Blog - Data analysis news and comment

Welcome to Information Drivers data analysis blog. Here you will find data analysis ideas and suggestions for a more profitable business. In each post there are tips and techniques for using data and the analytics required to achieve results.

I hope you find these tips and techniques useful. If you have any questions by all means contact me personally.

call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com

Are your customer relationships being looked after?

No matter what type of business you run, the need to maintain good customer relations is essential. How is this achieved? By using a CRM database to maintain names and addresses, details of sales, past communication and diarised actions. There are many to choose from (yes, I've helped organisations choose the right one for them), but what they all have in common is data.

That data may be input directly and or sourced from another system e.g. sales order processing, a website or perhaps a customer services team. All this data needs to be relevant, up to date and accurate.

On a recent client project, I reviewed all their customer data, identifying issues that needed to be resolved. One of their biggest challenges was the duplication of customer data. There may be many reasons for duplicate entries, but they need to be resolved so you communicate with customers using accurate names and addresses.

This particular project dealt with millions of customer records, but just as when working with smaller businesses, customer data needs to be maintained to high standards. Just imagine how you would feel receiving poorly addressed mail or an inappropriate offer? It doesn't feel good, it's as if they don't care and if that's the case why would you buy from them?

If you are implementing a CRM or perhaps it's time you reviewed the content of your existing system, call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

How can we prove or disprove the real value of social media?

It's fascinating, for some Social Media definitely works, for others apparently it doesn't and for the silent majority they are at best unsure. Like most things in life, it's all about doing the right thing at the right time. In this regard, Social Media is no different. The trick, if that is what it is, is knowing what is the right thing, when it should be done and to which audience.

In simple terms Social Media covers pretty much any on-line non-commercial interaction. That may be communication via blogs, forums or social networking, collaboration via bookmarking,  wikis or rating system, or multi-media such as videos and images. What these all have in common is their potential to influence future purchase, so it is no surprise that this is such a hot topic.

To understand the true value of Social Media, we need to inject comprehensive measurability. This measurability takes into consideration data from:

Social Media activity; blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc Website data, pages views, referral pages, etc Email marketing, campaigns, etc Sales transactions Call centre and or customer service

Overlaying these discrete data sets showed where one impacts the other. In this example, we see that email marketing was used to promote Social Media, and after a dip, website traffic increased as did sales in relation to Social Media activity.

As ever, the devil is in the detail and the detail is within the data. High level trends provide comfort but don't necessarily identify which activity made the most impact. One needs to dig a little deeper into the detail to understand what worked best e.g.: which Social Media channel is working best in terms of response and which ultimately generate sales.

There is no doubting the power of Social Media, what one needs to do is capitalise on it. To understand its impact fully there is no escaping the need for comprehensive measurability. You may strike lucky but if you don't appreciate the full impact the benefits could evaporate as quickly as they appeared.

If you're still wondering about Social Media and its value to your organisation or perhaps you're unsure if your investments are delivering the results you envisaged then by all means call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

If you knew what marketing doesn't work, would you keep doing it?

Are we creatures of habit? How long does it take us to learn that something just isn't working? Invariably we keep doing the same thing until it dawns on us that we have been wasting our time. So how can we short cut this process and improve our marketing?

First off, we need to measure marketing performance to identify what is and isn't working. Against each marketing activity, we need to identify who was included, who responded (e.g. read your email) and who took up your offer (registered for an event, made a purchase).

Using this information, we summarise the data to show a count for each; target, responder and converted. Add percentage response and conversion and once sorted, we are on our way to understanding what works and what doesn't. You now have to decide what you are going to stop doing!

Taking a step back to marketing basics for a moment. To be successful, we need to target the right person, with the right message at the right time. If any element isn't right then chances are, our marketing won't work and we will not achieve the desired result.

• Right person - define your target audience and then use your data to identify that customer segment (a group of customers with shared needs)
• Right message - what is special about that customer segment, ensure the message is specific to that group, use your customer data to research their needs
• Right time - identify the best time to communicate your offer, use your data to understand when this is

Data is key to successful marketing; customer contact details, communication history and sales. With these available, we have the basis to understand what works, do more of it and increase sales.

If you'd like help to understand your marketing performance, access your customer data or to do more of what works best, then by all means call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

Are you missing opportunities by not really knowing your customers?

