Why Conduct an Industry Analysis

Top Reasons to Conduct an Industry Analysis for Your Business

Heavy equipment dealers have limited resources at their disposal. In order to achieve consistent growth, they have to use those resources as effectively as possible. Success comes down to making the best decisions they can about where to focus their efforts, particularly when it comes to marketing and sales. The key is to target potential customers who are most likely to work with you. An industry analysis from our partner company Zintoro will tell you who those people are.

What is an industry analysis?

Zintoro completes your industry analysis by analyzing which industries are most common in your customer list. Using the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, you can understand which industries your different customers are in and which industries you do business with most often. The analysis looks at your customer count, sales volume, revenue, number of potential customers, and a variety of other key metrics for every SIC code found associated with your list of customers.

How an industry analysis helps you grow

 

  1. Identify your most valuable customer segments

An industry analysis helps you know which industries your current customers represent, which sectors you serve most frequently, and where the most value lies for your business. That way, you will recognize which industries offer the greatest opportunities for growth moving forward.

  1. Effectively prioritize limited sales and marketing resources

With a clear understanding of which customer segments are valuable to your business, you can focus your time, budget, and sales outreach on industries that want and need your products in order to drive more revenue. The result is that your resources are used more efficiently, and you are targeting those prospects that are most likely to convert into customers.

  1. Tailor messaging and offers to specific markets

The insights offered by a Zintoro industry analysis assist you with refining your marketing and sales strategies. For example, if most of your customers use equipment for demolition, rather than excavation, you can adjust your messaging to highlight machine features that are valuable for demolition jobs. This tailored approach improves engagement with your marketing materials and boosts sales.

  1. Make more informed business decisions

An industry analysis provides a solid, data driven foundation for decisions about product inventory, sales promotions, and market expansion. It gives you the confidence to pursue new opportunities in sectors where you already have a strong presence or high growth potential.

Unlock new opportunities through Zintoro

A Zintoro industry analysis gives you the clarity required to grow your market share and maximize the value of you current and potential customer base. If you want to have a better understanding of your customers and know where to focus your limited resources, then contact Zintoro for an industry analysis today!

 Click here to contact Zintoro.

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The Most Important Key Metrics for Equipment Dealers

The Four of the MOST Important Key Metrics for Equipment Dealers

Operating a successful equipment dealership requires understanding your customers and how they interact with your business. Several core metrics can reveal what’s working—and where you might be at risk of losing revenue. By focusing on these metrics, you will be able to make clear, data driven decisions that drive long term growth and success.

  • Customer retention
  • At risk customers
  • Types of purchases
  • Geographic market

Customer retention

What it is and why it matters:

 Customer retention measures the percentage of customers that purchased within the last 12 months and also purchased within the prior 12 months. It’s an important metric, because retaining a customer is far less expensive—and often more profitable—than acquiring a new one. Long term retention is crucial for your business’s profitability. For example, when it comes to equipment dealers, the revenue that each customer generates skyrockets when they go from year two to year three while working with you. Customers purchase 2.9X more equipment, 9.1X more rentals, 4.1X more service, and 5.6X more parts in the third year, compared to their purchases during their second year as a customer.

How to improve it:

The easiest method for boosting retention is to find out why customers are leaving. The best way to do that is through customer satisfaction surveys conducted by an outside third party. Using a third party will elicit candid comments that customers may not want to share with an employee of your company, and the surveys will provide specific feedback, so you can solve any issues quickly.

Our partner company, Winsby, regularly conducts customer satisfaction surveys for their clients. They see an average increase in retention rates of 20% or more when customers are routinely surveyed about their experience with a company. For one group of equipment dealers who work with them, the ROI of conducting customer satisfaction surveys is 2,395X. The average customer surveyed spends $74,823 more each year and makes 13 more transactions, compared to the customers who aren’t surveyed.

