Finding ways to mash those together into meaningful new understanding is the key. Here’s an example of an analysis we performed for a client. They wanted to know how they could meet more of their current customers’ challenges. This would result in higher client satisfaction, increased revenue (from cross-sells), and could help them in future sales efforts with potential clients.

We took their entire list of current clients and added the following data:
• Industry
• Number of employees
• NAICS/SIC code
• Site locations with latitude/longitude coordinates
• Number of times they had been serviced (grouped by dates)
• Customer satisfaction survey data

This gave us a holistic view of challenges faced by specific industries. To obtain this, we used data from our client’s data warehouse as well as used LinkedIn, Yahoo Finance, Dun & Bradstreet databases, Client websites, and social media. Doing this definitely took work, but it highlighted thousands of dollars worth in future revenue and client retention. See a portion of the analysis below.

For example, we quickly saw that the challenges faced by the banking industry were different than those faced by the inorganic chemicals industry. But we also saw that the challenges within industries were relatively the same. All the chemical companies struggled with the same things.

Using insights like these, we were able to pinpoint those clients who were lagging behind their industry peers in dealing with a certain challenge. This created cross-sell opportunities for our client. They were able to take the data and highlight these problems to their customers and show how their solution was solving similar problems for other members in the industry. This not only improved revenue, but also will increase customer satisfaction scores, as well as create more focused sales opportunities in the future.

Similar insights and opportunities are lurking in your own data. You just need someone to unlock them for you.

What do you think? Using the same data, what other ways could it be analyzed to find insights? How have you found insights in your own corporate data? Share your story.

Because the market is going to get more and more transparent as the tools of web 2.0 continue to grow in popularity, increasingly marketing is not going to be about the message you engineer and send out through advertisements. Increasingly, marketing is going to be about who you are (or perhaps better said, who your company is). You will be defined by how you do business, how you treat your customers, and the quality of your products and services.

It’s not going to be about what you think your company is, or how you seek to portray it through advertisements. Batman got it right; it’s what you do that will define you.

How are you defining yourself?

The Magical Penny

We all remember the trick we were taught in elementary school. Go home and ask your parents if they will give you a penny on the first day of the month, and then double it every day for just that month. Day two is 2 cents, day three is 4 cents, and so on. In return you would promise never to ask for any more money, as long as you lived.

A penny doubling for a month, at first consideration, seems harmless. Until we do the math. As it turns out, under this system of payment you end up receiving over $10 million on the final day of the month. What began as a lowly penny has turned into a fortune.

The “First, Ten” Principle

Let’s get back to Seth’s advice. He says the following:

“Find ten people. Ten people who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you…

Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it. And if they love it, you win. If they love it, they’ll each find you ten more people (or a hundred or a thousand or, perhaps, just three).”

Now we’ll make some assumptions and do some analysis on this idea. First, you spend a week finding 10 people. Now, let’s say in the next week, each of those 10 people brings you just one more person each. Now you’re at 20. Let’s say the same thing happens the next week, bringing you to 40. Continuing on, we will have over 5,000 people in 10 weeks, over 150,000 in 15 weeks, and over 5 million in 20 weeks.

Now consider the quality of these potential customers – they didn’t hear the message from an advertisement or from you (except the original 10); they heard it from a third party source that they knew. And that makes them that much more likely to trust you and become a customer.

Focusing On The Few

Our quick analysis shows that this can be an extremely effective, albeit somewhat unconventional, way to market. Have you ever considered taking an entire week, and focusing on finding and marketing to just 10 people? Take all the work and time you would have spent designing advertisements, sending copy through various marketing channels, optimizing online ad campaigns, and all other marketing activites, and spend that time instead focusing on just 10 people.

Spend time finding the right ten. Spend time explaining your product and service, showing it to them, letting them test it, and answering all their questions. Spend time getting their feedback, allowing them to become more invested. Spend the time necessary to gain their trust and respect. Forget about all other marketing efforts for the week. Your only goal, by the end of the week, is to have 10 evangelists for your company.

Assuming your product or service is worth something and really does provide value to these people, you are about to have a lot of business on its way.