The Value of Potential Customer Data Sources

Recently, I was asked to consult with a manufacturer of medical instruments who was interested in expanding his sales into the veterinary market. Unclear as to what the real potential market size was, I sat down with him to discuss the current market.

With a few clicks of the mouse, I told him, according to the current American Pet Product Manufacture's survey https://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp, there is an estimate of 67% of all American households that own pets.  42.9 million homes have cats and 54.4 million have dogs. $15.73 billion dollars is estimated to be spent on veterinary care in 2015.

But how many veterinarians are out there?, he asked. As a very experienced sales and marketing manager within the veterinary/animal health industry, I have a couple of very trusted data sources. With one phone call and another couple of mouse clicks I told him that there were approximately 32,000 animal hospitals in the United States market alone. If he wanted me to, I could even break those demographics down further by state.

On the surface, our discussion validated that there is a viable market for him to sell his product, assuming that it met the needs of veterinarians and was priced appropriately.

We discussed the logistics of launching his product to the market. There were really two ways he could do this. He could spend a lot of marketing dollar and attend lots of shows and do huge mass mailings or he could take a more conservative approach, Targeted Marketing.

With a targeted approach, he could roll out his product to a much narrower group of veterinarians. He could select a few states close to home that he could easily support once he begins his product launch. I could purchase a targeted list of veterinarians within his desired demographic and my data company would provide monthly updates as any new facilities were added. This creates a targeted list of potential clients that he can send direct mail pieces to, he can phone solicit, or even better, he can make field calls. The smaller more defined list would allow him to launch his product into the market at a significantly lower cost. This would also allow him to prove his product in the market prior to a national launch. From a time management perspective, with a few clicks and under a $1000 investment, he saves hundreds of hours in time and labor, trying to put together a potential multi state call list. How much value do you think this brought him? 

Then I said to him lets talk about your existing customer base of medical doctors. I told him if statistics are correct, 67% of his current clients have pets and use the service of a veterinarian. He could do a promotion sent to his existing  human medical doctors where he would give them a benefit on their next purchase if they would provide him with a referral and a personal recommendation regarding the use of his products to the veterinarians that they use. Wow! I never thought about doing something like that, he said....again, what I am showing my client is a way to use existing customer data to drive sales into new markets. The personal endorsement from a human medical doctor would probably increase his close rate within this select group of veterinarians.

In business, we frequently use the phrase "cost of customer acquisition". It is more than obvious that you want to keep this cost as low as possible. Using both existing customer data and acquiring data for targeted marketing can have a significant impact on the "cost of customer acquisition". This data also allows me to make good decisions when I am spending money to attend trade shows whether they are local, regional, or national. It allows me to see where there are larger concentrations of potential clients. I make better decisions as to where to place field reps and where I need more sales support via phone and in today's world, we have the ability to meet with a veterinarian in his or her office in Montana Via Skype without even buying a plane ticket! Are you using customer data effectively for your business?

For More Information Please contact me at (847)204-8932 or [email protected]