At risk customers

What it is and why it matters:

At risk customers are those whose purchasing behavior indicates they may be preparing to leave you for the competition. A drop in purchase frequency or longer intervals between transactions is the clearest warning sign. If they’re still in business but buying elsewhere, your revenue and customer base are both in jeopardy. Recognizing these signs early is key to keeping your customers from switching to a competitor.

How to improve it:

Similar to increasing customer retention, the best way to keep at risk customers is to implement regular customer satisfaction surveys. By asking customers what issues they are having, and solving those issues as quickly as possible, at-risk customers will be more likely to stay with you and even become more loyal than they were before.

Types of purchases

What it is and why it matters:

Understanding what your customers are buying is essential to developing successful marketing and sales strategies. Are they coming to you for emergency rentals, regular service, or parts? Knowing the common triggers for purchases can help you promote the right products at the right time, ultimately boosting customer retention and revenue.

How to improve it:

Identify “trigger products” that lead to larger transactions or ongoing relationships. For instance, frequent parts like filters and fluids often lead to bigger service engagements or equipment sales. Make sure your dealership captures those easy wins instead of losing them to general supply houses. Analyze purchase patterns by category and adjust your promotions and messaging to highlight these high-opportunity areas.

Distance for geographic market performance

What it is and why it matters:

Distance for geographic market measures the number of miles that customers will travel to do business with you. If distance matters, it will be exceedingly difficult to retain customers beyond the range that is comfortable for them to travel. For example, most heavy equipment dealers have a service area that is usually a maximum of 60 miles. The primary reason is that beyond that distance the dealer won’t be able to reach a customer who needs emergency service quickly enough.

When you have difficulty gaining and keeping customers beyond a certain distance, it’s not worth trying to sell your products and services to customers beyond that maximum range. For that reason, it’s critical to know how far the reach is for your company.

How to improve it:

If your business seems to be affected by the distance from your location to the customer, it’s important to conduct a market analysis of potential customers to determine how large your potential market is and exactly what the distance is for your maximum reach. This analysis will help guide your marketing strategy and prevent you from wasting resources on leads and prospects that are unlikely to work with you anyway.

We work with two partner companies, Zintoro and Winsby. Zintoro, provides equipment dealers with comprehensive business analytics reporting, helping them track key business metrics like types of purchases, purchase frequency, customer retention, and more. Winsby helps dealers improve those numbers through effective marketing programs that include customer satisfaction surveys, email campaigns, and more.

As a first step towards improving your dealership’s revenue, schedule a Zintoro demo today to uncover valuable insights and start making data driven decisions!

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AI is Flipping the Economy on its Head – Here’s What You Need to Know

Guest writer Steve Clegg tackles the worries and opportunities that come with Artificial Intelligence in “AI is Flipping the Economy on its Head.”

Let’s talk about something huge that’s happening right now – AI is completely changing how our economy works. And trust me, this is way more interesting than it might sound at first.

What’s the Big Deal?

Think about how you buy stuff today versus 10 years ago. Remember when you had to:

Deal with pushy salespeople who knew nothing about what you actually wanted
Wait forever for customer service
Get stuck with one-size-fits-all products
Pay crazy fees for simple financial transactions

Well, AI is killing all of that. And it’s about time!

The Old Way is Dying (Good Riddance!)

For basically forever, business worked like a pyramid:
Big shots at the top making all the decisions
Middle managers pushing paper
Customers at the bottom dealing with whatever they got

That’s flipping upside down now. AI is putting customers where they should be – at the top. 

Everything else is just support.

Here’s What’s Coming (Actually, It’s Already Here)

Super-Personal Everything

AI knows what you want before you do
Products that adapt to YOU
No more “sorry, that’s just our policy” nonsense

Money Getting Smarter

Real-time everything – prices, exchange rates, interest
No more waiting 3 days for a simple bank transfer
Local prices that make sense for YOUR area

Cutting Out the Middlemen

Direct person-to-person deals
Way lower costs
Faster everything

The Tricky Parts

Look, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. We’ve got some stuff to figure out:
What happens to jobs that AI can do better
Making sure AI plays fair
Updating laws that were written for the horse-and-buggy era
Dealing with money that’s backed by… well, nothing really

Why Should You Care?
Because this train is leaving the station, and you want to be on it, not under it. Companies that get this are crushing it. The ones still doing things the old way? Well, let’s just say Blockbuster probably wished they’d seen Netflix coming.