Let's face it, you expect the shops you regularly buy goods from to know you and your preferences. Whether on-line or your favourite local store, both seek opportunities to sell you more. The on-line store will make recommendations based on similar customer purchases. In your local store, the sales assistant will make a personal suggestion based on their experience.

So how are they maximising those sales opportunities?

In a local store, delivery of a recommendation may be done personally, but that doesn't mean it's all from memory or just instinct. Good knowledge of purchase preferences and product combinations is key to increasing sales value. Do you receive discount for being a regular customer? Perhaps you have a loyalty card or do they know you by name and log the sale accordingly?

Of course, the on-line store will know who you are, what you purchased and if you redeemed a coupon. This all starts to build up a picture of your purchase preferences and provides the potential to understand what products you prefer.

It's not just sales data that will help to build that picture:

• How often do your customers view your website?
• Do they read your newsletter?
• How often and what interests them?
• Have they enquired about a product?
• Did they have cause for complaint, how well was it dealt with?
• Are they a happier customer having received excellent service?

All of the answers to these questions are probably held in a system, database or spreadsheet somewhere in your organisation. Bringing all these elements together will created a more complete picture of your customers, and prospects too!

How do you go about this? Current subscribers will already know - they received our "Free guide to profiting from customer data" - just subscribe to receive your copy (top right of this page).

If you feel that you may be missing opportunities, then by all means call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

Reduce inefficiencies and increase value

It's certainly a big ask to reduce inefficiencies and at the same time increase value. Can both really be achieved? With the right information, the answer is a resounding yes!

Where do I get the right information? The first step is to identify where your business stores it's data; about customers, products, services, etc. These might be a sales system, accounts or call handling system. Think about all those customer processes and list the systems and databases that support them.

How do I identify inefficiencies? Consider each customer process and how well it performs; which marketing communications fail to elicit a response, are some products sold at a loss, how many calls does it take to service a customer request?

Will my systems be able to provide that information? If may be that the information needed to support measurement isn't readily available. But, what information is available, what data could perhaps be used to measure performance? What needs to happen to it so that it can be used?

How reliable will that information be? Small companies and big organisations frequently suffer issues with their data. This doesn't mean it can't be used, it simply requires that the issues should be understood. If communicating by email, then address validity may be of a lesser concern.

How do I increase value? This is the flip side to tackling those inefficiencies. By reducing waste, you will be increasing value. Further, by measuring performance, you will identify customer processes that work well and do more of them and less of those that don't!

Measurability isn't the preserve of big organisations, quite the contrary. Experience often  demonstrates that smaller business are more adept at change and seizing opportunities. Ultimately it is those businesses that understand their performance, addressing short falls and maximising advantages, that will be the winners.

Reducing inefficiencies and increasing value is all about detail and the detail is in your data. We have a free guide available to help - just sign up to receive it or call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

Don't just market any product, market your best products!

How did you react to the last marketing flyer that hit your desk? What was it that caught your attention, an exciting product perhaps? No, it wasn't interesting, why not? Not specific or targeted, how could it have been better? Here is a simple but effective idea to make sure your best products are marketed to the right people...

If you've read this blog previously, you'll understand how customer segmentation helps target specific groups of customers based on their purchasing behaviours. So how about applying these very same principals to your products?

Focusing on the sales of your products, against each product consider the following measures:

• When was the last sale? (days since last sale)
• How often is it sold? (e.g. once per week, every month or every other month, etc)
• Do you make a good margin? (in absolute terms of perhaps a percentage)

Sort the data based on these measures and review the findings. Start building a picture of how products perform and group them together, just like an customer centric RFV.

One of these groups will be for your best products. This group will identify the products that sold recently, sell frequently and deliver a high margin.

Armed with this knowledge you can market your best products, ones that steer your customers towards products that deliver you a healthy margin.

Hopefully this has you reaching for your data and dreaming up new ideas for your marketing, but if you might need a little help by all means call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

Time to take the gloves off with your sales data!

Boxing clever with your data is critical to successful business – but then we would say that wouldn’t we? With some possible early signs of an improving business climate, perhaps now is the right time!

Some business leaders leave report production to the apprentice, just using those figures to monitor things they already knew. If your reports are dull, you don’t look forward to receiving them then something is definitely wrong. They’re your numbers, if they don’t deliver compelling information stop using them!

