Poaching strategy for competitor’s high value clients

I have recently been reading different acquisition strategies white papers as the topic has turned important for some of our clients. One of the definition I liked most was that that defined customer acquisition in the telecom industry as a process of identifying, approaching and developing new customer relationships between the operator and a potential customer. Considering that in most of the mature markets telecom penetration is near (or over 100%), most of the new acquisitions come from competitors’ customer bases, and therefore it is important to target the right type of customer, in order to ensure a sustainable future.

So, what are telecom operators looking for? It’s difficult to restrict just to one specific type of client, but in my experience, most of the operators in mature markets start to look for long-term relationships with their clients, aka relevant ARPUs during a relevant period of time, aka good customer lifetime value.

Acquiring customers is one of the most important factors in the success of a business. The importance of acquisition not only lies in the volume of customers acquired, but the profitability and value that the customer will bring. Value comes to be the metric when operators have to invest in a client (SAC) and when they want to retain that client when the client is about to churn (SRC). Therefore, the sooner we apply the value metric in acquisition, the better for our sustainable future.

Adopting a strategic approach is advised when it comes to acquiring customers. Determining what type of customer best suits the business needs enables you to target customers, which will be profitable and add value to the organisation. Some companies will take the decision of land-grab customers in order to secure new business. It is inevitable that this strategy will acquire customers but not necessarily the customers who will best suit the business needs.

A successful customer acquisition strategy is that of which adopts a fully integrated multi channel approach. Giving customers the choice to utilise their preferred channel, instantly creates a positive impact on potential customers. Also, this fully integrated method means businesses increase availability to their potential customer base. Companies with successful acquisition strategies recognise that consumers; communication channels evolve throughout the customer lifecycle. This enables the company to prepare to adapt to such changes in a responsive manor.

We recently suggested to one of our prospect clients a poaching strategy for competitor’s clients, as they wanted to acquire a significant number of the valuable clients of a specific segment. In this case, we wanted to support our client in answering:

1. Which are the client’s that we should target in our competitors’ bases?
2. How should we break the barriers established by the competitors to acquire these clients?
3. What value proposition should be offered to gain a significant value?
4. How should we prepare our organization (marketing, commercial and technical areas) to implement this strategy?

Please find next mmC Group’s approach for customer acquisition. Enjoy the reading.

Best. CVA