What’s Next?
We’re going to dive into how all this actually works – no boring technical stuff, just real talk about how AI is changing the game for:
How you buy and sell
How money moves around
How businesses run
How we all make a living

Ready to see where this is going? Stick around – it’s going to be a wild ride!

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Zintoro’s Foundation

Zintoro’s Foundation

Guest writer Steve Clegg details “Zintoro’s Foundation” and how AI can be a valuable tool for business analysis. This kicks off a focus on AI for his next blog posts.

An equipment dealer’s business is driven by Each Customer’s Transactions, Expectations & Experience. 

The result of these interactions is responsible for the dealer’s customer retention and purchase frequency. 

Their impressions of the experience are simply based on the frequency and recency of the exchange of goods and services between two people. These transactions are represented by 65% Parts, 24% Service and 9% Rental with Equipment new and used only 2%.

Their impressions of the experience are simply based on the frequency and recency of the exchange of goods and services between two people. 

Revenues and profits are the result not the driver. 65% 24% 9% 2% 

Parts Service Rental Equipment Parts Rental Service Expectations 2% 

Equipment Customer/ Employee Experience Equipment Dealer Customer Expectations Are Based on their Prior Transaction Experiences As shown below with 98% of these transactions being Parts, Service and Rental

Revenues and profits are the result not the driver of your customer retention and engagement.

The world is on the cusp of an unprecedented economic transformation, driven by the rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. As we stand at the threshold of this new era, it is crucial to understand how AI will revolutionize the very foundation of our economy – the exchange of goods and services. The immense potential of AI is already reshaping economic transactions, improving efficiency, and optimizing resource management. 

This will change the structure of organizations to supporting customer transactions versus transactions supporting layers of bureaucratic management. The pyramid will be turned upside down.

For centuries, the economy has relied on the simple exchange of goods and services between individuals and organizations. However, traditional methods of conducting these exchanges often suffer from inefficiencies, such as information asymmetry, suboptimal resource allocation, large none contributing bureaucracies, financial exposure, poor returns on capital and lack of personalization. AI promises to address these challenges by leveraging vast amounts of data, advanced algorithms, and machine learning techniques to optimize every aspect of the transaction process thereby minimizing the back- office burden and associated transaction costs and asset timing risks. 

Imagine a world where AI-powered systems can analyze, accurately forecast consumer behavior and preferences in real-time, providing personalized product and service recommendations that cater to individual needs. 

Supply chains and logistics networks would be streamlined, ensuring the right goods are delivered to the right place at the right time, with minimal waste and maximum efficiency. 

Dynamic pricing strategies, based on real-time market conditions and demand forecasting, are already helping businesses optimize and accurately forecast their revenue and profits while providing fair and competitive prices to consumers. 

These capabilities already exist, the top-down management and control has already started to be replaced with a bottom-up efficient support structure for the two people transaction exchange that retains customers and builds relationships driving customer transaction growth and retention. AI has the potential to revolutionize resource management and allocation. 

By leveraging predictive models and optimization algorithms, businesses can minimize waste, reduce energy consumption, and promote sustainable practices. AI-driven workforce management systems can match the right skills to the right tasks, enhancing productivity, training, and job satisfaction. 

Management oversight and decision-making processes can be augmented by AI-generated insights and recommendations, enabling leaders to make informed, data-driven choices. As we embark on this journey, it is essential to recognize that the AI revolution is not about replacing humans and human intelligence but rather about augmenting and enhancing it. The collaboration between humans and AI will be the key to unlocking the full potential of this technology in driving economic growth and creating a more efficient, sustainable, and prosperous future. 

