Data Can Instantly Increase The Value Of Your Business – Here’s How

How do you actually value an organisation in 2018? Cash, PNL, balance sheet, dividend, goodwill? They all play a part but there is a much bigger factor in the mere mortal world of small businesses… Data.

In the last year, Avalanche has dealt with 4 company acquisitions and helped a few of our clients systemise themselves for an exit. The common denominator that determines the amount that we or the investor is willing to pay for the business is its database, and how engaged and nurtured it is.

GDPR compliant data that experiences many regular touches from the organisation, is worth its weight in gold. The data and the deep data you have collected on your customers/prospects in return for giving them outstanding value is now seen as one of the largest and most valuable assets that you have.

How you then manage your data and systemize it, will take you from a business where the investor has to worry about and tamper with the marketing, to a business who’s marketing machine is streamlined and works like clockwork. It also means that you are a business who takes detailed care in your customers experience and shows that you have the data insights to optimise it.

We have heard many times that the way to large success during a business exit comes when the owner is no longer needed for business in order for it to generate revenue. What if we took that a step further and created a business that not just runs without the owner but also grows. Your business just became a true investment and its intrinsic value just went through the roof.

I read a book a number of years ago called Guerrilla Marketing that changed my perspective on the customer journey and how many touches they need before they are ready to enter your sales cycle. This book and the practice put in place after reading it, enabled us to nurture data and stop burning prospects. Each of the businesses that used the idea saw a tremendous difference in engagement through their emails, SMS and follow up campaigns, all of which are very important to many of you.

Here are some simple steps you can take to begin systemising your marketing and creating nurtured and engaged data for your business:

1. Choose the right platform – There are plenty of CRM software systems and other wacky platforms out there but make sure consider the following:

• What applications does it integrate with? This is important because it will provide the extent at which you can systemise.
• Is it as much an automation platform as it is a CRM tool? This is crucial as systemisation is just as important as the data itself.

Our favourite CRM software is www.activecampaign.com. It’s incredibly interactive and their integrations are next level and I am happy to offer anyone more information, just drop me an email.

2. Just start collecting – The reason your clients, prospects or other stakeholders do not want to provide you with their data and tick those very important boxes is because they have not yet been given enough value. There is so much data available to us in our everyday interactions wth stakeholders. We often miss opportunities to gain new data or learn more about our customers, so keep an eye out!

3. Choose the right help – You can save a lot of time with the right team to help you create the gated content that you need in order to capture the data that you want. Having a campaign that works and the correct content to back it up can be the difference between 40 pieces of great data and 400 pieces of great data, with similar levels of effort. A team can also help you when integrating with the other apps that you may already be using to run your business like Xero, Quickbooks, Stripe and more.

*No sales plug intended* But here at Avalanche, my team are some of the brightest minds in this space and we have some great case studies to share, just ask!

Data management should not be – and is not – the negative space that some may perceive it to be. The question that I receive the most is ‘Doesn’t this invade a persons privacy?’

We’re not in any way condoning people asking for invasive things, that will not help the value of your business or better your customers experience. All we look for is data that will help make our customers experience better.

Your customers come to you for an experience, so make sure you have everything you need to make their journey with you second to none.

Thanks,

JB