“Lori has a knack for finding solutions for communicating with new potential customers. She is a good listener and a source of solutions.” – Gary Zide, HBA
“The Database Diva is a marketing idea machine. Lori’s enthusiasm for helping us effectively market our business is contagious and has made s a significant difference in how we reach our customers. Every seminar, every email, every consulting session has the potential to ramp up your business!” – Tom Petrie, Bad Dog Pictures
I am known as The Database Diva because I do one thing and one thing only: I work with business owners, sales executives and solo professionals to squeeze every drop of profit out of their customer database.
My approach is based on the concept of nurturing existing business relationships using database marketing. That term may sound intimidating and highly technical, but it’s really not.
Database marketing is simply a common-sense business tool that uses customer data to shift your company’s emphasis from selling products and services to the person you’re selling them to. By listening to customers and giving them what they want (not what you think they need) you achieve the ultimate business purpose: To grow your customer base.
Everyone conceptually understands why nurturing existing customer relationsips is important. But most organizations do not consistently execute ROI-based relationship-building strategies. They treat business development as an offensive game, focusing mainly on getting “the next customer.” Or worse: They treat customers and prospects alike.
Consequently, the company’s number one asset, its customer list, is constantly under siege from competitor poaching, a loss of potential new business due to poor follow up, and customers who seek alternative providers because they feel underappreciated.
Actions speak louder than words.
It’s at least 7 times easier to sell to an existing customer than find a new one. Yet companies often expend 7 times the investment in time and talent prospecting and ignoring their #1 capital asset. Money doesn’t buy access to customers anymore. “Social CRM” is the currency of the day.
Social CRM means you must develop an active policy of listening to the marketplace, listening to customers and opening a feedback loop for clients and potential clients to tell you what they want. You and your organization no longer control these customer conversations–your customers do–but you can influence them.
Therefore, your actions speak volumes about your intent. Are you filling your communication channels with desperate “buy it from me now” messaging? Or are you joining in the conversation already taking place in your clients’ minds using influence language via thought leadership?
My role is to assess how your business can flip this 7:1 ratio back to cementing customer conversations first. The goal: To insure you’re in the running for and closing 100% of the available potential business from your customer base–e.g., the “easy” sale.
I start with my trademarked 15-point database diagnostic which identifies and benchmarks where you are now vs. where you want to be.
4 Kinds of Database Marketing Services
Then we select a project or series of projects to build a database marketing system that puts you on track for more referrals, more leads and more meaningful conversations. These projects can be done in one of 4 ways:
- “Done for You” Consulting. For well-established solo professionals or business owners who are experts in their field, see the value in pursuing a database marketing strategy, but simply don’t have the time or interest to do it themselves.
- “Hands On” Consulting. For business owners, sales professionals or solo practitioners who know what they want to accomplish and want me to “look over their shoulder” and coach them while they do the work themselves.
- Critique Session. You’re in the process of executing database marketing strategies to achieve company goals, but you’d like an expert to give you a thumbs up or thumbs down on various parts of your plan.
- 15-Point Database Diagnostic. You’re just starting to wrap your arms around the concept of relationship marketing and social networking, and you’d like a check-list diagnostic on your customer database, website or social networking plans as a first step in your thought process so you don’t make any mistakes or carry any misconceptions. The diagnostic includes an assessment of where you are now, plus actionable recommendations.
Here is a sampling of projects I work with clients on:
- Setting up a contact management or CRM system
- Database segmentation to find “riches in niches”
- Profiling existing quality clients to find more like them
- Identifying and acquiring lists and databases that encompass your customer universe
- Capturing your company’s core message and creating a branding platform and distribution methodology for it
- Setting up a follow-up drip marketing program
- Launching a responsive e-newsletter
- Writing and executing customer surveys, then telling you what the results mean to your business
- Leveraging social networking platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to generate leads, word of mouth recommendations and visibility
- Integrating offline database marketing with your online initiatives via modifications to your website or recommending corporate blogging strategies
Not sure where to begin?
Click here or call to schedule a free 15-minute consult: 1+314-485-4350. Or use the Live Help box to the right and instant message me.
