Market Planning

 

When significant investments are being considered a modest sum to build a ‘check and balance’ to compare with the views of existing stakeholders can focus the mind and lessen risk considerably.  For a fixed fee we will build you a concise, factually based commercial report covering the following areas;

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• What is the opportunity for growth in the target market(s)?

• What is the total potential market opportunity for the area you are looking at and what proportion of this is currently penetrated by competitors?

• How is the market set to grow and what are the key drivers of growth?

• How is spending set to grow in specific segments?

• How much of the currently un-penetrated market can be converted, and what is the likely timing of this?

• In view of the above, how much opportunity exists for the target to grow:

  • In existing customers through growth in spending?

  • Targeting new currently penetrated customers?

  • Beyond its core market, what other opportunities exist for the target?

• What is the procurement process for buyers of the target's core products

  • What are customers’ key purchase criteria?

• What are customers’ perceptions of the business?

  • How does the target perform against customers’ key purchase criteria?

  • How does it compare with leading competitors?

• What are key strengths and weaknesses? What actions could be taken to leverage/address them?

• How is the target positioned in the market?

• What is its USP?

• Where does it have particular expertise and/or credentials and how does it differentiate against competitors?

• What do customers think of the target overall?

  • Are customers highly engaged with the products?

  • How likely are customers to continue trading with it?

  • To what extent do customers see value in additional products and services

  • Are any of these a requirement for the success of the core product set?

• How much of an untapped opportunity does it look to be?

  • How do customers see their own demand needs evolving?

  • Are there any particular future general needs or product/ service types that represent an opportunity or a similar firm?

  • To what extent do customers expect to use the target rather than its competitors on such opportunities?

• What do non-customers think of the target? How well known is it and what is the nature of its reputation and areas of perceived expertise?

  • Why did they go with competitor organisations?

 

We use a combination of desk research and in-depth client/competitor surveys to generate a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis.  We will agree with you a defined set of analysis for you to use for your investment decision.

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Sales Execution

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The Sales Operations service has been built to support leaders who want to quality assure the information provided to them by a sales function to drive improvements in the predictability and growth of their revenues.  This service is aimed and leaders who are experiencing;

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• A sales team who have found it hard to forecast their sales closures reliably.

• A sales manager who needs richer more reliable tools and skills to monitor and challenge their team.

• A new sales team (perhaps via acquisition) who don’t have a mature approach to sales reporting and you need to rely on their results to get your return on investment.

• In due diligence, an effective way of presenting pipeline information, compared to business plan and if needed track change through a DD process.

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The data generated is always available to you, I will lead sales meetings to draw out forecasting issues following them up with coaching sessions for your sales managers/directors.  The full report provides you and your sales team with a comprehensive review;

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• Review of the previous month’s deals including reasons for any slips/losses/deals brought forward compared to previous forecast.

• Preview of the next month’s deal expected to close.

• Year to date sales performance summary by sales person and product against annual targets, revenue and profit if needed.

• Sales team key performance indicators; deal metrics, miles travelled, meetings/demos help etc….

• Highlights/lowlights in the month

• Pipeline versus business plan, targets and changes to previous forecast.

• A risks/issues register raised by the sales team.  After all having spent an entire report/meeting challenging the sales team they should have the right to challenge the business back.

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The service is designed to take as much of the emotion out of the sales review process and endow as much of the conversation as possible with data based discussion so that information led conclusions can be drawn and the best possible decisions reached about long-term forecasting, short-term resources needed to close deals, individual performance and the issues the sales need the business to solve to help them be successful in closing deals for the right products as quick as possible.

I have operated this in B2B environments and will rapidly bring more quality assurance to your sales forecasting and through strong coaching and development help increase your sales revenues and their quality.