Tuesday, July 9, 2013

You are only as smart as your business intelligence


You are only as smart as your business intelligence.

As a speaker, trainer, consultant or expert, you need to get serious about an effective system of business intelligence. Your decisions severely affect your future, whether you realize it or not.

Business intelligence is the reservoir of all the data you have that will tell you why this person is a prospect or client for your products and services or serves as referral source.  As a reservoir keeps a community hydrated and growing by supplying its need for water, your business intelligence reservoir will do the same for your career.

Business intelligence is as valuable as cash and lines of credit in the new economy.  You will be left stranded and broke on the other side of the digital divide if you fail to maintain an effective system of technology based business intelligence.

Business intelligence is also critical for use with various social media platforms.  Each time you join a new site, the first task you’re asked is to upload your email list. Why clutter this with contacts just for the sake of having contacts?  A better use of the site is to upload a list of target prospects and clients from your business intelligence database. Then, use the site as another method of direct communications about your expertise, your training and your ideas and insights.

Notice I never say “a mailing list.”

Mailing lists can be drawn from your business intelligence database. You can develop and segment various lists to target customers, buying habits, areas of interest, geography and other factors. A targeted list acts like a red hot, focused laser that hits the target at which you aim. A bad mailing list shoots like a shot gun blast in any general direction.  It may hit some of your targets, but also wastes resources, effort and fire power.  Experience shows marketing to a tight list of two to three hundred people who make the purchasing decisions about who to use is more effective than telling twenty thousand people in hopes that two hundred people will then consider using you.

The Power from Knowledge

Speaker and bestselling author Harvey McKay is famous for touting this principle. In a recent blog post, he said:


 At Mackay Envelope Company, you wouldn't believe how much we know about our customers. The IRS wouldn't believe how much we know about our customers. All our salespeople on our staff fill out a 66-question profile of each one of their customers. We're not talking about the customer’s taste in envelopes, either … When you know your customers, some of their special interests or characteristics; you always have a basis for contacting and talking to them.
From: http://bit.ly/14GiOWX

What should I do?
Like fitness goals, you need to set business intelligence goals and objectives and then develop the similar habits and discipline you have to have with a fitness regimen in order to achieve them.

Look at your past experiences.  Right now, you fall into one of four categories:

You don't do this and know you should;
You do this and haven’t seen the success you’d like;
you do this and have demonstrated some success; or
you do this and want strategies to improve your results.


Next, look at your method of contact.  Is your ‘system’ really just using your base email program?  Have you ever used a next step solution, like Send out Cards, Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or Eventbrite?  Do you have a contact management system or CRM software?  Learn how to work with these tools. It is key in achieving the specific results you seek.  Get it all working together in a program of database marketing to achieve the results you want.


You always want contacts to be interested in receiving information from you. It is seen as a natural extension of your relationship. This makes for higher readership and greater response rates. Every time someone hands you a business card when networking, ask them for permission to stay in contact.  Learn to qualify these cards for their future potential.  What is a reasonable expectation from this person in terms of need of speaking, training, consulting or other services?    A common mistake many make is asking someone to “borrow” the list that they have compiled. Don’t ever use someone else’s lists.  People who don’t want this will see it as spam.  You will lose valuable credibility.

Many people also have sign up pages on their social media pages or web sites, which collect interested subscribers.   They offer incentives such as audio recordings or special reports for exchanging this information.  This can be a powerful method for increasing your business intelligence database into a global list.

You can improve in your effective use of business intelligence and database marketing for greater success in converting your prospects into clients and customers in to repeat business. In upcoming La Douceur Letters, I will outline the process of how to produce the greatest amount of return on your investment with the least amount of effort possible.

-- WDL