In the following blogs, we will provide a comprehensive understanding of how AI is transforming the economy through optimized exchanges and resource efficiency. We will equip readers with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate this new landscape and harness the power of AI in their own economic endeavors. Get ready to embark on an exciting exploration of the AI revolution and its profound impact on the way we exchange goods and services. Together, we will uncover the boundless possibilities that AI holds for transforming the economy and shaping a better future for all. The AI revolution has already started.

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What Is an Industry Analysis and What Can It Do for Your Business?

What Is an Industry Analysis and What Can It Do for Your Business?

Guest writers Debbie Frakes and Steve Clegg are back with another resource available to businesses in “What Is an Industry Analysis and What Can It Do for Your Business?”

Equipment dealers only have a limited number of resources at their disposal. The key to being successful is allocating those resources in the most productive, efficient way possible. When it comes to your marketing and sales efforts, it’s impossible to target everyone. You must make important decisions about who to go after based on who will produce the most value for your business. 

The key is to target potential customers who are most likely to work with you. An industry analysis tells you who those people are. 

What is an industry analysis?

Zintoro conducts your industry analysis by determining which industries are most prevalent in your customer list. By looking at Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, you can identify which industries your different customers are in and which industries you do business with most often. 

Part of the industry analysis is looking at the customer count, sales volume, revenue, number of potential customers, and a variety of other key metrics for every SIC code found in your list. That way, you can understand the market potential for each segment of your current customer base and how much value they can produce for your business. 

Armed with the knowledge of your customer base and the revenue potential of different industries, you’ll be better informed on which new prospects to target with your limited resources. An industry analysis helps you focus your time, money, and effort on increasing your market share in the industries that you know have the most potential for your equipment dealership. 

Use what the industry analysis tells you.

Conducting a Zintoro industry analysis gives you a better understanding of your customers and how valuable different segments of your base are. Once you know who will deliver the greatest return, you will know where to invest your marketing and sales resources. More than just giving you directions, an industry analysis also helps you tailor your messaging, exclusive offers, and even inventory to appeal to the most valuable segments in your customer list. 

For example, if you sell excavators, but you find out that most of your customers exclusively oversee demolition projects instead of digging jobs, then you can change your marketing and sales messaging to match that. In your emails you can use pictures of excavators demolishing a building and highlight features of the machine that are most useful on demo jobs. The more targeted you are at the customers that produce the most value, the fewer resources you’ll waste going after customers who are less likely to work with you.

Start better understanding your customers and your business by contacting Zintoro for an industry analysis today! 

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Equipment Dealer Strategies for Growing Sales

Equipment Dealer Strategies for Growing Sales

Guest writers Steve Clegg and Debbie Frakes return with their blog this week covering the ways you can create lifelong customers in “Equipment Dealer Strategies for Growing Sales.”

The key to sustained success in selling equipment, parts, and service is to create long-term customers. And creating long term customers comes down to following several equipment dealer strategies that show your customers you care about their businesses and are invested in helping them grow their businesses, and that you know what works. Here are the golden rules for dealers that you need to follow:

  1. Never make your problem the customer’s problem; they have enough problems of their own, which is why they are calling you.
  2. Always say YES! Then, the question becomes when and how much.
  3. Be proactive and contact the customer before they contact you.
  4. Manage your customers’ expectations. Customers often don’t remember what you told them; they only remember what they expected to happen.

In this article, we’re going to cover these rules and strategies, and how they make you more effective at selling equipment, parts, and service, all while developing more loyal customers. 

Be positive with customers and say YES! 

When talking with customers, you should always be finding a way to solve their problem. For example, if one branch doesn’t have the part they need in stock, find the part at another location, and tell the customer when they will receive it. You don’t want to tell a customer that you can’t do something, you want to tell them how you can. If you start with a positive reply of what you can do, there’s a 70% chance of closing compared to a 50% chance if you start with a no. If you’re the dealer that can effectively solve their problem, then you will continue to be their source for equipment, parts, and service for them. 

How to respond when a customer needs a product or service from you. 

