip Messaging

What Is Consumption Drip Messaging?

“Consumption drips” is a phrase that describes the process of having regular, consistent, measurable communications with prospects and customers.  These communications usually take the form of written narratives in story format delivered via email. 

Profitable companies use consumption drip messaging systems to:

• Continue to engage people that visited your website but did not request a quote
• Sell maintenance agreements and other recurring revenue services
• Cross sell and up-sell
• Retain customers
• Develop referrals
• Lower costs
• Generate new business
• Measure and observe customer behaviors for insight and action

The foundation of consumption drip messaging systems lies in understanding customer motivations and in a clear definition of your desired business actions.  Let’s explain the concepts through a series of scenarios that will illustrate these points.

Not everyone that comes to your website is ready to buy or to meet with one of your sales team.  Consumption drip messaging provides the customer with an inducement on your website (called an “ethical bribe”) to at least give you their name and email address.  With this information you can continue to engage the prospect through narrative storytelling delivered automatically via email.  Once the prospect takes the next desired action in the process (in this example that would most likely be requesting an appointment with your sales team) the messaging stops until we define this person in another way.

See an illustration of this process below:

A similar process might be followed for customers that buy some things from you but not others they really should have (maintenance agreements are a good example).  A series of messages can be sent to them, telling stories about other services and the value they bring users, all delivered until the customer opts out or takes the desired business action.

A key to effective consumption drip messaging systems lies in understanding what it is that you want customers to do next.  Customers need you to help them with the next action, something that is nearly impossible if the next action hasn’t been defined.  We call the process of defining the next action “profit path planning” and it is a must to maximize growth and revenues.

You see great examples of profit path planning in a fine men’s clothing store.  If you buy a sport coat, then the next thing you are shown are trousers to go with it.  Then, you’re shown the shirt, then the tie, then the cufflinks, belt, etc.  You’ll note the retailer has understood a “profit path” based on customer needs that dictates what is suggested and when.  Also note that SOMETHING is being proactively suggested by the retailer.  Most companies fail to have formal mechanisms in place to ensure that “something” is suggested to customers.  Talk with Right On – No Bull Marketing about lead generation programs targeted towards your existing customer base.

How It Works

Consumption drip messaging allows you to create messages based upon defined segments of customers/business mission.  It also allows for automatic delivery of messages at pre-determined intervals, regardless of customer origin date or sign up.  Once the customer segments are defined and created, and the messages are created, the automated system does the measurement and work.  It’s all automated, cheaply, efficiently and effectively.  Right On – No Bull Marketing helps small service and retail companies benefit through existing customer lead generation programs and cross-sell and up-sell programs.  Learn how we can help you