Member Article

Why High-Ticket Brands Should Counteract Bleak Friday with Sales Lead Optimisation

As we all know the dreaded energy price cap has now come into force and the cost-of-living crisis deepens for UK households who face spiralling costs.

The latest analysis predicts that consumers will be forced to spend at least 10 per cent of their budget on gas and electricity bills, adding an estimated £693 a year to the average household. The news makes for a bleak read with the number of houses in ‘fuel stress’ doubling overnight and this number is expected to rise to 7.5 million in the autumn unless more support is provided.

This combined with the continued high price of petrol and diesel, the return to 20 per cent VAT in the hospitality sector and an increase in National Insurance means that the prices of pretty much everything are expected to grow, adding further stress to an already stressed consumer wallet.

Unsurprisingly, therefore consumer spending is set to fall. For organisations, many of which are still navigating the inclement business conditions caused by the pandemic, optimising the sales funnel has never been so important.

Why?

Because it is likely that the conversion time will increase and the number of leads will drop, therefore identifying and converting the customers most likely to buy will be critical.

Through a blend of data science and analytics it is possible to track and assess the entirety of the customer journey and optimise the areas where there could be potential friction and fall out.

This is particularly true for business with high value, low-frequency purchases, such as automotive, high-end travel, furniture, conservatories and home improvement brands. These categories often experience far lower visitor rates and therefore repeat purchase rates are often very low. For instance, people typically only buy one kitchen and will not repeat purchase for a number of years – or even decades! This means that the sales opportunity is a one-time-only event that needs to be handled correctly to convert, or the chance is lost. Thus, brands must maximise the chance of a successful conversion outcome when a customer displays an interest.

Sales Lead Optimisation enables a holistic multi-channel approach. It considers everything from the initial media and lead generation strategy, individual channel performance and customer tactics through to the performance incentives and operational needs of the sales teams in branch networks and call centres.

An effective optimisation model can be structured around five broad phases:

1. Diagnostics and research – Understanding the customer behaviour, setting the baselines and identifying the best commercial opportunities to go after.
2. Hypothesis and action planning – Taking the diagnostics and crafting these into actionable and measurable hypotheses for change and improvement to meet specific business objectives.
3. Prioritisation – Carefully crafting a prioritised plan of attack to implement and test changes, balancing the business priorities with technical feasibility and cost whilst maintaining a manageable environment that ensures the tests can provide meaningful and credible results.
4. Testing – Defining a testing approach and success criteria prior to implementation.
5. Results – Analysing and interpreting the results of the testing. However, rather than attempt to deliver these sequentially, a flexible and agile philosophy based on delivering quick wins through manageable changes and improvements will enable improvements to be delivered in short timescales.

With the number of consumers tightening their belts for high ticket brands investing in a solid Sales Lead Optimisation strategy will be key. Understanding the entire customer journey right from the start and the cross-influence and integration of traditional and online factors, it will be possible to pro-actively support customers through the omni-channel journey and ensure that the conversion rates stay as high as possible during this tough economic period

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Beyond, Putting Data to Work Ltd .