Being positive and solving the problem shows the customer that you understand their needs and care about their problems. Here is an example of the hierarchy of responding to customers: 

  1. Tell them you have exactly what they need and when you can get it to them. 
  2. If you don’t have it at a particular branch, check other locations and give them options for delivery or pickup. 
  3. If you need to order a part, figure out how long it will take for delivery, and provide options for delivery. 
  4. If the timeline of receiving the product or service doesn’t work for them, suggest other options that could work for them. 
  5. Always tell the customer the next step and provide details of how you can solve their problem.

Stay on top of communication. 

It’s your job to keep customers informed of service updates and order status proactively. If they must call and ask about something to get an update, it’s too late. One of the most important dealer strategies is to anticipate their questions and stay ahead of them. You also need to understand which forms of communication they prefer, and when is the best time to contact them. Communicating with customers on their own terms will make it easier to reach them and shows that you respect their time.

Answer the phone every time. 

Answering the phone is critical for effective customer communication. Your team should be picking up on the third ring or sooner. The reason is that the call drops off rate is 20% per ring after three rings, and customer frustration is exponential for each additional ring and every missed call. Because only 2% to 4% of callers will leave a voicemail, answering the phone is an important first step in understanding what their needs and problems are. If you’re consistently not answering the phone or a customer has several bad phone experiences, they will start to look for another company they can work with for their equipment needs. 

Managing expectations. 

Managing expectations at every point of contact with your customers opens the opportunity to create a raving fan or to lose the customer. One of the most important equipment dealer strategies we can share with you is to always undersell and over deliver. Customers will eventually leave you for the competition if you are consistently falling short of your promised timelines. In fact, the number one reason for losing customers is mismanaged expectations. Be honest with them about when they will receive equipment and parts, when service will be completed, and your rental availability. Honesty and managed expectations will develop trust and strengthen relationships.

Our partner, Zintoro, can help. 

By consistently providing value and outstanding service, you can build long-lasting relationships with your customers and increase their loyalty to your brand. Zintoro provides you with the monthly analyses of your invoices that show your customer retention rate, which customers you’re in danger of losing, customer purchase behavior that will help you anticipate their needs, and much more. They give you the tools and data you need to keep customers, improve communication, and increase your sales. 

Schedule a Zintoro demo to find out how to boost your customer retention, track and accurately forecast business performance, and better communicate with customers. 

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Exceed Revenue Goals

Exceed Revenue Goals

Guest writers Debbie Frakes and Steve Clegg are back with a new and relevant blog post this week which covers the topic of how to meet and exceed your revenue goals.

Revenue and transaction trends tell a story about your company. They allow you to recognize sales patterns and understand what activities, processes, and methods lead to consistent business growth. Without this information, you won’t be able to make sound decisions for your company. Tracking and acting on revenue analytics and trends will help you answer the following critical questions: 

  • Who should you target for marketing initiatives? 
  • Which products or services should you focus on? 
  • What customers and prospects should your salespeople spend time contacting?

If you don’t determine the right answers to these questions, then you won’t be able to meet your revenue goals, let alone exceed them. 

How to achieve your revenue goals. 

When it comes to drivers of revenue, two of the most important analytics are the number of transactions and customer retention. They explain exactly what is happening in your business and where you may be falling short. These two revenue analytics go hand in hand, because the longer someone works with you, the more transactions they will make. 

Below is an example of a business whose new customers during the past 12 months make up 51% of their total number of customers. The numbers show how the behavior of these customers changes over time, if they keep working with you. 

Average transactions

Year 1: 3

Year 2: 13

Year 3: 18

Average revenue 

Year 1: $39,099 

Year 2: $154,537 

Year 3: $178,789

These revenue analytics show that the longer a customer works with you, the more valuable they become to your company. For this reason, when it comes to meeting and exceeding your revenue goals, retaining customers over the long term should be a primary focus of your sales and marketing teams. 

Act on revenue trend information. 

