Growing sales is a never-ending challenge. To remain competitive, manufacturers need to explore all avenues of potential growth or risk losing business to their competitors.

One avenue to increased sales is Customer Focus tools that take an in-depth look at customers, with the goal of finding opportunities to increase business with those customers or companies with similar profiles. While many may think they have a good understanding of their customers, there is always more to learn.

“It’s important for organizations to understand their customers and their customers’ customers,” said Sam Miller, WMEP development manager. “If they don’t, they can’t use their competencies to solve customer problems, and they’ll miss lots of opportunities to grow. Also, they don’t really know whether their customers are satisfied, and they’re missing a great opportunity to use customer feedback to improve the business.”

Often, some managers believe that “‘We’ve had the same customers for 30 years. They’ve been good to us. That’s all we need to know,’” said Miller. “Or they think, ‘They keep buying from us, so we must be doing something right.’ Others have a really good customer that provides over 50% of the business and they think that’s a good thing. They don’t see that depending on one customer is risky.”

These misperceptions can rob companies of valuable information that can help better meet customer needs – even needs customers didn’t know they had. What is needed is Market Intelligence, or customer information that is timely, actionable and can lead to growth opportunities. Using Customer Focus and Market Intelligence allows you to grow within current markets, which requires less time and fewer resources than breaking into new markets.

Some effective ways to uncover Market Intelligence include:

• Asking customers directly, either through phone calls, customer visits or using surveys sent with product
• Examining your track record or historical dealings with customers
• Enlisting employees who have frequent contact with customers for their help in passing along information
• Collecting information from vendors or competitors
• Networking at trade shows, through associations or local groups
• Analyzing industry and market data

Customer Focus tools from the Strategic Business Development toolbox provide a systematic way to gather Market Intelligence. These tools include:

• Customer Analysis shows the current state of sales activities. The analysis includes total number of customers, total number of active customers and top 10 customers and their sales in dollars and percentage, as well as dollars and percentage of profit margin. The same information is listed for the top three customers. Further information can be broken out by individual customer, such as sales by product type. Look for patterns among your top customers.
   
• ABC Customer Profiling categorizes current customers to identify the primary value of good and challenging customers. Customers are put into one of three categories: A, B or C. An A customer is one that contributes the highest sales and profits or are customers that offer the most growth opportunity for profit and sales. B customers have modest or stable growth potential and match your strategic objectives. C customers show no growth potential or are shrinking and don’t match objectives. “Many companies spend a good deal of their resources on C customers when they should be concentrating on A and B customers” said Larry Baker, WMEP Manufacturing Specialist.
   
• Customer Analysis Matrix helps you match customers against a list of desirable customer traits. Customers are listed down the left side of the matrix, with the positive traits listed across the top. These might include descriptors like simple parts made of common materials, high percentage of quotes won and repeat orders. Other lower-priority descriptors can also be included, such as paying bills on time or staff that is easy to work with. Customers are then rated for each descriptor. It becomes apparent from the scores and adding up totals which customers are the best fit for you. This information can help you build a “most valuable customer” profile.
   
• Customer Perceptions consists of rating how well you do satisfying the factors that are critical to customers for each product then comparing your impressions versus your customers’ perceptions. After rating yourself and getting your customer’s feedback, then look for gaps in perceptions between the two and work to close the gaps. One company showed on-time delivery for parts, but the customer was recording late shipments. The product was being shipped on time, but was sitting on the customer’s receiving dock for a few days until they recorded the delivery. This is the kind of valuable customer information you can get from this analysis.
   
• Quote Analysis investigates why quotes are won and lost and can yield valuable Market Intelligence. Most companies have issued quotes for customers they never get business from. “At least have the conversation with each client,” said Baker. “Ask why you didn’t get the order.” Most people assume it’s price, but that isn’t necessarily the case. This information from customers can help determine why you may not be seeing any business.
   
• Points of Information is one key to creating a customer-focused organization. Every person in your organization who is in contact with customers should be considered a potential source of information. This includes order takers, engineers, accountants and the folks in shipping, even truck drivers. Getting them in the habit of passing along information they hear from customers will cultivate a Customer Focus culture that yields valuable Market Intelligence.

Don’t buy into the assumption that customers don’t want to talk to you. Asking open-ended questions, such as, “How can we do a better job for you?” or “Have we created problems for you?” will often provide useful comments. “Most really appreciate it when suppliers try to find out more,” said Baker.

By using Customer Focus, manufacturers can gain important information about their customers that can lead to significant growth. “Customer Focus helps you drive down into more business with your current customers,” said Miller, “creating richer opportunities to grow your business while also meeting previously unmet client needs and increasing customer satisfaction.”

For more information on Customer Focus tools or other growth solutions, call WMEP at Ph. 888-372-9610.