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What Does It Mean to "Be First in Mind"?
November 26, 2008
By Lisa Cramer
How can a simple phrase like "be first in mind" help your business? Well, it's an approach to business that can help you maximize sales and marketing resources and drive more revenue.
As you enter the vast market with your products and services, how confident are you that prospects understand what’s available? Do you feel that you are being asked to compete every time your product or service area is evaluated? How sure are you that your customers will turn to your company for advice and additional products or services? Do you even know?
Buying Cycle Today
The Internet and the proliferation of information on the Internet has changed buying behavior forever. We (the sellers of products and services) need to adapt our sales and marketing processes to meet that change.
• Before the buying cycle starts: Being first in mind means that you are engaging prospects before they actually become prospects. They haven't decided to buy what you are selling, but they can be interested in seeing what you offer and what other customers have done with your products and services. Maybe what you’re selling is something the prospect needs as they grow their business, but not for some period of time.
• When the buying cycle starts: Being first in mind means that you are the vendor the prospect thinks about when they start the buying cycle, that you are the one the prospect considers when starting to gather information. Prospects today gather information anonymously online, often without the knowledge of any vendors. The buying cycle has started before the sales cycle starts. You can't sell if you don’t know the prospect is looking. However, if you are first in mind, they might use the information you provide as the criteria to evaluate other products.
Existing Customers
Being first in mind isn't just about your prospects. You should also strive to be first in mind with your customers. Although this sounds elementary, its amazing how many companies take their customers for granted. In fact, the average company loses 10% of its customers per year. A 5% decrease in customer defections can increase profits by 25% to 125%, depending on the industry.
Many companies assume that if they don't hear anything from the customer, its good news. Well, its not. Certainly it's cheaper and easier to sell back into an existing customer base than to find new customers. It's important for the vendor to continue to engage the customer over time. You should be the vendor that your customers consider when doing research or gathering information on a subject related to your products and services. You should be first in mind when your customer is looking for complementary products or services that you provide.
What Does It Mean to Your Business?
Being first in mind with leads, prospects and customers means maximizing your sales and marketing resources and your revenue. Many of us think that interacting early with a lead is enough, but the reality is nurturing leads can create more sales than the initial lead generation itself. It's also about nurturing your customer base. Being first in mind has a tremendous impact on business:
• It means optimizing the budget allocated to prospecting by better targeting the prospect base. Why spend money on marketing to prospects that don’t have, or won't have, a need for your products or services? Targeting suggests that you know your perfect prospect profile and can target specifically to that profile.
• It means your business becomes a source of information and you build credibility long before sales reps get involved. It's about providing sales teams warmer leads. It's about better educating the prospect base. Before spending money, the prospect will certainly research and gather information. What better way to become a trusted source of information to a prospect than to help them become educated on your market space.
• It's about maximizing your marketing dollars. Leads that are generated, incubated and nurtured could potentially close at some point in the cycle. These leads can’t be left untouched to leak out of the funnel. The fact is that a majority of those leads won’t buy from you within the first few months, but they will buy from you or your competitor eventually. According to a study by Cahners (Reed) Business Information of 40,000 inquiries tracked, 23% bought within 6 months, while an additional 67% indicated they still intended to buy. You will get the business if you stay in touch, after your competitors have moved on to chase their newest leads.
• It's about continuing to engage your leads and closing business. It's about turning inquiries into leads, leads into opportunities, opportunities into customers and customers into repeat business.
• It's about retaining customers and selling back into that base. It's about maximizing your marketing and sales efforts. It's about maximizing your revenue potential.
Editor's Note: Be sure to read Part II of this article, "How Can My Business Become First in Mind?" at www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com.
Lisa Cramer is president of LeadLife Solutions. She can be contacted at lcramer@leadlife.com.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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