Last week, the Fire Enterprises, Inc. (FEI) tribe went over two more great ideas for building a Customer Nurture Program. This week? One more great CNP idea. Remember, fire = print.
Like water through the River Styx, great Customer Nurture Program (CNP) ideas continued to flow from the noggins of Marka, Zoot, Org and Numo.
Red-hot CNP IV: Sell Sheets
“Now that we’ve got an O-site and sOcial media presence, inquiries are arriving in our O-box every day,” Zoot mused.
“Can your sales people follow up on every opportunity?” Marka asked, folding her hands together earnestly.
“Realistically? No. If we worked them 110 hours a week, maybe, but I’m no slave-master. Remember, slavery was outlawed in Greece almost six months ago!” Zoot said.
“So should we let these leads vanish into thin air like smoke over Mount Olympus?” Marka asked rhetorically. “Probably not—some of these leads will be garbage, but many will be worthwhile.
“So we’ll funnel the good leads directly to your sales force. The bad leads, we’ll pitch,” Marka said, making an underhand throwing motion.
“What about the ones in-between?” Zoot asked.
“Sending out a complete brochure would cost too much on a per-piece basis and doesn’t speak to the telegraphed needs of the person making an inquiry,” Marka replied. “The answer is to create something less personalized than a letter and less expensive than a brochure, but that still lets the prospect know we’re taking his or her inquiry seriously.”
“Like what?” Zoot asked.
“Since we’re responding to a direct inquiry for one product, a one-page ‘sell sheet’ will do the trick. If we produce one sell sheet per product, we can easily mix, match and, most importantly, respond to the customer’s exact need.”
“What if someone can’t wait for Olympus mail to be delivered?” Zoot asked.
“Even better,” Marka said. “Since many sell sheets will be sent in response to O-site inquiries, O-PDFs can be created on O-puters and sent via O-mail instead.”
“Then, out-of-pocket costs will be...” Numo smiled, “Zero!”
“So your ‘sell sheets’ are easily distributed, single-point electronic or printed mailers that can be sent in response to individual inquiries,” Zoot said, summarizing. “The young guns in our new O-telesales department can use these as well. They won’t have to waste hours putting together personalized responses for each of the 10 or 15 prospects they talk to each day.”
“Bingo!” Marka said.
“What else ya got?” Org asked, raising his eyebrows.
Today’s FIRE! Point
When you have more inquiries than your sales force can handle, product sell sheets will help plug the holes and ensure all viable prospects are followed up on. Product sell sheets don’t have to be personalized, but they should address the telegraphed needs of a person making an inquiry, rather than offer a general overview of your company like a brochure does.
FIRE! In Action
How did a Private Travel Club Grow Revenue in a Down Economy? Answer: Targeted Direct Marketing
Club ABC Tours created a self-mailer campaign that mined the company’s database to target different customer segments based on prior travels or tendency to visit new destinations. This highly-customized campaign yielded 400,000 in revenue within four weeks.
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- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
Very much alive and now officially an industry curmudgeon, strategic growth expert T. J. Tedesco can be reached at tj@tjtedesco.com or 301-404-2244.