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Marketing Zen moment

By Chidiadi Madumere
14 April 2017   |   4:05 am
Sell more frequently to them. Let’s face it. As a consumer, I often forget to buy things I use every day. So, I make do without it until absolutely needed, or I buy it somewhere convenient instead of my usual store.

Black Purist Media, Chidiadi Madumere

PSST. I have a secret. I’m talking to you, CEO. While your counterparts are handwringing about how to grow their business by earning more customers, or by stealing more customers from their competition, you and I are going to have a Zen moment.

While they are lobbing the grenades in that unwinnable battle, in a competitive marketplace in which everyone has the same sales and marketing tools (or is in the process of getting them), we’re going to take a few cleansing breaths, and look within.

While they pin their hopes on the belief that revenue growth is entirely a function of gaining a bigger share of the market, we’re going to take the contrarian view that the market is not “out there,” but already “here” – loyally transacting business with us, trusting us – and eager to grow their relationship with us.

Which brings us back to that secret: Stealing customers from competitors, quite simply, is a zero-sum, win-lose, game. It assumes that the market is a steady-size pie, and all that matters is how big a slice you get. But I believe that the real way to grow is to make your pie bigger. There are ways you can find your Zen, grow your pie, and get bigger without re-gain dogfight:

Sell more to your existing customers. This is, by far, one of the most overlooked growth areas, in my experience. You already have a relationship with existing customers – hopefully a good relationship! If so, they already trust you, and will be more willing to listen to and believe what you promise. Statistics indicate that it’s anywhere from five to 25 times more costly to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. And, because they are already in store or have vendor relationships, it’s easier to buy from you.

But how do you sell more to existing customers? Here are some ideas:
Make sure your customers know what you offer! I’ve worked for companies with dozens of business units. It is amazing how many times I’ve talked to customers about a complementary product and heard, “I had no idea you sold that.”

Add complementary products to your portfolio. This seems to go without saying. Not only do you sell more products because they’re complementary, you may even add value to the products you already sell. One of my clients recently added a new product to their line, and immediately observed a measurable increase in sales across its entire portfolio.

Sell more frequently to them. Let’s face it.  As a consumer, I often forget to buy things I use every day. So, I make do without it until absolutely needed, or I buy it somewhere convenient instead of my usual store. A lot of companies have figured this out, and set up programs to automatically send these products to their customer base. Talk about a win-win. It’s easier for me as a consumer, and companies don’t risk me purchasing elsewhere. (Plus, it’s forecastable revenue!) And even companies that aren’t selling consumables can learn from this. The trick is to truly understand the lifecycle of your product and entice customers to buy (either a replacement or complementary product) as early as possible.

Enter a new market (or part of your market) – preferably one that’s poised for growth. You’ve probably seen the growth quadrant focused on new markets and products. So, going after a new market isn’t, well…new. But thinking about it in terms of which market isn’t just big, but also poised for tremendous growth, may be new.  Entering a new market – whether that’s a new industry, target or geography – automatically adds a whole new audience for your company.

But, it goes without saying, that if you participate in a market that’s growing rapidly, you’ll naturally enjoy a tailwind that will help you grow faster. The trick is to know whether your market is growing, and to be continuously moving toward parts of your market with these tailwinds. This at least makes it easier to grow.

Increase your price. Obviously, this one doesn’t work in every situation. But, if you can increase prices without losing customers, you automatically grow your revenue and margin – without taking away anyone else’s share. Conversely, in a drive to gain share, companies reduce price – and start a price war. Since share is a zero-sum game, all a price war does is reduce revenue (and therefore the size of the pie) of the market.

Many people would suggest a fourth way to grow the pie — acquisition. I didn’t, because I don’t see this as its own category; to me, it’s a quicker path to achieve Nos. 1 or 2 – or to gain (buy) share quickly. Is an acquisition the path to get into a new and growing part of the market or add a product, capability or channel that you need?

So, as a CEO, I’d challenge you. The next time you think about growth, don’t just look at how to take a customer away from a competitor. Take a Zen moment, and consider how to get the most growth from the customers you have today – or customers your competition never even considered.

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