No, we are not suggesting an information free zone, far from it. It’s just that life is too short to waste time on reports that offer no insights or business value.

If you’re swamp with reports, then take some time out to sift through them. Sort them into separate piles ranging from ‘possibly useful’ through to ‘essential reading’. Now take another look and recall where you changed your business as a result. Was a shortcoming in a business process identified, were sales up last month as a result? Pull those reports out and see how they differ from everything else.

Consider ditching the ‘possibly useful’ reports and some of the ‘essential reading’ that didn’t change the way you do business. The goal is to have a manageable set of reports that improve business going forward.

Dismiss those dull reports and work with the apprentice (or whoever produces your reports) to generate insightful information that will improve the way you do business.

Could your data deliver that knockout punch? If you need help getting your data into shape call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

Which customer segments are highly profitable?

Have you ever wondered which customer segments perform best? Strangely comparatively few organisations actually know the answer. It's as if they are happy to market to all customers without regard to their value.

Where does one start? Customers who buy regularly may be cherry picking your best offers - do you get all their potential business? Customers who haven't shopped for a while could be more profitable than those that purchased recently. And just because a order value is high doesn't mean that profitability is good!

In a challenging market you need to maintain an edge over the competition. You can be sure they are keeping a close eye on your customers and your marketing!

A good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) or customer sales system will contain the data you need to really understand your customer segments.

Segments are developed by analysing buying trends and or customer demographics. Together they provide a picture of all your customers which in turn focuses marketing investments on the most profitable customers.

Smart businesses focus on profitable business, that's probably you. If you'd like to maintain that competitive edge why not call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

The Data Surgery - the place to ask for advice about data

The Data Surgery is a new service provided by Information Drivers. It is the place to ask for advice about your systems data, the information you need and the means to unlock its potential.

We recognise that organisations sometimes need help with their data. You may be struggling with data quality issues. Perhaps you are having difficultly extracting the information you need.

Whatever your issue, with 20 years experience of systems and data, we can probably help. If we can't help, we will recommend you to a specialist who can.

Just submit your question to The Data Surgery.

Do you know how many databases you have?

Some businesses know exactly how many databases they have, others can identify the main ones and a few can only guess.

• Do you have a database?
• Do you know how many databases you have?
• Do you know what information they hold?

Like many of the people I talk too, you have probably wondered how much of the information you need on a daily basis is locked away inside those databases? So why isn't it used?

• Someone has to run extracts before reports can be produced
• Figures from one database don't match with those from the other databases
• It is just to complicated

Each database will have different information; enquiries, orders,  accounts, customer service and marketing communications to name but a few. Together they provide a comprehensive but all to often conflicting view of the business.

If you had consistent information from all across your organisation, you could be focused on  improving business performance and not spending so long gathering data and resolving conflicting information.

Would you like to know how? If that is a yes, do call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

Not using corporate data should probably be an offence

Businesses sit on huge volumes of customer data: enquiries, financial transactions and service records, but what are they doing with that data? Yes, they report on service level agreements and measuring financial performance, but what is produced that challenges or changes business?

Often time is spent producing reports that have little actual impact on business. They might show that one department performed better than another or product (a) sold more than product (b). So what? How is that information going to change the business condition?

Yes, organisations who measure business performance are more likely to be successful than those that don't, but could that data be better applied? The message here is measure business performance, but not for its own sake, deliver information that will direct business improvement.

As with all information, the devil is invariably in the detail. Did some departments receive more training, how did the incentive program perform, was staff morale higher or lower in some teams? What are the competitive pressures on those products, are some new and others out of date and how were they promoted?

The answers to these questions (and far more) can have a marked impact and without this information, wrong decisions could easily be made. What is the effect of a poor decision? Unfortunately many businesses lacked sufficient early warnings and the results have been catastrophic. Corporate data is your marketing and business intelligence and it is your early warning system!

The good news is that we live in a digital age and almost everything is measurable. So there are no excuses, not using corporate data should probably / certainly be an offence. You choose?

It is not a matter of simply producing reports, I'm advocating investigation into why business is running the way it is. Why does a department perform better than another or why has a product sold more. Most importantly, what are your customers doing? Why are they changing their purchasing habits? What is the impact of that change?

The common theme throughout is using corporate data, using it to understand what works, what doesn't, what is changing and most importantly why, why, why!

