On numerous occasions, I have advised you to offer higher-priced, higher-value products and services because they focus you on high-lifetime-value customers whose loyalty extends beyond what’s on sale this week.
Likewise, we’ve talked about using those higher-priced products and services to “subsidize” the value-priced part of your business so that you can identify more high-lifetime-value clients from that group.
What I’ve been urging you to do is construct a customer ascension ladder.
It’s not like you haven’t seen this before. You’re probably on several of them and might not realize it. Despite that, it’s entirely possible that you haven’t used it strategically in your business.
Ladders you know
Take a look at Kraft cheese.
If you want sliced cheese in a wrapper, you might buy Kraft Singles. In their product ladder, Velveeta Slices are a bit of a luxury item. To step beyond that, you have to go to a higher-value Kraft brand name…Cracker Barrel and you might have to slice it yourself.
Some of you might never buy these brands, but you buy cheese, you’re in another vendor’s cheese ladder (Kraft may own them too).
A simple ladder that everyone is familiar with is car brands.
Ford Motor Company has Ford, Mercury and Lincoln. General Motors has Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick and Cadillac (among others). These brands illustrate simple ascension ladders.
Back in the “olden days”, your typical Chevy customer longed to step up the ladder and get a Cadillac someday and in fact, doing so was a sign to their co-workers, friends and family that they had “made it”. Likewise, many Ford customers longed to own a Lincoln Continental.
Today, things are bit more muddled in the car business and these things aren’t the universal success/status symbols like they once were. F250’s, Hummers and Escalades have supplanted them to some extent, illustrating that the idea and the desires are still valid.
Where’s your ladder?
What works for Kraft, Ford and General Motors will also work for you.
Ladders work for firewood, imported crystal, septic tanks or legal services…and for whatever you do.
Whatever you sell, you can usually sell more by designing an ascension ladder for your customers. It isn’t just about selling more, more, more. It’s about matching what your customers want to what you sell.
If some of your customers need/want an Escalade and all you sell is Yugos (the “Mona Lisa of bad cars“), you’re going to lose them. If selling Escalades isn’t your thing, that’s fine. Even so, it should be a dealt with strategically and you should know how long this progression takes based on customer
You may already have a semblance of a ladder in place. It isn’t like “good, better, best” is some sort of secret of brilliant business owners.
What you seldom see is a business strategically designed to move people from through the tiers of “good, better, best”, identifying the most likely “best” buyers based on their behavior, buying habits and other factors (such as demographics and psychographics).
Designing your ladder
Take a hard look at your customers from end to end.
Do the same with your prospects. They’re different and perhaps substantially vs. your long-time customers.
For example, consider the differences between a customer of 20 years who is starting to think about retirement and a customer who just got their first job. Their needs, values and *what* they value day to day might be completely different as it relates to your products and services. “First job” is just one example and may not have any impact on their choices for what you sell. Something else definitely will, so pay attention.
If you take this task seriously, you should be able to segment your customers into groups based on any number of things from age-based needs to purchase frequency to number of calls for assistance. You may find that there are correlations between any of these individual segments.
What you’re looking for is segments that would respond positively to the same message, the same product/service offer. Other customers might use a different version of the same service that may not interest this particular group. Thus, the importance of the message/offer.
Next….Show them the ladder you’ve designed.
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a business, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him at [email protected].