Notes from the Business Management Breakout Sessions

DWC Recap: Business Management Presentations

Along with a panel discussion and a look at ServiceTrade’s innovation roadmap, the Business Management track included a breakout session on the power of data. “Data Rules” was presented by Shawn Mims, VP of Marketing; David Teeter, Account Manager Team Lead; Adam Strong, Senior Solutions Architect; and Brooks Adcock, Principal Product Manager for Analytics and AI.

Here’s what they covered.

The Power of the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

One of the core focuses of this session was understanding and leveraging the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Unlike buyer personas, which concentrate on individuals, ICPs focus on companies. They help you pinpoint the customers most likely to convert, based on common attributes like demographics, behavior patterns, needs, and pain points.

Why Use ICPs?

• Tailored Messaging: Craft messages that resonate with specific buyers.
• Improved Sales Cycle: Streamline the process, reducing the time to close deals.
• Focus on High-Value Accounts: Allocate resources efficiently to maximize returns.
• Consistent Team Focus: Maintain a steady direction amidst the ups and downs of sales.

ICPs prevent you from wasting time on low-value leads and help in building stronger, long-term customer relationships. By focusing on high-value prospects, you boost your bottom line and close more significant deals.

Scoring and Prioritizing Prospects

The team delved into how to score prospects using firmographic data and converting these qualitative factors into numerical scores. This objective process helps avoid biases and ensures you focus on factors that truly impact your business.

Steps to Score Prospects:

1. Normalize Data: Convert each factor into a score between -1 and 1.
2. Weight Factors: Assign importance to each factor with a weight between 0 and 1.
3. Calculate Scores: Multiply each score by its weight and sum them up.

This method ensures that our evaluations are consistent and data-driven, helping us to prioritize the best prospects effectively.

Operationalizing ICP

Adam demonstrated how you can operationalize these scores using tools like ServiceTrade. This includes filtering by tags on the dispatch board, which helps in maintaining focus on prioritized prospects.

Identifying Non-Ideal Customers

Understanding who isn’t your customer is as crucial as knowing who is. Characteristics of non-ideal customers include high invoice payment delays, frequent warranty callbacks, low return rates, and high quote change requests. Recognizing these traits helps you avoid wasting resources on low-value accounts.

Comparison Between Best and Worst Clients:

• Best Clients: Pay on time, approve repair quotes, have predictable needs, and understand reasonable SLAs.
• Worst Clients: Dispute everything, don’t approve repairs, have constant system failures, and expect instant resolutions.

By focusing on ideal customers, we ensure our efforts yield the best results.

Existing Customer ICP

The team also touched on scoring existing customers using operational factors such as gross profit per hour, time to pay, and quote approval rates. These metrics provide insights into the ongoing value of your clients and help in maintaining a balanced and profitable customer base.

Embracing Data Culture

Data integrity is paramount. The presenters discussed strategies to ensure accurate data entry and utilization, addressing bad data, and maintaining data integrity across the organization. Adam highlighted how erroneous data can misclassify customers and the importance of applying data corrections.

Key Strategies:

• Data Entry: Make it happen in the moment, consistent, easy, and motivating.
• Act on Data: Ensure actionable insights and measure the impact.
• Fixing Bad Data: Identify and correct inaccuracies to maintain trust in our data.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Finally, the team explored leading and lagging KPIs, discussing their importance in sales and operations. Operationalizing these KPIs helps in boosting revenue and improving overall performance.

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“Data Rules” reinforced the necessity of data-driven decision-making in achieving sales and operational excellence. By understanding and implementing ICPs, scoring and prioritizing prospects, identifying non-ideal customers, and embracing a robust data culture, we can drive our business towards greater success.