This is an exercise in understanding your customers. Although it sounds simple, it is quite complex, and that complexity is necessary for success. Top performing growth firms tend to have the deepest understanding of how to align their products and services to consumer segment needs (see USAA). Matching this internal data with external data provides true knowledge on your most profitable customer’s needs and preferences. This information serves Marketing in its efforts, it serves Sales in its efforts, and ultimately comes full circle with enhanced service delivery strategies (preferred channel identification and “Next-Best-Offer” efforts). 

Some external data sources use as many as 64 consumer segments and therein lies the complexity, to effectively reduce this number to a manageable yet useful number that aligns to the firm’s customer base. Understanding the needs of all client segments your firm services is critical toward improving the number and profitability of relationships; from deepening to migration strategies, to mitigation strategies for those unprofitable relationships. Once accomplished, it should be incorporated within the business model to become a standard operating procedure for collecting key metrics aligned toward those “Needs Group” strategies. This is critical set of metrics for many internal, strategic planning targets like branch expansion, product expansion, product optimization, among others. If properly gathered, it accurately defines prospect and client product and communication preferences at various life stages so marketers can target specific groups of consumers who live and operate like those who are your most profitable customers. It helps to better identify those borderline profitable relationships who will migrate to highly profitable customers vs. those who will remain marginal or become ultimately unprofitable and may need a mitigation strategy. “Segmentation Data” is real information that is core to deep customer knowledge and feeds strategic planning initiatives that delivers a definable and measurable level of improvement.