The impact of using corporate data is as huge as the data volumes available, not using it just seems like a crime. Would information that improves your business be useful? If that is a yes, do call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

What are the benefits of a customer retention strategy?

It is understood that selling to existing customers is more cost effective than pitching for new business. Supermarkets and companies such as Amazon capitalise on this principal. They know who their customers are, what, when and how much they purchase and use this knowledge to devise propositions that entice customers to return and buy more goods.

These companies and others like them, have retention programs to help keep their business front of customer mind when making purchases. When considering purchase of a music CD or book, you probably think of Amazon. Similarly, for food you automatically think of your preferred supermarket. The brand plays a part in that decision, but it’s the service you receive that will ultimately keep you coming back.

Key to retention is understanding customers and how to service their needs. It’s unlikely that your customers are all the same, they will probably fall into a number of groups or segments. By segmenting customers into discrete groups, you can address each group’s specific needs e.g. occasional shoppers, price sensitive or volume purchasers, etc.

Yes, it’s easier to send a general news letter or piece of promotional material to all customers than targeted communications. But if you were on the receiving end, how would you feel? What would be the implied message? Customer segmentation as part of a retention strategy provides the context for each communication. Communications with regular customers might be to thank them for their continued business, whereas infrequent customers may be sent purchase incentives and less profitable customers bulk purchase discounts.

Using historic sales information, it is possible to build customer segmentation that will support your business growth. Sales data held in your systems provides the basis to understand how often customers purchase, what they buy and which offers they respond to.

A classic retention model will identify discrete customer segments e.g. best customers in terms of recent, regular and profitable business. Similarly it will reveal segments that require attention e.g. lapsed and previously best customers. Perhaps most significantly, it will also identify customers who have the potential to become tomorrow’s best customers.

From a business view point, how profitable are your customers? You may have customers that are hugely profitable; some where you actually lose money and many others in between. Should you treat them all the same? Probably not! Placing customers into profitability segments makes it simpler to ensure they receive appropriate communications e.g. change of terms for unprofitable business!

Customers who purchase regularly can easily be viewed as the life blood of a business. Quite often this is true, but each needs to be seen in terms of profitability too. Are regular purchasers only taking advantage of your offers or have they succumbed to your excellent service? In the current economic climate, it is appropriate to view changes in behaviour to. If customers are ordering less frequently or in lower quantities, what is the reason for this? What might be the long term impact on your business? Could you help them and retain their longer term business?

Moreover, should you just focus attention on recent customers? Clearly it’s good practice to welcome new customers and thank them for their business, but what of customers who have not placed an order recently? What could be done to encourage another purchase? By understanding their previous purchases, relevant offers can be communicated.

Your sales system undoubtedly maintains customer names, addresses and records of sales. This information will provide the basis to build customer insights that reveal latent sales potential and the understanding necessary to translate that knowledge into sales.

You’re probably wondering what you should do next. These results would be just what’s needed to improve customer service and increase sales. To discuss your needs, receive objective advice or help, call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

How do clients rate your corporate value?

I thought I'd share an idea with you. Last week I was discussing a project in the financial services sector. The client realised they had a wealth of information in their CRM database. What they needed was help to use it effectively. They wanted to understand their customer base, who was doing what, how often and how valuable they were as a client.

During our conversation, we turned our focus around to the client. We considered how valuable the organisation was from a customer perspective? What was the perceived value of the products purchased? How good were the services they received?

This is just like a a classic RFV model (recency, frequency and value of transaction). The value element is typically based on gross margin. But in this case we are to have another quotient: client value!

In this specific case, client value is derived from the return on their investments. It takes into consideration the ups and downs of the market. To provide a balanced view, figures are base on an extended period (e.g. minimum 12 months).

If you work in the financial services sector, then obviously you could do something similar (would you like to understand how, call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com).

But what about everyone else?  The value quotient should be based on the products and services you provide. It's your customer's perceived value of your organisation. Here are a few examples that you might like to consider:

• Product pricing, actual cost to client vs. retail or standard price
• Volume discounting benefits
• Response to customer service enquiries
• Return on investment

You might like to review this article on customer segmentation. It provides the basis upon which to measure your client's value. Adding other quotients, will then provide a view of your corporate value.

Would your business benefit form a client value perspective? Would you like to know what is involved? Just call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com to arrange a no obligation discussion.

