Divide and Conquer

The title of this article refers to an expression that came into prominence at the time of the ancient Roman Empire.

It refers to a “population control” strategy – one whose success hinges on pitting groups of people against each other so that they won’t unite in opposition to a common enemy.

Doesn’t take a military tactician to recognize how effective this approach can be. It’s a potent (and nefarious) way to keep people distracted, off balance and easily managed. 

For the purposes of this post, however, we’re going to turn Divide and Conquer on its head and discuss how it can be advantageously used by sales and marketing professionals to better serve their target audience.

Here’s the premise…

Unless an organization provides a single product or service to the marketplace – one with limited applications that’s tailored to a very specific end user – sales and marketing will usually have to deal with multiple offerings targeting a variety of potential and existing customers in different stages of the sales cycle.

The problem here is that many companies don’t have an organized process in place for dealing with so many concurrent prospect, customer and product/service variables.

Instead, they frequently rely on a “broad brush” approach that attempts to cover all the bases and, in the process, ignores unique prospect and customer interests and needs.

That’s not just tremendously inefficient, it’s monumentally unprofitable!

A business that fails to recognize that prospects and customers alike have different purchase motivations, occurring at different times, that (ideally) need to be individually addressed, leaves TONS of sales opportunities on the table.

The solution to this, as you may have guessed by now, is Divide and Conquer. Except that from here on out we’re going to call it segmentation.

Segmentation (or market segmentation) is the process of dividing a consumer or business “market” into definable, accessible, actionable and profitable parts or segments. These segments, once identified, can then be used to optimize the entire sales/marketing process.

Imagine reaching out to prospects and customers with information and timely communications that, for the most part, relate only to their specific, hot-button interests.

Instead of peppering everyone with the same generic, tedious, wishy-washy marketing messages, how about hitting them between the eyes with sizzling content and inspiring calls to action tailored to their exact wants and needs!

Rhetorical question time: Think an approach like this might result in a few additional sales?

In the long run, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? The word “conquer,” while a bit dramatic and heavy-handed, still speaks to the broad outcome we’re looking for here: conversions.

Here’s the takeaway…

A comprehensive segmentation strategy allows you to nurture and strengthen prospect and customer relationships in a more direct, personalized fashion.

Even better, when it’s managed by a robust technology platform, it provides the kind of quality information, insights and feedback you need, to move people to higher levels of qualification and, ultimately, action.

So if you want to maximize your marketing efforts and make more sales more often, begin segmenting your prospects and customers in a way that 1) recognizes their unique characteristics and interests, 2) clearly identifies their place in the sales cycle, 3) matches them to ALL the products and services that speak to their present and future needs and 4) makes it super easy to communicate the right message to the right person at the right time!