Monday, March 30, 2009

Divide and Conquer Using an Actionable Segmentation Approach

“the answer is always already there.” J Derrida

“Temp untamed will hist for no man. As you spring so shall you neap.” J Joyce

Targeting, Segmentation and Grading (i.e., the valuation of customers, prospects and the “universe” from which to choose) are the primary building blocks of CRM and customer experience management. These are conscious decisions based upon business intelligence, corporate memory, and the on-going strategy of the business plan. Among these decisions, the single most important set of decisions any business-to-business enterprise can make are those involving selection - of the products and services you will provide, of the customers for whom you will provide them, and of the channels through which you will market them.

Accordingly, targeted segmentation to promote selectivity within your existing customer file becomes the most valuable application for your marketing database. More importantly, targeted, and actionable, segmentation drives effective CRM and Customer Experience Management efforts and allows for the optimization of your company’s market coverage models and investments.

Until quiet recently, most business communication with customers (present and potential), tended to address them as a great, undifferentiated mass…because there was really no practical way to do otherwise. It was the “We can be all things to all people” approach. Obviously, no business can survive and flourish if it attempts that approach. Limited resources: people, time, money need to be invested in direct proportion to the limited resources that can be applied – and accordingly, this is where targeting, segmentation and grading come into play.

Today, computer and business intelligence advances have made it easy and practical to break down the companies in your market universe just about as finely as you like, according to whatever factors you choose. Recognizing the fact that not all customers are created equal, it also allows you to target your limited resources toward those that are most potentially valuable to you. It gives you a practical alternative, and the next best thing, to one-on-one communication.

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