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INTENT DATA PLAYBOOK

Beat churn and spot customer warning signs with intent data

Churn got you worried?  Top CSMs and AMs rely on this playbook. 👇

Learn how to use intent data to spot hidden at-risk signals early, predict customer behaviour, and take action to improve your CCR (Customer Churn Rate).

Channels run
  • Chat
  • Email
  • Phone
Playbook impact
  • Improve Customer Churn Rate
  • Deeper Understanding of Customer Needs
PLAYBOOK HOST
Playbook Host Images_Meg

Megan Brickley

Director of Customer Success

RECOMMENDED FOR
Improving your bottom line metrics like CCR, CLV and improving customer satisfaction 📈
Developing your understanding of real customer value 👩‍💻
Driving your view that timely product innovation = ARR growth against competitors 🥸
Extending your knowledge of what drives ‘stickiness’ 💰

Let's jump in 👇🏻

💡 Step 1: Identifying the signs you don’t want to avoid

Open Cognism Prospector. Our Bombora integration lives under our Intent tab, but is now visible in multiple handy areas of the platform.

  • The easiest route is to remain in Prospector, and head to the ‘Company’ tab
  • You can apply your intent search to your saved companies by clicking the ‘My Companies’ tab and either choosing ‘All Companies’ or the specific ones you want to be keeping a closer eye on 👀
  • This will then show the companies that are producing signals against the topics you’re tracking. For example, one of the saved companies in our Prospector app is Apple, and one of our saved topics is ‘Sales Intelligence’.
  • Apple is showing a ‘New’ Trend for this topic - suggesting that somewhere down the line, there is intent to identify a solution just like Cognism. Lucky hey? Looks like we’ve got a potential new customer to be closing in on…

💡 Step 2 | Scenario 1: Trust your intuition…

  • Now - we know that the above is very green grass, white picket fence, ideal dreamland kind of situation. But, what if it’s not all looking so prosperous on your side of the street?
  • If your saved company, let's say it’s a customer of yours, is showing a signal for a competing provider, then it’s time to think about deploying some tactics to get all eyes back on you.
  • We’ll give an example. Let’s say CUSTOMER A of ours is showing an increasing surge for a saved topic of ours that looks a little something like this: ‘Z**minfo’.
  • Firstly, choices. Secondly, it’s time to think about reconnecting with your key contact in this company and understand what would lead them to start searching around for an alternative.

💡 Step 3: Some relationships are worth saving! 🥰

  • Let's outline the steps you can take to re-solidify your rapport with this wayward customer of yours.
  • Think about your key integrators or partners in a similar space to you. Does your customer utilise any of these solutions and do you think an increased fluidity between certain systems would increase the value your customer is getting from your platform?
  • Think symbiosis in this scenario. The nicer your systems play together, the stickier that customer will become as a result of improved workflows, accelerated efficiency, and undeniable fluidity between providers.
  • Another thing to consider is whether or not your wider team is tracking product topics in general on a business level. Monitoring products, solutions, and services that you currently sell, or are on the product roadmap, can determine whether or not there is existing or building demand for whatever is coming next.
  • Imagine losing one of your largest accounts to an inferior competitor because they offer a product feature that's WEEKS away from being released by your own company. Rookie mistake. Remember,  Harvard Business Review reported that it’s anywhere from 5 to 25 times cheaper to retain an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one.

💡 Step 3 | Scenario 2: You’re doing amazing!

  • Let’s rewind a little. On the other hand, if you’re the perfect human - and everything goes right for you, you’ll have zero of your accounts growing a wandering eye. And that deserves to be celebrated!
  • Remember, don’t get too comfortable though, as trends, technologies, and habits change quickly. So setting up a routine process of checking what your saved companies are showing increased intent toward will set you up for success when that day finally comes when you need to work on your relationship! ❤️‍🩹

💡 Step 4 | Day 30: (Hopefully) it’s time to relax… for now 😅

  • It’s been a month. Let’s say you’ve reached out to your key contact, reaffirmed your value in their organisation, looped in your trustworthy partners that contribute to your customer's tech stack, and put a date in the diary for a QBR.
  • Are you feeling more confident in your relationship with this customer? Do you feel like identifying an issue early on through the introduction of Intent Data may have salvaged this before it was too late? You should do. You’ve used the tools at your disposal to identify an arising issue and nip it in the bud before it went too far - congratulations! 🎉

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