CAC, customer acquisition cost, is one of the main indicators for companies that work with a recurring revenue sales model, as well as IT service providers.
Efforts made to attract customers to your company can be responsible for extracting a lot of your financial resources. When these leads are not qualified, the churn rate can make that account unsustainable.
To help you better understand how the cost of customer acquisition in IT works and how your company can use techniques to reduce this value, we have created a small guide with a lot of information about it. Stay with us and check it out!
Customer acquisition cost
The customer acquisition cost indicator has a very clear objective: to check how much your company is spending on resources to acquire each new customer and with that to understand if your business is doing well or not.
After all, it’s no use having great power to attract customers, but at the same time spending a lot of money to attract them to your business. Then. this makes the whole operation unfeasible.
CAC carries out a survey of all the expenses that your company has throughout the entire sales process. From attracting a customer, nurturing leads, and closing the deal.
Thus, for the CAC calculation to be in line with reality, your company must already have certain control over the entire sales flow, so that the amounts dispensed in the process can be accurately collected.
The more information about the sales flow you and your team gather, the greater the reliability of the value found for the cost of customer acquisition and it will be possible to better understand the investments made.
You have to understand that CAC is not just about attracting customers, but also about keeping them. After all, there is no point in having a low acquisition cost if it is closely followed by a high cancellation rate. This will directly influence CAC in the future, increasing the need for investments.
CAC calculation
The biggest difficulty to perform the CAC calculation is having all the information at hand. Other than that, the account itself is quite simple to perform: just divide the sum of investments for acquisition by the customers acquired in the same period.
For example, let’s say that in a given month your company invested around R$10,000.00 in sales and marketing, gaining 10 new customers in that period of time. The CAC in this case is R$1,000.00 for each acquisition.
Within the amounts spent to acquire new customers, all costs related to sales and marketing must be taken into account, such as:
- Employees’ salaries;
- Campaigns and advertising;
- Travels;
- Training;
- Contacts;
- Commissions;
- Among other costs.
Tips for reduction
There are several attitudes that can be taken to reduce the costs of acquiring new customers for your company. We will list some of them here to help you and your team in this process.
Data analysis
Knowing your ideal customer is one of the first steps to reducing your acquisition cost. That’s because contractors with a certain profile need your tools and services. Therefore, they are already inclined to carry out the hiring.
In this way, by analyzing data and understanding the ideal customer profile for your company, your team can focus its efforts directly on these points and attract customers more easily.
Base segmentation
Not all customers are the same: some opt for a package of services, while others seek to meet other demands. Therefore, the same approach will not always be successful in both cases.
Basic targeting is about divide and conquer. You need to segment your customers into smaller groups. In this way, creating exclusive campaigns and approaches that can have much more effect and win more contractors.
Inbound Marketing
In recent times, marketing through content has been one of the great weapons for companies to attract new customers at a very low cost. That’s because the idea is not to chase new customers, but to let them find your company and your services.
This can be done by creating web pages with interesting content that your customer needs. In that sense, being able to attract the right kind of company that might be interested in your services.
Marketing automation is another way to reduce costs when acquiring new customers. Nurturing leads through emails and contacts is one of the prime examples of how important automation software is.
Through a system like this, it is possible to create a contact flow, automating the sending of certain materials to a list of leads and ensuring an optimized reach of your entire contact list.
Management system
Customer management systems, such as CRM, are essential for improving your understanding of your customers and collecting and analyzing information that can help your team in future contacts.
For example: through a CRM, it is possible to understand what a customer’s preferences are, what are the best times for a call, and what was the last date on which there was some type of contact, among other strategic information.
Qualified lead generation
One of the main points to lower your CAC is to focus all your efforts on attracting qualified leads. This type of customer, with a perfect profile for your business, is already looking for your service, which makes it easier to convince them.
Betting on this type of client ensures that your team will have much less effort to close a deal and the satisfaction of the contractor will be achieved much easier, also avoiding the possibility of premature cancellation.
Sales funnel power
Implementing a sales funnel model in your company is essential not only to be able to correctly measure the CAC of your business but also to improve your entire customer attraction strategy.
A well-structured sales funnel based on the most modern marketing techniques allows your company to stand out, closing many more deals than without using this tool.
Even though its implementation may take some time and require certain training for your marketing and sales teams, the investment will be worth it with the number of quality leads generated through this approach.
Measuring the cost of acquiring customers and reducing it is necessary to ensure the healthy development and growth of a company, which can become more profitable and profitable by applying the tips described here.
We have a complete post about the sales funnel! Read it right now and better understand how it works!
Has your company or the customers you monitor ever experienced a problem with a lack of clarity and conciliation between the Help Desk and the Service Desk? Share your experience in the comments, telling the solution adopted and its results.
