It looks like the power companies are active in the market at the moment. I have just had a couple of interesting calls with them. Same industry, different company and very different approaches….
Deal One:
How many times have you had this call?
“Hello sir… have I caught you at a good time? I’d really love to tell you about a great offer we have for power in your area”.
“Now, just before I start… can you tell me a little bit about your current power bill? Oh, really? That does seem quite a lot…”
“You see, we have our BEST OFFER* currently available in your area, exclusive to you. It’s really rather good – I think you’ll love it! But, I know you’re a busy man. Our BEST OFFER may not be sufficient to grab the attention. What about if I told you we had $50!!!** with your name on it… all yours, no strings attached, just for switching??!!”
“Oh no, of course there’s no contract!”
“What’s that? Well, as part of this very exclusive offer, we’ll also fix your price all the way to August 2017, and is only available today”.
‘Sir, I know this is a lot to take in.. but tell me. What do you think? Would you like to switch to us???”
Well, no actually.
You’ve just got me cold. It’s 6.30PM. I dunno, you maybe hear kids in the background? That’s the early stages of a food fight. You’ll have to excuse me if the head space for informed purchase decisions on my power bill is a little lacking. There’s a lot on.
And by the way… $50? Really? Is this 1980? You do get it would cost me more than that in time and energy to switch my direct debit with the bank? That’s assuming I ever find the time to actually do it.
Thanks but no thanks…..
Deal Two:
I saw and interesting ad on a website, (yes advertising works). To find out more you have to call and 0800 number (a bit odd but I will let it pass)
“Hello sir – do you own a bach?, Oh, good. I may have something of interest for you…”
“You see – we know your energy provider bakes a “fixed daily charge” into your bill. That’s OK – most providers do. But we don’t think it’s fair you should have to pay that for your bach when you are not using it- do you?”
“What’s that? Of course I can wait… is that a food fight in the background??”
“We think daily charges for a property you don’t live in are a little unfair too. We’d like to offer you the opportunity to remove this from your bill – all you have to do is switch to us as your provider for your house and bach”.
“Sound OK? You want me to go on? Of COURSE sir, I’m glad you like our idea… you’re so right, unlike OTHER providers, we’ve actually done our homework we have found there are a lot of bach owners that are loving this offer, it has been very successful”
“Of course sir – we’d love to give you some time to consider. Could I ring you in three days?”.
Which is just long enough for me to do some homework.
This is why I like this offer, they HAVE found a customer pain point, not for everyone but for a specific segment of customers. They have business cased the cost of eliminating daily charges against picking up your main residence account. Sure they have a higher variable rate for the bach to but hey everyone needs to make money. The smart thing is they have found an insight, found a target market and will hopefully pick up some market share along the way.
I agree, looking for bach owners won’t deliver everyone, but for those in our target market… well, it’s pretty good, I think you’ll agree?”
Key Takeaways
- You can use a blunt ax, or machine gun approach to acquisition, it is just a numbers game or
- You can find a customer pain point, an insight and focus delivering to that.
- One is a numbers game, the other is a game of niches – your choice
Notes:
*Marketers love “Our best plans”, “Our best offer ever”… don’t be fooled by the language. This isn’t the best offer in the market – just the best offer from that provider.
** $50?? Really? Value = Benefits – Cost… what were they thinking? Always consider smarter and relevant incentives… “Sir, I see you have a smart meter. How ‘bout I handle the transfer for you? I can get your debit/credit card payments sorted within three minutes. And of course – you can have seven days to cancel”.