Information needs for mergers and acquisitions

In the current economic climate, there will probably be more casualties. Hardly a week goes by without another high street name filing for administration. Fortunately some rather than closing become subject to merger and acquisition negotiations.

What are the information needs for a successful merger or acquisition? Not the legal documents, ownership or binding contracts, but the business data. What data due diligence is required to underwrite the deal?

The target for the merger or acquisition will have systems and databases. These systems and databases contain data that once transformed will provide valuable information. Information to judge the likely value of that merger or acquisition:

• Number of customers broken down by year of acquisition and last transaction
• Who are the best customers? How do they value the company?
• Which are the best selling products and services? How profitable are they?

Digging a little deeper and subject to greater access to the targets data; Where are the business opportunities? What area of the business shows greatest potential? Consider a full business opportunity assessment to reveal the answers!

These might include:

• Ratio of new business acquisition vs. repeat sales to current customers
• Customer loyalty: Recency and frequency of sales and average gross margin
• Comparison of customer bases; how much overlap is there between the companies merging, how many customers would be open to cross-sales of the other companies products and services (both directions)?

Businesses seeking possible mergers or acquisitions will be interested in this information. If that's you, wouldn't you be more confident armed with a full assessment of your targets potential? Probably? Are you a potential target? Would negotiations be more favourable with this information available?

To understand what is involved, just call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com for a confidential discussion.

What do customers ultimately buy?

When speaking about data, I often refer to supermarkets and on-line retailers. They know when and what you purchased and value this information. Amazon are one of the best examples of companies that value their data. There can't be many people who haven't made a purchase from Amazon. So it provides a great reference point for other businesses. It helps them understand how they should use their data.

If you've purchased on Amazon, you'll be familiar with "people who purchased this product also ordered these products". They are using prior purchase data to suggest items of potential interest. It's a great way of enticing further purchases and it works!

Have you noted the feature "what do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?" It's nice to know a high percentage of customers ultimately buy what you are viewing. It's reassuring to know you're about to make a 'good' decision. Conversely, if most buy something else, perhaps you should be wondering why? Perhaps you view the alternatives or do some more research before purchase.

These examples demonstrate how data can deliver beneficial customer services. Ultimately they entice further purchases and provide comfort in purchase decisions. Both are very good for business growth.

So why am I blogging about Amazon? What is the relevance to your business?

If selling on-line, I would encourage you to consider doing something similar. Even if you have a small business, you could deploy these sales techniques. You could use your sales data to direct what customers ultimately buy.

If you're not selling on-line, you could still be enticing further purchases. Your sales data can be used to make recommendations for future purchases. Those propositions can be delivered with other purchases and or invoices.

Have you got a sales system or database? Could you find out what your customers purchased? Would you like to use that information to direct what customers ultimately buy? If that's a yes, then call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com to understand what is involved.

What results should you expect in 2009?

No doubt you are probably planning your marketing strategy for 2009. If not quite yet, may be your considering the information you will need:

• Who were your lowest and highest value customers in 2008?
• Which customers do you want to be with you in 2009?
• How are you going to increase their value to your business?

Here are a few thoughts to help you formulate your ideas:

• Take a look at those reports you used this year
• What did they tell you? Were they actionable?
• Did they provide clear direction for your marketing?
• Were you able to do things differently as a result?
• Which marketing strategies delivered the best results?

Having considered 2008, what about 2009? How can you improve the information you use to direct your marketing? If not doing so already, perhaps consider one or more of these models:

• What does the year-on-year order profile look like?
• How well do we retain our customers?
• What is the customer lifetime value of our clients?
• How often do customers purchase products and services?
• What combination of products and services are purchased?

NB. Each model is explained with a worked example based on real scenarios.

Our guide to generating revenue from your corporate data has valuable advice. You can receive this free guide by subscribing to our newsletter (top right of this page).

If you would like some help with your project, then please request an informal discussion call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

What would the results of a project provide? How would the results be presented? Here are the results of a business opportunity assessment (based on real projects).

Selling what your customers want

Does it come as a surprise that businesses run into difficulties when they don't sell enough of what customers want? Probably not, but it's sad to see in the news that two major retailers failed. In the case of Woolworths, they've been struggling for some time, so perhaps it wasn't a huge surprise given the poor economic climate. With the downturn in the housing market, MFI was probably going to be hit by falling demand for its products.

