You probably create value grid tables for your new customers. Here’s an example, comparing twelve-month future value of newly acquired customers based on the number of items purchased and the average price of a item purchased.
This example suggests that discounting is not ideal … giving the customer 30% off or 50% off to place a first order might result in 2 items at $7.99 instead of 1 item at $14.99 … but the twelve-month value of the customer with 2/$7.99 is lower than 1/$14.99.
For many of you, the differences are far more extreme than what is presented here.
Score every single new customer … the day you acquire the customer … keep track of the differences in customer value over time. Are you slowly throttling down the future value of your business because you are acquiring easy/fickle customers instead of customers you’d prefer to acquire? Are your marketing tactics harming future value?