Tracking revenue analytics is great, but they won’t do you any good if you don’t actually use the information to your advantage. The area where you can make the largest impact towards meeting and exceeding your revenue goals is by improving customer retention and increasing purchase frequency. Remember, for most companies, the longer someone works with you, the more lucrative they become for you. Here are some methods for boosting your company’s customer retention and purchase frequency: 

  • Regular emails – It’s important to consistently communicate with your customers. We recommend sending several emails a month highlighting the products and services you offer, reminding them to purchase, and establishing yourself as the expert in the industry and their go-to source for assistance. Emails sent out by our partner, Winsby, typically double or triple customer purchase frequency. 
  • Offer targeted suggestions – View your customer purchase data to recognize patterns and anticipate what they may need or when they might be getting low on a product. Then you can send them a message or give them a call that is specific to their current needs. 
  • Use customer satisfaction surveys – Regularly ask for feedback from customers about how they feel about your company and how well you are fulfilling their needs. By conducting customer satisfaction surveys, you’ll find out about problems and have the opportunity to solve them before a customer leaves you. Customer satisfaction surveys conducted by Winsby typically boost retention by 20% – 30%. 
  • Calling prospects to expand your email list – Calling provides new leads and introduces customers to your company. Winsby clients see an average increase of 60% in customers’ purchases when they have been called. 

The effectiveness of Winsby email and calling services. 

Customers receiving Winsby emails typically purchase two to three times more often than customers who don’t receive emails. Here is an example the results that an equipment dealer saw with Winsby emails: 

The Winsby calling program identifies decision makers at the companies you’re targeting and then adds them to the email list. Here are the results for a dealer they work with: 

Understand the types of purchases customers are making. 

In addition to looking at customer retention and number of transactions, you also should be tracking types of purchases. Identifying which products sell the greatest quantities will help you focus your marketing and advertising strategies better. Products that are normally purchased more often will deliver a greater ROI for your marketing campaigns than less popular products would.

Once you determine your most frequently bought products, you can then place greater resources behind them and see a higher return. 

Take full advantage of revenue analytics. 

By understanding which customers produce the most value for your business and which types of products and services result in the most transactions, you can better target your sales and marketing efforts. You’ll reach and exceed your revenue goals if you focus on retaining your current customers and push the products that generate the most money. 

Our partner company, Zintoro, will track these key revenue analytics and many others, as well as provide specific strategies for improving them. Their portal shows you exactly which customers should be called when and which products should be promoted. They are the answer for equipment dealers and other businesses who want to make sense of their numbers and use them to their advantage. 

If you want to understand your revenue analytics and use proven strategies to exceed your revenue goals, contact Zintoro today for a demo. Today many businesses rely on outdated data and backward-looking reports for planning. Zintoro generates greater than 95% accuracy in their 12 month forecasts to see the future and plan versus reacting and continually trying to explain the past. 

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How to Measure Sales Performance Unlocking Success: A Guide to Effectively Track and Boost Your Sales Reps’ Performance

How to Measure Sales Performance – Unlocking Success: A Guide to Effectively Track and Boost Your Sales Reps’ Performance 

Guest writers Debbie Frakes and Steve Clegg return this week in, “How to Measure Sales Performance – Unlocking Success: A Guide to Effectively Track and Boost Your Sales Reps’ Performance.”

In the dynamic world of equipment sales, your sales reps are the driving force behind your success. They not only steer potential leads to becoming valued customers but also play a pivotal role in nurturing existing client relationships. Without a high performing sales team, your business risks stagnation and having customers leave for competitors.

It is essential to employ robust strategies for tracking and improving the sales performance of your representatives. This blog will guide you through the process, emphasizing the significance of regular performance analysis and introducing the effectiveness of Zintoro.com to guide actions that result in improving sales.

Complete a Sales Performance Analysis

To ensure your sales reps consistently meet their goals, conducting a comprehensive sales performance analysis is imperative. This involves tracking key metrics such as:

  • Conversion Rates—Measure how effectively leads are turning into customers.
  • Appointment Setting Rates—Evaluate the efficiency of securing meetings with potential clients and existing customers to capture more of their transaction.
  • Customer Retention Rates—Assess how well your reps are maintaining relationships with existing customers and building these relationships by expanding the products and service purchased.
  • Customer Purchase Frequency and Consistency—Understand the frequency at which customers make purchases and the impact of weekly and monthly purchases.
  • Overall Revenue and Gross Margin—Gauge the contribution of each rep to the company’s revenue and profits.

