Use your database as a marketing tool

Many admin jobs are too big for one installer working alone ... at least that was the case before numerous bespoke contact databases were developed in the early 80s. In recent years, multi-task/report contact /marketing databases have become available off the shelf for less than £150. These allow installation businesses of any size to have access to technology that can help increase good marketing at very low cost.

Databases force you to enter information consistently and remove much of the inaccuracy of manual record-keeping. Because they can capture information spanning longer than the tenure of an individual they represent the collective memory of a business. They can contain historical information on every activity in a company, from sales to personnel to service/maintenance to security specifications and sales proposals. They can significantly speed up the tracking of each customer order from installation through billing and payment.

As the period of time covered by a database grows, long-term trends become visible ... providing the database has historical/reporting capability. For example, tracking security product trends over months, quarters and years can reveal profitability, reliability and operating cost, as well as areas of strength or weakness for each product in market sectors.

The inspectorate-approved installation sector makes good use of customer databases for service tasks and historical data but few can use existing customer databases to develop and increase marketing activity.

Check your database

Use this checklist to find out whether your company is geared up to using your database in marketing:

• First of all, is your database Microsoft Windows-compatible?

  Does your database allow you to...

• Send the same letter to different contacts automatically (mail merges)?

• Regularly mail-out product offers to your customers, automatically?

• Choose any word processing software?

• Group contacts, ie Bells-only, RedCARE, Commercial etc?

• Sort, view and find any contact speedily?

• Produce reports and historical data?

• Send e-mails and faxes?

• Schedule telephone callbacks and things-to-do lists?

• Import data from diskette or other hand-held devices?

• Keep records of every modification by user?

• Automatically remind you to complete scheduled tasks?

If you can answer ‘yes’ with confidence to all or most of the above, then your business will flourish providing you keep up the maintenance of your database. If most of your answers are ‘no’, it would pay you to explore the possibilities.

The life of a database has only two stages: development and maintenance. By development I don’t mean computer language and programming, I mean simply adding quality contacts to your database. A strong database in the security market should have at least 3:1 new business contacts to existing customers. The best way to build up your database quickly with new contacts is to buy a list of 250, 500 or 1,000 from your local Chamber of Commerce, who sell these lists to members at low cost. This saves you valuable time loading individual contacts one by one. It is also worth knowing that 97 per cent of businesses in the UK have between 25 and 50 employees. These are an ideal size for medium-value Intruder, Access, CCTV and Fire Alarms systems.

Sort your ‘majors’ from your ‘bells only’

The first marketing strategy you should adopt (if you haven’t already done so) is to ‘group’ your existing contacts, as these are businesses you already have a relationship with and will warm towards your security ideas and approaches. Also, you can tailor certain marketing strategies to individual groups, saving you time and money: for example,’Homeowners’, ‘Commercial’, ‘Major Accounts’, ‘Bells-only’, ‘Digicoms’, ‘RedCARE’ etc. Other useful groups are by product. Your database will soon reveal how many systems you are selling per customer.

Moreover, if you could improve the national security average of 1.4 systems sold per site to, say, 1.8 and you started with 1,000 customers, you will have probably added 350 or more contracts to your recurring revenue base and significantly increased sales revenue by the end of your marketing campaign.

Just think of the possibilities of a database of 3-4,000 new contacts in your area ... and you managing to win 3-4 per cent of them per annum! Don’t wait for the phone to ring from expensive advertising when database marketing could be the answer.