With 20:20 hindsight, could they have seen this coming? Probably, but what about other businesses? Not just retailers, but those who sell a range of products and services. How well informed are they about their customer purchasing habits?

One such area to keep a watchful eye on is what's in their basket? By this I mean, what things do they buy and most importantly, in what combination?

Maybe as a fan of HiFi you're buying a new music amplifier. A switched on sale assistant would probably ask how your speakers are performing too. When buying a shirt, perhaps a tie to go with it or maybe shoes to go with your new outfit!

These may seem obvious, they probably are for a small retailer. But what about larger businesses? What about all those on-line sales? There is less interaction with the customer and undoubtedly missed opportunities.

So what can be done to capture these opportunities?

Market basket analysis is the common term given to understanding what combinations of products customers purchase. You've probably made purchases at Amazon; they present a message such as "people who bought this item also purchased this item". This is just the sort of thing that market basket analysis delivers.

What does market basket analysis provide?

• An understanding of which product combinations are purchased the most
• Identification of customers who only purchase one of those products
• The ability to target those customers based on other purchasing habits

Here is an example of the results - purchases (customers purchasing that combination), product combinations and potential (customers purchasing just one or other of the identified products)

Do you sell a wide range of products and services? Would it be beneficial to understand your customer purchasing habits? If that's a yes, do get in touch to arrange an informal discussion, call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

Alternatively, to understand more about this approach view market basket analysis.

In search of a competitive edge

Sometimes that elusive piece of information doesn't appear when you need it. Given the economic turmoil, now's the time to have a competitive edge. Use your data to develop an advantage over your competitors.

Do you know what information your competitors use? Have they ever caught you off guard? Perhaps they announced a new volume discount or compelling cross-sell offer.

Did they introduce a loss-leader used to gain business from your customers. Perhaps they made a bold attempt to steal your market share. But could it be that they have developed a competitive edge?

Your corporate data can help you understand more about your customers:

• Which products or services do they purchase?
• How often do they order those products or services?
• What price are they paying?

Armed with this information you can review their purchasing habits:

• Have your best customers switched to a different, perhaps cheaper product?
• Are they doing more on their own without your expertise?
• Could they be getting a better price, are they getting a good deal?

It's critical to review your customers purchasing habits and any recent changes. This will help you manage customers that may be at risk.

Now turn this information to your advantage:

• Is it likely that your customers are also customers of your competitors?
• How much do they actually need / use of those products and services?
• What proportion of their budget have you achieved?
• Could you develop a proposition that would reduce your competitors share?
• Better still what would it take to close out your competitors?

No doubt you have customer information available.  You probably use it regularly to manage business performance. Could it be used to develop a competitive edge?

Would you like to understand how to use your data to develop that competitive edge? If that's a yes, do get in touch to arrange an informal discussion call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

Alternatively our guide to generating revenue from your corporate data has valuable advice. You can receive this free guide by subscribing to our newsletter (also top right of this page).

Venn and the power of relationships

No doubt you probably recall drawing Venn diagrams at school. You may even remember they were introduced by John Venn  in 1880. Venn's are a simple yet powerful method for representing relationships between sets.

Here is a quick reminder of how they work. Each circle represents a group of things or set. In this example we have three sets: A, B and C. Each contains a group of customers: Set 'A' represents all customers Set 'B' recent product buyers Set 'C' customers opening a campaign email The overlaps represent those customers who have a relationship within each group.

From such a simple representation, customers with different behaviours can be selected:

• Customers who opened the campaign email and made recent purchases
• Buyers who didn't open the campaign email
• Customers who opened the email but didn't buy

There are marketing systems that support Venn diagram analysis. You can load customer data and interactively analyse how they behave. Building on our simple scenario above:

• How did your best customers respond to your latest campaign?
• What sets those customers who responded apart from those who didn't?
• Where is the greatest opportunity to do more business?

Venn diagrams offer a simple yet powerful method to understand your customers.  Would you like to understand how this analysis could help your business? If that's a yes, we'd love to help, call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

Targeted mailings deliver greater ROI

Think back to when you last received a sales proposition. Was it specific to your situation and did you respond positively?

You might not have taken up the offer, but you probably felt positive about that organisation. Isn't that how we all want our prospective customers to feel?

