Think about the last time you had great service at a restaurant. Your server probably seemed to anticipate your needs, delivering bread to the table or refilling your drinks just as you were taking the last bite or sip. You never had to answer, “How is everything?” around a mouthful of food because your server knew just when to ask. Maybe you didn’t think you had room for dessert, but the waiter’s descriptions of each item on the dessert menu sounded too luscious to pass up.
That kind of service isn’t an accident. It’s the product of careful observation, attention to detail, and professional skill. Database services perform similar observational analyses for large markets, letting you deliver the best in customer satisfaction by predicting where your leads will be in their buying journeys before they get there.
Seeing Patterns
Ask servers who have worked in the restaurant business for a while, and they’ll tell you they can predict with fair accuracy how diners will order. The table that orders salads with dressing on the side will probably choose lighter entrees and skip dessert in favor of coffee. The group that comes in wearing team colors will probably order lavishly after a big win. Families appreciate it when service is quick enough to keep younger children from getting bored.
B2B sales also follow patterns, but they’re not always as readily visible without sophisticated tools. A MARKETING AI® that assembles data into a unified, centralized database puts all the information you need in one place. A database services consultant can then interpret the data to create a clear picture of your market, revealing the patterns underlying individual leads’ choices and allowing you to predict incoming leads’ behavior.
Product Knowledge
Not sure which wine goes with your entrée or what goes into the bruciuluni? Your server knows and can make recommendations about everything on the menu. Product knowledge is essential for servers, and it’s even more important for B2B companies with far more at stake than a mediocre meal.
Demonstrating product knowledge depends on anticipating where your market is looking. Nurture streams that inform and educate leads also establish your industry authority, and as they learn more, leads also gain more insight into how much you know. Database management that channels leads into the appropriate nurture stream also allows you to establish your bona fides as an industry authority, which in turn leads to more sales.
Timing Is Everything
Great waiters know how to pace a meal based on who’s at the table, how crowded the restaurant is, and whether the kitchen’s keeping up with the rush. If the restaurant needs your table, you’ll get asked for your order when you order your drinks. If it’s a busy night in the kitchen, your server might suggest appetizers that take little to no cooking to give the line cooks a break. Unless you ask for it up front, you won’t get a dessert menu before you see the wine list or main menu. It wouldn’t make sense, given the typical order of a meal.
It also doesn’t make sense to get ahead of yourself in timing your marketing messages. Predictive analytics tell you where leads are in their buying journeys and how to market to them for the stage they’re about to enter. Based on leads’ real-time behavioral data, you’re able to guide them to what’s next on the menu without jumping too far ahead or being left behind. A/B split testing can also show you the best approach, and with marketing automation technology, you can carry out testing in real time.
You don’t need to have worked as a waiter to know how important great service is. Using predictive analytics and smart marketing database management, you’re able to provide outstanding service to all your leads.
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