Setting realistic goals for these metrics is an important part of this process. With regular analysis you can track progress and identify areas for improvement. Zintoro forecasts expected sales with a >95% accuracy which provides realistic expectations for branches and sales territories. 

Why it Matters for Your Dealership

Sales rep tracking is not just about metrics; it’s about the success and sustainability of your dealership. By regularly monitoring performance, focusing on customers that are at risk of being lost, managers can quickly identify underperforming reps and take corrective actions. Recognizing critical Zintoro sales metrics helps in setting benchmarks for the team, providing insights into individual achievements or shortcomings.

Without tracking sales performance and customer engagement, you risk being in the dark about your team’s accomplishments or any underlying issues. Early detection of performance problems allows for timely corrections, action plans, and issue resolution, preventing customer loss.

Implement a Zintoro Sales Performance Analysis

Enter Zintoro.com — your comprehensive solution for an exact understanding of how well your reps are meeting their goals. With Zintoro’s sales performance analysis, you can:

  • Identify Shortcomings—Recognize areas where reps are falling short and gain insights into the root causes.
  • Comparison Insights—Let your sales reps compare their performance with others, fostering healthy competition and motivation.
  • Strategic Actions—Zintoro not only provides insights but suggests actionable steps to enhance customer engagement, retention, and overall growth.

Zintoro’s suggested actions pinpoint precisely what needs to be done to elevate sales performance with real growth both in upturns and industry downturns. If you’re ready to embark on a journey of tracking and improving sales performance, or if you have questions about the most important sales metrics, contact Zintoro today.

Unlock the potential of your sales team with Zintoro.com — where insights meet action for unparalleled growth.

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Why Your Geographic Market Matters

Why Your Geographic Market Matters

Guest writers Debbie Frakes and Steve Clegg write about why your geographic market matters, and how this concept directly impacts your business.

Why Geographic Market Matters for Your Business

When it comes to whether someone will work with a company or not, there are a wide variety of factors that come into play. Many of those factors are things you can control, like your parts availability, quality of customer service, and how effective your technicians are. But there are some other factors that are not in your control. For equipment dealers, one of those is your geographic market. 

What is an equipment dealer’s geographic market? 

Distance for geographic market is one of the most important business metrics for your dealership. It measures the number of miles and travel time that a customer will travel in order to work with you or buy products from you. The geographic market for a business can vary, based on the industry, market, or region that a company is located in. But if distance is a factor for your business, like it is for equipment dealers, then a customer is very unlikely to do business with you if you’re beyond that distance. 

In order to learn what the distance for geographic market is for your dealership, you must understand where your current customers are coming from. After knowing how far away from you most of your customers are, you’ll be able to recognize patterns, see if there are any outliers, and know how important a factor distance is for building your customer base. 

Why distance for geographic market matters for you

If a prospect is beyond the maximum range people are willing to travel to work with you, then it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to turn them into a customer. In general, most equipment dealers have a maximum service area within a 60-mile radius. The reason for this limit is that with a greater distance than that, it’s too difficult for your field service trucks to respond quickly enough to an emergency service situation. 

Geographic market is one of the most important business metrics for you to pay attention to, because if a customer is beyond that 60-mile range, you don’t want to expend any resources going after them. You should use this metric to focus your marketing and sales strategy on targeting people who are within your maximum distance and, therefore, more likely to work with you. 

How to use geographic market to your advantage 

Although you can’t control how far your dealership is from any given customer, you can use knowledge of geographic market, like other business metrics, to make your marketing and sales efforts more effective. You should only be targeting prospects within your dealer’s range, because they have a much greater potential for your business. 

