Do you really know your customers? Your answer might be yes, but do you understand the individualised needs of each. Knowing your potential customer increases the likelihood of closing a sale.

Here is why

Just two days ago, I received a friendly phone call from a car tracking company’s sales rep. She, the sales rep, had an incredible promotional offer. Basically, if I signed up one of my cars, they’d cover the second one for absolutely nothing. Considering the safety record vehicles have in South Africa, I thought it was the deal of a lifetime.

The telesales person was absolutely a pleasure to speak to. I can’t fault her professional conduct, and she hit the mark with every word she spoke. In short, she could sell.

But here’s the thing.

“I don’t own a car”

I use Uber, or the train, but have never owned a car. So how was it that I was receiving this phone call? Spam and cold calls aside, you can imagine the car tracking company was in the business of blast fishing – throw in dynamite and hope for the best.

I asked the lady on the other end if they had made any sales, and she replied with an anxious yes, to which I responded with much laughter. I proceeded to tell her I didn’t own a car, and asked her to inform her seniors that their marketing / sales strategy was going to tank.

How can you sell without knowing?

What made this phone call even more hilarious was that, thereafter, she asked me if I had anyone else who might be interested in the offer. Considering referrals are one of the biggest reasons for high conversion rates, she was on to something, but because I felt the phone call was so uniformed, I didn’t feel like sharing contacts I knew would jump at the opportunity. If they could be so unprofessional in their marketing, what more their service?

Again I can’t fault the telesales lady. It’s the strategy that was amiss. A complete mess. It showed a lack of profiling. From experience and hearing many mumble in public spaces about cold calling, I would assume that the tracking company had received plenty of complaints, and if not, they most likely weren’t generating an optimum conversion rate, compared to the pool of contacts they had.

But cold calling isn’t the only place where a lack of profiling gets you nowhere. It applies to all disciplines including the most burgeoning of them all – online marketing.

In simple terms, profiling isn’t a matter of reducing your audience. It allows you to invest wisely in those who are more likely to purchase the product. Instead of using dynamite to get a large pool of customers, you use a highly specialised fishing rod to catch the big fish, and also consider the environment you are in, i.e. is that fish even in the lake or is it out at sea, what type of bait does it enjoy, how much time will it take to rope it in, and (most important) is there capacity to get it on the boat without it slapping its tail violently?

It goes far deeper than knowing that your customer owns a car. It relies heavily on knowing their priorities, desires, ambitions, needs and wants with respect to the current socio-economic environment. In terms of the socio-economic value of the offer I had received, I would be a fool to not take them up on it. But again, what am I going to use it for? My collection of Dinky Cars?

So why did the car tracking company fail?

However the tracking company acquired my number is beside the point (there are many ways of legitimately acquiring a person’s contacts). If it contacted me knowing my vehicle ownership history, on the other hand, the company would have increased its chances of closing a sale. A quick check online and I realised they weren’t even practicing any form of inbound marketing.

This means that potential leads that genuinely wanted cost-effective vehicle tracking didn’t even know about the promotion. You might be wondering how I have moved from offline telesales to online inbound, but it’s relatively straightforward. Everyone is turning to online products to find their deal. This is the most basic form of customer profiling because I know that 1 in 5 people use the internet in Africa.

Further analysis and you would also find out that 44% of online shoppers begin by using search engines, with the Pew Research Center stating that up to 86% of customers use search to increase their knowledge. Search Engine Journal makes the argument for customer profiling air tight by stating that inbound leads have a 14.6% higher chance of purchasing compared to outbound leads who have a 1.7% close rate.

Again, these are the most basic forms of customer profiling, but the more you know this, the more likely you are to invest in a channel that increases your chances of making higher conversions rates. And again, it goes deeper, with up to 50% of searches trying to find local products, and 61% of those successful searches making a purchase (Search Engine Watch). If you’re practicing a powerful content marketing program, you’re also 3 times more likely to get leads at 62% less the cost of outbound.

While I am not too sure how the vehicle tracking company is performing, I would assume not as great as compared to them doing the same program online and practicing an airtight inbound marketing strategy. This is where justifying a strategic product push coupled with great consumer insights makes so much sense. Get to know your customers more, and they won’t mind when you talk to them about your offer, because they’re already likely looking for you (and have maybe even signed up to hear more).