Do you have a Customer Pipeline?
There are several good reasons why every small and medium-sized business needs to build and maintain an effective customer pipeline, but perhaps the most important one is that failing to do so can jeopardize your financial stability.
Having a sustainable pipeline structure is essential to the long-term viability and growth of your business. It is impossible to be too aggressive in this area.
Many business owners lack the essential knowledge of what an effective customer pipeline entail. Items such as why I need a solid pipeline. Do I have to invest in more programs and services? How will I manage the pipeline? Do I have to hire someone to set a pipeline up?
Building a customer pipeline doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult, especially if you break the process down into a series of key stages. There are many forms of customer pipelines. We are going to look at an automated pipeline.
The goals of a customer pipeline include creating awareness, generating leads, converting leads to sales, boosting transaction value through upselling and cross-selling, and increasing frequency through reorders and repeat sales.
Start by mapping out the sequences that best align with your ideal target market profile and the products/services you would most like to begin or continue offering them. It’s easy to look at “Low-hanging fruit” at a lower price, but you should be thinking about what you can offer at a higher price that may eventually provide you with a greater return on your investment.
Any pipeline process needs to include measuring the performance of each stage (phase) of the process. Set benchmarks against existing performance and establish the potential for improvement. Knowing your numbers will allow you to make any adjustments and plug up any “leaks” in your pipeline and be able to “boost” performance in other areas.
Gathering, analyzing, and leveraging customer information are critical activities for your pipeline.
Here are 7 key stages in an effective customer pipeline.
- Offer your target market a free offer (guide, book, video, worksheet, etc.) to entice them to “opt in” to learn more about you and your business.
- Make the offer low-risk so they can easily “opt-in.” Just get their name and email.
- Once they ‘opt-in” get them what you offered to them ASAP without having them perform any additional steps.
- Have a “drip campaign” for your new prospect to get to know you better. Provide them with more relevant information – NOT selling to them.
- Introduce a new offer to them within the drip campaign. Sign up for a workshop, get another video or book, free consultation, etc.
- Once they take advantage of your second offer, they are now more likely to purchase a higher ticket-priced product or service from you. Now you can obtain more demographic information about your customers.
- Now you can offer a high price point product or service from you.
Don’t forget to measure your activities. How many people opted-in to your offer? Stayed enrolled in your drip campaign? Took advantage of your 2nd and 3rd offers?
One key to a successful pipeline (other than measuring results and making necessary adjustments) is to be consistent with your marketing efforts to always be bringing in more prospects into your pipeline.
What automated customer pipeline do you have in your business?
Contact Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you to get the results you want in your business, steve@bizcoachsteve.com, or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today.
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