The customer portfolio is very important for anyone who wants to keep their sales stable, increase them, or predict when they will decrease.
However, maintaining it is not a simple task, and you need to understand how to manage it to avoid investing time and money where there is no guarantee of profit. Knowing consumer behavior is an essential step for anyone who wants to manage their customer portfolio well. Because this is the only way to understand the different types of consumer profiles, in addition to their behavioral patterns. We created this article so that you can better understand what a customer portfolio is and how it works.
What is a Customer Portfolio
The customer portfolio, also known as customer portfolio, is the group of customers, or companies, that have established some commercial contact with your company. But this definition does not cover those consumers who have only made a purchase or two, or who have hired your services once or twice.To be part of the active customer portfolio, the consumer needs to have repeat purchases, that is, constantly generate profit for your company.Therefore, it is important that you keep a record of each customer’s interaction to facilitate the identification of your active customers. In this way, you will be able to carry out a more detailed analysis of consumer profiles, predict what their pain points are and work to build their loyalty. When we talk about a customer portfolio, it is more common that we are talking about an active customer portfolio.There is also the inactive customer base, those consumers who remained active and maintained recurring purchases for some time, but suddenly stopped purchasing your services. The great advantage of having a customer base is being able to identify who your loyal customers are. Because it is easier to invest and close a sale with those customers who already have an affinity with your service or product, who already have an active relationship with your venture.
How to make a Customer Portfolio
There are some benefits that you can enjoy if you manage your Customer Portfolio efficiently. Check:
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- Increase in sales;
- Greater satisfaction;
- Better customer relationship;
- Better customer experience;
- Optimization of marketing campaigns;
- More loyalty;
)We’ve already mentioned the advantages of having a customer base, now we’re going to show you how you can build yours. Check out how to build your customer portfolio:
Define your persona!
Having a well-defined persona is important so that you can identify your client’s behavior in a detailed and assertive way. The persona will represent a significant group of customers who have already purchased from you. The characteristics of each persona created allow you to elaborate what kind of message, or the best strategy, you will use when offering your product or service. In order for you to be able to map your persona’s behavior, you need to have some information such as:
- Age;
- Region where you live;
- Salary range;
- Needs;
- Wants;
- What do you like to do;
- Solutions you need; But stay tuned, as it is important that you use real information when creating your persona, and avoid investing in those that are unrelated to your consumer profile, as this could harm you when building your active client portfolio. If you work with companies, when creating a persona, you will probably need to think about questions such as: What type of company buys your solution? And what is the position of the buyer?, for example. Remember that the persona is different from the target audience.Don’t worry if you think that just one persona is not enough to cover your customers’ profile.Although there is no exact number, many companies usually assemble three to five personas. Try not to use numbers greater than five, as it can get in the way when setting up your strategy.
Focus on prospecting!
Now that you’ve defined the personas, focus on attracting new customers, in addition to those who are already part of your active customer base. Go in search of your customers, offer your product, or try to get in touch with companies that show interest in your service.Show them how your service or product can solve a pain.Mention the advantages and benefits you have to offer and highlight your differential. And if you don’t know where to start, or how to put together a strategy, it’s also worth studying your competitor and how he applies his strategies. Telemarketing is still widely used to prospect new customers, but for that your sales team needs to be trained and have a defined sales strategy.
Use social networks
The use of social networks as a means of contact with consumers has become one of the fundamental tools for those seeking to reach a larger audience.Through social networks you can attract new consumers, create brand authority and even establish bonds with those consumers who are already part of your customer portfolio.Using digital marketing strategies on social networks increases your chances of success in building customer loyalty. Don’t let it analyze how the competition behaves on social networks and draw up strategies that demonstrate to your consumer what your values and differentials are. Become an authority and be found more easilyFor your business to stand out in the online world, you need to be aware of Digital Marketing trends. It is very likely that your competitor is already using these resources. Therefore, be sure to bet on Inbound Marketing. This strategy is essential for you to gain authority, showing those who are part of your customer base that you are on top of all the news related to your product or service. Bet on the creation of blogs, to increase the visibility of your business and still have the chance to appear on the first pages of Google search.
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Search for customers who are part of the inactive customer base
Using the email marketing strategy can help you to recover those customers who, regardless of the reason, gave up buying with you.But for that, you need to understand what were the reasons that contributed to them ceasing to establish the commercial link with your business Identify who these consumers are, segment your customers, send different emails to each group and create promotions to encourage them to buy from you again. Improve your communication and use mental triggers, invest in good copy to attract the attention of those who will receive the email, but remember to think about everything strategically.
How to manage the customer portfolio
With the client portfolio ready, now you need to work on its management and maintenance. Check out how to manage your customer portfolio:
Segment your customers
Keep your focus on those customers who offer a higher income for your business, because according to the Pareto method, they are responsible for 80% of your sales.Therefore, know how to identify who offers more profit for your company, differentiating them from those who offer less profit. There are also those consumers with growth potential, they need special attention. Develop strategies to later make them active customers. As for those who are not willing to invest in their services, dispense with the energy expenditure.
Be aware of your metrics
Closely monitor the growth of your customer base and do not allow the number of active customers to decrease. Always remain active in the search for new customers, through prospecting, and work on your relationship to retain them. Monitor those customers who stopped buying from you and, as mentioned earlier, try to understand the reason for rescuing them later.
Predict the possible scenarios
By monitoring your metrics, you can identify when the number of orders from customers in your active customer base begins to decrease.In that case, it’s time to check how the satisfaction of the services you offer is going. Carrying out satisfaction surveys is very important so that you can identify what improvements you need to make or if there is any failure at any point in your service. It is also important to focus on the customer experience, as consumers are increasingly looking for personalized service.With increasing competition, gaining loyal customers can be a difficult task. Therefore, analyze your entire service process, from the initial contact to the after-sales stage. One of the ways to verify the reasons for dissatisfaction is to invest in the Mystery Shopper methodology.Where a person is trained to impersonate a customer and from there observe and prepare reports identifying the points that you must improve.
Get to know CRM tools
Make use of CRM tools, these software help companies to understand their customers, and reach their maximum productivity.They have some interesting advantages for those who want to efficiently manage their customer portfolio, simplifying most of the processes mentioned above. Some CRM tools have free plans, just choose the one that best suits your needs and start optimizing the management processes within your company.
Do you understand the importance of maintaining a customer base?
Now you know how to build a client portfolio and also how to act in management to minimize the loss of active clients, an important factor for you to be able to maintain your profits.Prevent changes, monitoring the behavior of customers in your portfolio and still continue working on improving the delivery of your products and services.Use segmentation to your advantage and invest in those cases that have the greatest purchasing potential.Use marketing techniques to retain your customers and not lose them to the competition.And don’t forget that CRM tools can make your client portfolio management work easier.