So how do you target your audience with specific propositions? If you don't know anything about them, how do you target them?

Understand who your existing customers are first:

• What do they buy?
• How often do they make a purchase?
• Where do they live and what are their demographics?

Identify which group of your customers you would like more of:

• What sets these customers apart from others?
• How would you describe them?
• Where would you expect to find similar customers?
• What offer would you present to them?

Armed with this information, you can now conduct a targeted mailing campaign. It almost goes without saying, measure the results to determine your return on investment. These valuable results will also help you with further campaigns.

Is this a simple process? Do you have customer information available? Would you like some help identifying which customers to target? If that's a yes,  we'd be pleased to help, call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com.

Being agile in an economic downturn

Now is the time to take advantage of the current economic situation. Financial institutions and airlines have been hit and there's probably more to come. Undoubtedly other sectors will feel the effects of the credit crunch too.

Agile businesses spot the opportunities and identify the threats quicker than others. It's no surprise that these organisations are well informed. They know what is happening in their business and can manage the associated risks.

Questions to ask:

• How well informed are we as an organisation?
• Are our competitors better informed?
• Where do we make most profit, which customers and products?
• Have we already experienced changes?
• Could we use what we know to be a more agile business?

It's already happening, businesses are seizing opportunities to out manoeuvre their competitors. The best informed are probably going to be the winners.

Data is a fantastic resource. It provides insight into your whole business: customers, products and services, sales, costs and profitability. Make sure you are exploiting your information resources and ensure you have an agile business.

Have you got everything in place to be well informed? Could you do with some help or guidance? If that's a yes, do get in touch, call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com, advice maybe all you need!

Information silos - how many do you have?

Some organisations struggle to understand what is happening in their business. Typically their information is stored in different information silos:

• Sales knows who achieved the greatest sales
• Marketing can identify which campaigns generated the best response
• Support understands when the peak times are for service requests
• Finance knows how much profit was made

No surprise then, successful organisations have a joined up view of business. They invest in combining their information sources, building comprehensive business insight. Decisions are made with great understanding of business impact:

• How short term sales tactics impact profitability
• That marketing campaigns increase demands on customer service
• Why low service levels impact future sales

Imagine the impact of combining the power of your data. How many information silos does your organisation have? What would you be able to achieve? Interested in finding out? Just call David Willis directly on: 07956 650 404 or send him an email: david.willis@information-drivers.com for a non obligation discussion and or subscribe to our newsletter and receive our free guide to generating revenue from your corporate data.

Market research - asking better questions

We're often asked to complete a questionnaire; to elicit opinions or feedback. What's strange is the information we're asked is often known by the vendor. Further, why are inappropriate questions asked? e.g.:

• Which products have you purchased?
• When did you last shop with us?
• How long have you been a customer?

Sometimes the reason given is to comply with Market Research Society standards. Other times, it's due to information not being maintained or collated. Neither are adequate justification.

If 5 out of 20 questions were things you already knew, you've wasted 25%! That's cost you money and your audience their time. Imagine being able to ask 5 more questions? What would you ask? How valuable would that information be?

When conducting market research, start by understanding your customers:

• Who are they?
• What do they buy from you?
• How often do they purchase your products or services?

Undertake customer analysis as part of your research project. As a result you will be able to ask more discerning questions. Just remember those extra 5 questions and their value to your business!

What's involved? How would you conduct the analysis? View the market research project for The Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply

Profiting from your data

Yes that's right you can profit from your investment in data. No doubt you have a number of systems that capture customer information.  Probably the most important is your CRM system. A well maintained CRM database provides huge potential for generating repeat business:

• When did they last make a purchase? Isn't it time they placed another order?
• What did they buy? Do you have other products they would be interested in?
• Are they happy with the product or service? Yes? Then sell them more!

You know far more about your customers than you do strangers. You can use your CRM data identify latent business opportunities. It's more profitable to sell to existing customers.

Most CRM systems are supplied with a reporting function. You will need a report that provides a summary of customer purchases. Perhaps something like this:

The report will contain a summary row for each customer. This makes it relatively simple to see the opportunities. Depending on how many customers you have, this maybe a big list. If you have a big list, then you may need to summarise the results. Use the data to build a cross-tabulation / pivot table.

The results will help you target existing customers with relevant offers.

