Driving Predictable Demand (w/ John Short)

John Short shares the system he uses to drive more predictable demand for customers, along with how to identify who your best customers are.

How They Move The Needle

To help companies drive predictable growth, John uses The Predictable Demand System: a framework he developed to help clients leverage their time, energy, and money in the most efficient way possible to acquire new customers.

First, they look at the customer’s CRM and analyze the data: customer lifetime value (CLV), funnel performance, deal velocity, and more. From here, they’ll augment any missing data using a tool like ZoomInfo or Clearbit. 

Once the database is clean and accurate, they’ll work to identify that client’s “best” customers. To do this, they’ll look at two key metrics: 1) deal velocity, which deals progress through the sales pipeline and close the fastest, and 2) the value of the client, primarily measured in Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) or average contract value (ACV) depending on the stage and maturity of the client. 

From here, they can look at firmographic/quantitative data and notice trends that may help narrow or refine the client’s ICP. Namely, these are criteria like company size, industry, or revenue size. But they may also include things like a certain software or a certain number of integrations “best” customers are using. And if it’s available, John will also supplement this with qualitative insights pulled from sales recordings.

Next, they start to apply a lead scoring system, giving a higher score for leads that show intent (raising their hands to talk to sales) and ICP-fit. 

Finally, they can identify what’s working best, and what opportunities there are to help the client attract more of their best customer. For example, they might see that a specific marketing channel drove 80% of leads with the highest lead score, which means they should invest more heavily in that channel. 

They’ll also build out a buyer journey to identify additional places where they can get in front of that best customer. Usually, this is a mix of LinkedIn, programmatic advertising, SEO, email, and a few other channels.

John views all prospects as fitting into one of four phases:

1. Awareness: the prospect has encountered the Client, or knows they exist
2. Have pain, but not in-market: the prospect feels the pain the Client solves, but is just learning how to solve it. They are not yet in-market for a solution.
3. In-market: the prospect is now shopping for a solution to solve the pain.
4. Customers: the prospect has chosen this Client to solve their pain.

This framework serves as a model to drive ongoing demand for John’s clients, as they continue to grow. He recommends going through this process annually, to continue to refine your targeting and ICP and adjust your demand strategy as needed.

Links

• Follow John on LinkedIn
• Visit Compound Growth Marketing