Any business can use marketing tactics that produce a higher Return on Investment for its marketing dollar- and there's no need to buy expensive CRM software bloated with extraneous features.  You can use the functionality in Excel or Access to identify customers who are more likely to respond to your marketing campaigns and do repeat business with you.   There's no need to bug the customer with a survey asking for demographic information.  The customer's "score" is based only on data generated from business transactions (factors include, but are not limited to, frequency and dollar value per transaction).  Tracked over time, this activity represents the customer's Life Cycle.  When you can track customer Life Cycles, you can begin to predict them, and if you can predict them, you can target your marketing efforts at the most critical "trigger points" identified in the customer Life Cycle.  Using this information, you can assemble a profile of your "average" customer's behavior.  This enables you to:

*  Formally document normal customer behavior and internalize it systemically, leveraging what you know to improve business functionality and profitability.

*  Set up early warning systems or "trip wires" to alert you to customer behavior outside the norm.  You can use this variance in behavior to specifically target those customers with promotions and discounts while saving marketing dollars that would be spent on customers who would likely buy from you again without that incentive.

With this information, there are endless possibilities for increasing your sales while saving on marketing costs.  Contact me for more information.