Benefits of Integrated Multichannel Selling Models

The four characteristics of integrated multichannel selling combined provide the best total customer experience, which in turn gives a business the following key advantages:

1. Increased sales - Integrated multichannel models increase sales revenues, as well as revenue-per-customer, in several ways: by using low-cost channels to reach more customers early in the sales process; by providing a more flexible customer experience that makes it easy and more convenient for more customers to do more business; and, in the case of business-to-business sales, by freeing up the time of high-value channels such as your field sales force to focus on closing larger deals in strategic accounts. Most companies that move from a single channel model to a multichannel model achieve an overall sales increase of 15-20 percent or more within a year.

2. Improved profits - An integrated multichannel model is perhaps the single most effective tool available for increasing company profitability. This approach enables you to offload expensive sales tasks to lower-cost channels, thus decreasing the overall cost of sales. Many companies achieve a 20 – 25 percent reduction in selling costs within a year of implementing an efficient multichannel model.

3. Increased coverage and market share - A third benefit of a multichannel selling model is that it makes possible a deeper penetration and coverage of a market or group of markets. Multiple channels working together cooperatively can always cover more customers, more thoroughly, than a single-channel approach, or even an approach in which multiple channels exist but operate more or less independently of each other. This is because channels operating on their own have limitations that aren’t present in an integrated multichannel model. Low-cost, low-touch channels such as the web, phone and mail order are great for reaching customers but poor at negotiating and closing complex deals. Expensive high-touch channels can handle very complex transactions, but cannot reach as many customers due to their high cost. When low-cost and high-touch channels are combined, however, every single customer in a target market can be reached and served. As a result, an integrated multichannel model is always the most effective way to deepen penetration and increase your share within a market.

4. Increased customer loyalty and retention – Finally—and perhaps most importantly—integrated multichannel models can have a huge impact on customer satisfaction, retention, and long-term loyalty. The reason is that a multichannel system aligns well with how customers prefer to do business. This approach gives them the right channels at the right touch points in the buying process, more purchasing options, more efficient service, and often lower prices as a result of the decreased cost of sales. What customer wouldn’t want that? Companies have seen their customer satisfaction rate increase by double digits and their loss rate decrease by 40 percent or more within a year of implementing an integrated multichannel model¹.

In short, there are lots of sound business reasons to take your go-to-market efforts to the next level by building an integrated multichannel model to penetrate and serve your key markets. But what do these integrated multichannel sales models look like?

Related:

• Table of Content
• Red Queen Effect – An Introduction
  
• The Billionaire Code
  • Secret of World Class Companies
    
  • Impact of Using Secrets of World Class Companies
    
• Cracking the Code
  
  • Customer Experience
    
  • Customer Engagement Channels
    
  • From Multiple Channels to Integrated Multichannel Selling 

Reference Material:

1. Go To Market Strategies by Lawrence Friedman