Over the long term, this type of geographic targeting will save your dealership money, help you tailor your marketing and sales messaging, and allow you to become highly skilled at serving customers in your specific area. All these activities are conducive to your long-term growth and success. 

If you want to understand your dealership’s geographic market and other key business metrics for your operation, then we recommend conducting a market analysis through our partner, Zintoro. It will determine how large your potential market is and exactly what the distance is for your maximum reach. This analysis will help guide your business strategy and keep you from wasting resources.

Schedule a Zintoro market analysis today. 

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How to Improve Customer Retention

How to Improve Customer Retention

Guest writers Debbie Frakes and Stephen Clegg analyze the key measure of business success in this week’s blog post, “How to Improve Customer Retention.”

Customer retention is crucial for the success of every company. It describes the percentage of customers who purchased within the last 12 months who also purchased within the prior 12 months—13 to 24 months ago. Poor customer retention means that you aren’t keeping customers over the long term and people are not committed to working with you. The result is that you must devote resources continually toward acquiring new customers, taking up valuable time and money. 

Maintaining strong customer retention is important for two primary reasons. The first is that it’s significantly more expensive to sell to a new customer than to an existing one. The second is that the longer a customer works with you, the more they buy from you and the more valuable they become to you. 

The question is, how can you improve your customer retention? 

Understand why customers leave you. 

The primary reasons that customer will leave you are these:

  • You’re mismanaging their expectations and not keeping them informed on the status of their orders. 
  • There is a change in contacts for either the customer or for you. 
  • Your employees aren’t adequately trained or knowledgeable about your products and services or they lack the information system support and tools required to be responsive.

Despite what you may think, price is not at the top of the list when it comes to reasons that customers leave your company to purchase from a competitor. Once you understand why people may stop working with you, you can take steps to prevent them from leaving to buy from competitors. 

How Zintoro helps you retain more customers. 

Zintoro provides the data and insights to recognize at risk customers, while our partner Winsby gives you the tools to significantly improve your customer retention. 

Offer great customer service – In order to deliver top notch customer service, you must understand expectations and be responsive to questions and concerns. Zintoro uses Winsby Inc.’s customer satisfaction and benchmark survey programs to find out what your customers’ expectations are and to determine if there are any issues they are having. Your team can then act on this information and keep at risk customers from leaving you. 

Provide a personalized customer experience – Our AI system tracks each of your customers to identify their next purchase, what industry, and market they are in, and whether they are at risk of being lost. Armed with that information, your sales team can personalize customer interactions and tailor offers and recommendations to meet their specific needs. Our partner Winsby will keep your master lists up to date with the correct contacts, phone numbers, and email addresses. 

Develop strong relationships through consistent communication – Zintoro helps you contact and communicate with customers in several ways. First, you can use purchase history data to identify people who have not purchased in their usual time period, then reach out to ask about their needs. Second, you can distribute highly effective emails through Winsby. Customers who receive Winsby emails typically purchase two to three times more often than those who don’t. Third, Zintoro works with most CRM systems to integrate analytics data with your sales and marketing data, helping streamline customer communication. 

Use customer feedback to take action – Implementing Winsby’s customer satisfaction surveys is a great first step, but you must actually act on the information and feedback you receive. Utilize the insights from the surveys to improve your sales process, products, and other aspects of your business before at-risk customers leave you. 

Recognize the signs of at-risk customers – Zintoro tracks the frequency, consistency, and types of purchases, so you can know who your at-risk customers are. Your sales team can then use that information and reach out to those customers, ask about their needs, and even provide a special offer or other incentive to encourage them to stay with you.

Take steps now to improve your customer retention. 

Increasing your retention rate is an ongoing process that should be started as soon as possible. Building lasting relationships with customers is crucial for the long-term viability of your company because it makes them more valuable to you and it takes fewer resources to sell to them. Zintoro gives you the information and tools required to retain customers and boost your sales. 

Schedule a Zintoro demo to find out how to boost your customer retention, track, and accurately forecast business performance, and to determine the ROI for your marketing and customer satisfaction efforts.