“CUSTOMER ACQUISITION PROCESS”
Every small to medium sized business who offers a service or product needs a “Customer Acquisition” process to attract new clients. This is not a new requirement, it’s as old as business itself. How old is business you say? Let’s go to Google and ask Ask.com.
Japanese temple builder Kongo Gumi is the world’s oldest continuously operating family business recorded. They were in business 1,400 years; gee I wonder if our business will last that long, we can only hope.
A temple builder in operation under the founders’ descendants since 578AD succumbed to failure in 2006. We can only ponder how a company has been able to survive for 14 centuries. Several factors contributed to Kongo Gumi’s extended existence:
What finally brought the company to its end? Two primary factors:
“To sum up the lessons of Kongo Gumi’s long tenure and ultimate failure: Pick a stable industry and create flexible succession policies. To avoid a similar demise, evolve as business conditions require, but don’t get carried away with temporary enthusiasms and sacrifice financial stability for what looks like an opportunity. These lessons are somewhat contradictory and paradoxical, to be sure. But if sustained success came easy, then all family business would have a 1, 428-year run.” by
James Olan Hutcheson
Mr. Hutcheson observation and study of the Kongo Gumi’s company history helps us understand concepts involved with success and failure. Clearly this company did many things right for centuries. We can also see that businesses are only one or two steps away from failure.
When economic down turns in the economy occur, business needs to reflect on operational effectiveness, and look to improve performance in all aspect of their business. One important area is “Customer Acquisition.”
Implementing response driven “Customer Acquisition” campaigns are essential for maintaining lead generation and acquiring new clients; which should not be time consuming or an expensive process.
Five tangible solutions you can use to implement “Customer Acquisition” process and make marketing simple, secure and efficient, are:
- Using the World-Wide Web to drive Traffic to your Web-Presence:
Clients find you through Social News, Social Networking, Search Engine Optimization, and your Published Content. Focus your marketing resources on campaigns and initiatives that deliver ROI; analyze trends, do market research, look at the conversion rates, evalutate the geographic locations of leads, and manage "ad word" buying for best results.
- Clients Visit Web-Presence
The World Wide Web offers tremendous opportunities in providing access to information. It is important to provide content that is timely, accurate and understandable, delivered by systems that are friendly and relatively easy to use; and in the final analysis, capable of empowering our users to make informed decisions.
- Capturing Internet Leads In Customer Relation Management Environment.
Tight Integration of Web-CRM to capture client information allows for easy follow-up and sales promotions.
- CRM for Clients, “Cold Leads.”
Clients who are not ready to embrace your product or service can receive communication on a timely basis to maintain interest until they are ready to make decision.
- CRM for Clients, “Hot Leads.”
A repeatable sales process should be developed for your business to procure clients who have immediate requirements for their products or services.