Assessing data quality

Reliable information requires quality data. Most organisations have adopted CRM to improve customer service and reduce costs. As a result, far more customer data is recorded than ever before. CRM data must be high quality to ensure the information it delivers is reliable.

It's best practice to regularly assess the quality of your CRM data:

• How robust is the data? What business rules were applied at data entry?
• Focusing on customer related data - what is the meaning of the tables and fields?
• Are fields consistently populated and where not, which have missing values?
• Are values standardised and or are there free text entries?

When undertaking reporting or analysis, it is essential to understand your data. Do you run business reports from your CRM?

Our guide to generating revenue from your corporate data has a section on data quality. It provides an inexpensive way to assess your data. You can receive this free guide by subscribing to our newsletter (top right of this page)

Business data enrichment

Data enrichment can help you gain greater understanding of your customers. Appending additional information provides differentiation between apparently similar groups of customers:

• Industry classifications - Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities (SIC), Yellow Pages, Thompson's, etc
• Company status, number of years trading
• Turnover, year-on-year growth
• Number of employees, total, by branch office and job function

Analysing corporate data with this additional information can provide new levels of insight. But, as with any analysis, it is essential to understand the data being used:

• An organisation may be assigned multiple SIC codes. Which one should be used? Which most accurately reflects what the organisation actually does?

Just like marketing, analysis needs to be tested, revised and tested again. The source and reliability of information is crucial. When enriching your data, make sure you know when it was updated.

If you outsource your data enrichment, check the level of match achieved. Good bureaux will provide an estimated match level in percentage terms. If the match level isn't reached go back and ask why?

Enriched data can also be used to derive new variables:

• Spend vs. industry sector average - are customers above or below the average?
• Spend per employee - do smaller or larger companies provide greater potential?
• Number contacts vs. potential recipients - could targeting be increased?

When building customer segmentation, consider what additional data would differentiate your customers?

Cross-selling products and services

Why does a customer buy one thing but not another? I find it fascinating and enjoy searching out their purchasing patterns. Have you wondered why a customer purchases one product but not another? Why would a company buy a product but not a service?

Chances are the information is available within your sales system. You just need an alternative view that provides the comparison.

You could do this using a pivot table in a spreadsheet. If you have large volumes of data, you might consider a business intelligence solution. Business intelligence is just like a Rubik's cube, remember them? They allow you to review your figures and then re-orientate the puzzle.

This analysis compared the number of customers taking products against services: Yellow shading = cross-sell potential i.e. only products or services purchased Red shading = up-sell opportunities i.e. spend in one area is disproportionate to the other

In this example, behind each cell is the list of associated customers. It's just a matter of choosing a cell and contacting those customers.

Next time you're reviewing sales, perhaps ask yourself what could we be cross selling?

Effective content delivers increased sales

Effective content design delivers new enquiries and increased sales. No surprise there, but just how effective can it be? In conjunction with sales data, you can measure the success of your content design:

• How is product positioning influencing customer purchasing?
• What combination of products are being ordered?
• Could subtle changes increase profitability?

Measuring the effectiveness of content design isn't just for websites. With extracts from catalogue management systems, catalogue performance can be assessed too:

• Which product purchase combinations were on the same catalogue page?
• Which pages deliver the highest cross sell return?

If you run a catalogue and or have an on-line store, don't limit your analysis. Analysing content with sales data helps you understand customer buying patterns. With this knowledge you'll be able to increase content effectiveness.

FAQ for data terminology

Just like all industries there are a myriad of data related terms and phrases. You will come across many in literature, articles and websites. The Information Drivers data FAQ is designed to help you understand what they mean:

• What is a data warehouse?
• What is customer segmentation?
• What is data mining?

The FAQ explains data terminology and provides the answers to these questions and many more.

New website for sales and marketing

Today Information Drivers launched its new website for data-driven sales and marketing. The aim is to provide content that helps you use data to reveal customer insight and improve business performance. If you are a client or a visitor to these pages, we would appreciate your feedback.

Thank you to the people who helped make this happen. Particular thanks too:

• Nigel Temple at The Marketing Compass

"Having joined The Marketing Compass, we are reaping the rewards of step-by-step professional advice and feedback on marketing activities. Brilliant - thank you Nigel”  

• Jasper Williams at Juice Factory

"We wouldn't have achieved our logo objectives without the assistance of Juice Factory - thank you Jasper"