What Every Marketer Must Know About Their Best Customers

As a marketer, how much do you really know about your best customers?  How much more should you know in order to retain them and find more like them?

I’ve posted several times about the importance of complete current top customer knowledge, Too Many Marketers Have Too Little Customer Knowledge and What You Don't Know About Your Best Customers Equals What You Don't Know About Your Best Prospects .

I can’t stress this enough because without knowing your best customers, you and your sales reps are just floundering when it comes to effective lead generation and customer retention. It’s like trying to catch a fish without the right lures or equipment. You probably won’t catch what you want.   

Most sales & marketing experts will agree that defining your best prospects and retaining your best customers hinges on what you actually know about those current best customers. They are the key to a successful business future. If you don’t know them, you don’t know enough.

So, how much do you know about your best customers and how much more should you know? 

Here is a list of vital key customer knowledge that every marketer should be gathering and leveraging to keep their best customers and find more like them. 

• Correct Name (seems simple, but think of how many different ways the same company is spelled and entered into your systems)
• HQ address and other location addresses – plants, service points, etc. 
• Phone, Fax, Website, Email
• Primary SIC code, and secondary if applicable
• Industry Segment (your classification for analysis)
• Annual revenue
• Employee size
• Number of years in business
• Parent company (if any) and applicable information about them
• Company divisions or units, if any, how many and what products do each sell 
• Merger and acquisition history
• Partners and affiliations
• Major customers
• Primary products and other related products
• Product (s) they buy from you
• What other products might they use from you?  Which department/division/units might use your products, contact names, and will your current contact refer
• How often they buy from you
• Why they buy from you – price, quality, service, locations, effective communication, or other
• How much of their total last year revenue was influenced by your product
• How often you communicate with them and the method they prefer
• Their current market share
• Their major competitors and their competitors’ current market share
• What competitors do you sell to, what products, how much
• Your share of customer wallet, share of competitor wallet and potential for each
• Their current industry challenges
• Their latest press releases and newsletters, plus external news on them
• Trade publications the decision makers read/subscribe to
• Lead Source – what lead source did they originate from
• Outstanding proposals you have with them
• Decision maker/Contact for each key account/division/unit, the product sold to those, along with titles, email, phone extensions for each and personal interests
• Influencers to the decision makers, along with their contact information

I encourage everybody to comment and / or add to this list.  Perhaps, together, we can build a very effective type of “Vital Best Customer Knowledge List” for the benefit of all marketers. 

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Comments

[Debbie Mahler]

Hello Bob! Thank you so much for allowing the reprint on our site.

I do have a question about this article.

How is a business supposed to get this information from their customer? I know I'm really squeamish when someone asks me that kind of stuff right off the bat!

How do you suggest we approach our customers to get this? Or do we gradually gather this a bit at a time?

Thanks! Debbie

[Bob Sullivan]

Hi Debbie, and thanks for sharing my post. Almost all the listed customer information is easily obtainable without ever having to ask and customer a single question. How?

- Their website: most up-to-date company sites will be a wealth of information on all the basics like correct company name, parent company, product details, divisions, plus their press releases and annual reports will often provide even more information.

- Industry News: at its most basic, just simple research on places like Google, Hoovers, PRNewswire, Yahoo! Finance and multiple other business research resources. From these places, you can find current news on their industry challenges, external press releases, possibly market share stats and major competitor information.

- Your sales & marketing teams: A company’s own sales & marketing people, using a good database should constantly be gathering, sharing, and leveraging customer information such as products they buy from you, how often they buy, key contact details and so on.

Hope this helps answer your questions.

[Achinta Mitra]

Hello Bob,

Great post! Your list is very impressive. I wish I could add to it but you've covered it all. I am going put to good use your advice on how to get all this information without ever having to ask the customer directly.

I've added a link to your post on my IndustrialMarcom blog.

Thanks

[Bob Sullivan]

Hello Achinta,

Thanks for the great introduction and link to this post on your blog! You have an impressive website, blog and client list. Obviously, you do know your best customers and are successful in finding more like them.

Thanks again.

[Jesus]

Hi, it's a great blog!

I'd added one key more to study the natural network of your customers. The numbers of competidors in the trade area and the name, to study the spatial relation with your customer and its competidors.

Sorry, but my English is so bad! I'm Spanish.

I invite you to visit my geomarketing blog. It's in Spanish, but you car read in English with the Google Translator toolbar.

Http:\\geomarketingspain.blogspot.com