Turning Prospects into Customers

A show called “The Bachelor” has been airing on ABC for several years. While the premise of the show is about romance and finding a soul mate, it is worth watching for some very good lessons about the basics of multi-step marketing and turning a prospect into a customer.

That’s because the 25 contestants vying to be chosen as “the one” by the bachelor must continuously market themselves through a series of contacts during which the bachelor, as the buyer, keeps narrowing the decision until the “sale” is made.

And this is why the four-steps of courtship are a good way to define the marketing steps in customer conversion and retention. The stages of development in personal relationships are paralleled at the business level in the process of prospecting, lead generation, sales conversion, and lifetime customer value. Here’s how.

Flirting. To attract customers you need to get them interested. This is when you look your best. Use your most clever, witty or engaging conversation. You try to be interesting, entertaining, appealing and likeable to differentiate yourself from all the others.

The goal in a personal relationship is to get a date.

In a business relationship, the goal is to get a prospect to become a lead by agreeing to an action — such as setting up a meeting, allowing you to send information, coming to your store or destination or visiting your Web site.

To brush up on your flirting skills evaluate the kind of first impression you make with a prospect.

Do you take the time to develop a unique look and message that differentiates you from your competitors? Or, are you imitating what everyone else is doing?

Is it easy for you to get prospects interested in what you sell? Or does your advertising fall flat and get ignored? Are you a wallflower or are you hot?

On “The Bachelor,” at the end of the first show in each season, the bachelor selects one contestant to receive a “first impression rose.” When you compete in the marketplace how often do you get the first impression rose?

Dating. Successful flirtations will lead to a date. As anyone in the dating stage of life can tell you, this stage can last for months, and even years, before it progresses to the next step. You may be surprised to know that the same is true in business relationships.

In business, a date is when you convert a prospect to a lead. It is your first “yes.” It does not always mean that the prospect is ready to go to the next level and become a buyer.

The fact is, most consumers will shop many sources before making a first-time buying decision. Even more, consumers will often think or dream about a purchase for years before finally making it.

The higher the price of the purchase, the longer a consumer is likely to think or dream about it. Just because a lead isn’t willing to commit to a sale immediately doesn’t mean you should give up. You need to keep building and developing the relationship with a strategy called database marketing. This is essential to increasing your profitability.

Each contact with your lead database will result in additional conversions to sales. Through years of developing and implementing lead database strategies you will be able to create predictive models based on historical data. With predictive models you can map the lifetime value of the lead database and accurately project additional cash flow from each marketing effort. This will be one of the most profitable steps you’ll take.

I first began developing predictive models for businesses about 30 years ago. The length of time leads could be marketed and still be profitable has varied by company and product. The longest period of viability was one product where leads could be profitably converted to sales for up to seven years after the initial response.

Knowing the lifetime value of a lead is just as important as knowing the lifetime value of a customer.

When you stop communicating to your leads, they think you no longer care and they look for relationships with someone else. One huge mistake companies make is to think that their leads have gotten “cold.”

On “The Bachelor,” the number of contestants gets smaller each week as the bachelor gets closer to making his decision. That process doesn’t diminish the interest of the contestants who remain; it increases it. It makes them want to be “the one” more than ever.

The same is true with your leads. Time doesn’t necessarily make them less interested in what you’re selling; it can make them want it more!

Engaged. When your lead converts to a first-time purchase, congratulations are in order. You have just become engaged. The first sale is not a lifelong commitment, it is an initial commitment. It is the prospect being willing to take a chance on you. This is your second “yes.” But the prospect is not yet a customer; he or she is now a purchaser.

Businesses often take their purchasers for granted after this happens. They stop focusing on them, assuming the second purchase will come. This is the wrong strategy.

The most important thing to do at this time is to move the purchaser into a second purchase as quickly as possible. With a second purchase they become a customer.

A customer is someone who has bought more than once.

The second purchase is the most important sale you make in the lifetime of a customer. A customer who buys a second time is twice as likely to buy again as someone who has bought only once.

Married. With the second purchase you now have a committed relationship with your customer. You want to keep each customer for as many years as possible. You have built up trust and confidence. You can get the sales without doing much selling. This is the coup de gras of customer relationships.

Just like in a marriage, however, you can’t forget that the loyal customer needs to be appreciated and acknowledged on a continuing basis. Communication needs to continue. Customer perks and rewards programs can keep your customers from looking for new relationships elsewhere.

There is one caveat however. Not all customers are equal. A productive customer database will let you collect, store, merge and select information about customers to help you determine and tier your customers by value to you. Profitability depends on knowing the value of your customers.

This process will show that some customers have little value. Many companies have customers they can’t afford to keep and shouldn’t keep. These are the customers who make excessive demands. They complain constantly. They are never satisfied. They treat loyalty as a one-sided relationship.

The smart business will let them go. They are unprofitable. They are a drain on morale as much as on profit. They consume mass amounts of time that could be better distributed to the customers who provide the value.

At the end of “The Bachelor,” he will choose the contestant that is the best match for him. In business, when converting your prospects to customers, work with the processes for relationship development, build your lead and customer databases, and you’ll have a customer base that is the best match for you.

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