Customer segmentation is an expected strategy in today’s modern sales environment. It is simply impossible to create custom messages tailored to every prospect in the market, and so segmentation -by company size, industry or even location - has become a critical tool for marketers and sales teams alike. However, relying solely on segmentation becomes increasingly ineffective as you progress through the sales cycle.
As the funnel narrows so should your customer engagement tactics.
Who hasn’t been on the receiving end of an aggressive LinkedIn offer that is wildly misaligned to your role or business, or the always painful “Dear FIRST NAME” email that wasn’t properly configured on the back end. These tactics are not only off-putting, they almost certainly give the prospect on the receiving end a bad impression of both you and your company. By shifting focus from broad segmentation to individual customer requirements, businesses can forge stronger connections, enhance trust, and increase the likelihood of successful conversions. Personalization is particularly vital for crafting a products and services proposal that resonates and meets the business needs of your prospect.
We won’t deep dive into the many tools and processes that can help your sales team make contact, win a prospect’s attention, and secure a meeting in this post. There are many excellent product and service offerings in this arena. Instead, let’s jump ahead, assume your execution has been flawless, and that you are at the offer stage. What should that personalization experience look like?
Pricing and Billing Need to Personalized Too
When it comes to billing and pricing, every customer is unique, and they expect a personalized experience throughout their entire journey, from offer creation to service delivery.
Many prospects will walk away from a deal because it’s simply not tailored to the needs of their business. To keep a prospect engaged, you need to demonstrate that you understand them - their business needs and limitations, their payment preferences and their usage patterns and trends.
Relatively straightforward pricing structures such as pre-defined pricing tiers or packages make it easier to offer customization options tailored to fit individual customer needs. However, in more complex pricing models, customization can be more challenging. Factors like product/service complexity, production costs, profit margins, and market dynamics can all influence the flexibility of pricing customization.
Until recently, rigid legacy monetization technologies have been a limiting - not an enabling - factor. No business wants to say their monetization systems aren’t intelligent or keeping pace, but this is often the case. Unfortunately, trying to quickly shift architectures that were built for the past can be a difficult if not impossible task.
Deliver a More Personalized Experience with Intelligent Monetization
Today’s intelligent monetization platforms enable sales and revenue teams to experiment with pricing options and variations at a speed and scale that was previously impossible. Sales can now simulate – in real-time - a variety of product and pricing configurations within minutes.
Imagine being able to send a personalized offer based on a prospects specific needs within moments of finishing your final sales meeting. People remember their last interaction with a service provider better than any other point in their buying journey – what better memory to leave them with than one that is completely personalized to their specific business needs? This level of real-time engagement and personalization can increase the lifetime value of the customer by instilling trust and confidence in their relationship with your brand.
The sales cycle might start with segmentation, but when it ends with personalization everyone wins. This is true agility - the ability to instantly access relevant data, examine the implications and 100s of pricing choices, and deliver the one most likely to appeal to the prospect sitting in front of you.
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