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Do You Know What Your Customers Want? Marketing Research Can Help

November 5, 2011, 10:10 am by Michael Coury

Whether you’re selling to businesses or consumers, success in the marketplace depends on knowing that the customers’ wants and needs and providing real, valuable solutions to those wants and needs.

You have to ask some critical questions before considering developing a product or service and entering a market:

To be successful, you must listen to your customers.  Just having a “gut feeling” that certain types of buyers may need or want your offering is not sufficient.

You need feedback from potential customers in your target markets to help you make the right decisions about:

This is where Marketing Research plays an important role.   “Research” does not have to involve sophisticated techniques conducted by highly trained individuals.  Nor must it generate reams of useless data in a written report that just sits on the shelf.  However, it is crucial to work with knowledgeable researchers who can assist you in your quest to identify and meet the demands of the market appropriately.

A good, professional researcher will often give you some basic ideas and approaches for your situation during a no cost, no-obligation consultation..  After the initial discussion, the market researcher can provide a proposal for action, including pricing and deliverables.

Making smart decisions to grow your business requires insight into what customers want.  Carefully planned and skillfully executed Marketing Research can provide that insight.

More about how Marketing Research can benefit your business in future posts.

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Category: Market Research  |  Comment

Are You Ready for Strategic Planning?

June 8, 2011, 10:07 am by Jan Griffioen

A carefully thought-out Strategic Plan is your company’s road map to sustainable, profitable growth.  The Strategic Plan defines which market opportunities you’ll pursue and why.

Creating a sound Strategic Plan takes time, a lot of hard work and an open mind.  Gathering market intelligence, analyzing this information, figuring out what it all means, evaluating your options, and so on.  These are all important components of the planning process.

The key obstacles to successful Strategic Planning have little to do with market data or analysis.  The main roadblocks to creating your company’s road map to the future are corporate culture, and people’s attitudes and mindsets.

Here’ a self-explanatory list of cultural aspects and behavioral traits that stand in the way of a company’s ability to develop a good plan:

  • Closed mindedness
  • Not open to criticism
  • Not challenging the status quo
  • Lack of curiosity
  • Denial
  • Not willing to discuss sensitive issues
  • Having all the answers
  • Not asking the right questions
  • Not facing reality
  • Complacency
  • Ignorance
  • Lack of courage
  • Short term thinking
  • Low risk tolerance
  • Lack of patience
  • Avoiding conflict
  • Group think
  • Apathy
  • Lack of knowledge
  • Lack of analysis
  • Too much analysis
  • Procrastination
  • Arrogance
  • Self-righteousness
  • Lack of accountability
  • Fear of failure
  • Inability to listen
  • Lack of creativity

Do you recognize yourself or your company in these?

If you do, you probably have sufficient self-awareness to break out of the negative, destructive culture.  More than likely, you’ll need outside help to improve the company culture and the prevalent attitudes, but at least you’re aware of the problems.

However, if you think that you and your organization don’t show any of these symptoms, and everything is just fine, you’re either very fortunate or you’re in denial of the internal problems your company is facing. In the latter case it will be difficult for you to engage in open, honest discussions about the changes your company needs to make to become more successful.

Before you think about conducting Strategic Planning, perhaps with the help of a consultant, make sure that you’re aware of your company’s culture and attitudes and that you’re ready for challenging discussions.  Do you want to be part of the solution or are you part of the problem?

For Strategic Planning to be successful it is critically important to have an environment in which anything can be discussed openly and honestly, in a fair, professional and rational manner, without emotions getting in the way, and without fear of reprisals or repercussions.  If that environment is not present, any attempt at Strategic Planning is going to be futile and the outcome can only be disappointment.

Are you ready for Strategic Planning?

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What Companies Get Wrong In Recessions

February 6, 2011, 5:25 pm by Jan Griffioen

I just want to share this important insight from the McKinsey Classics Newsletter:

What Companies Get Wrong In Recessions

Every business wants additional earnings. It can find them in two ways: improving its current operations or developing new capabilities that could enhance its long-term corporate performance. Top managers traditionally bore down on operations in recessions and mounted transformational initiatives only in good times. Many still do. But as a 2003 McKinsey Quarterly article noted, “extreme operating pressures force line managers to make do with existing capabilities despite the need to adapt businesses to a relentlessly changing marketplace”—an adaptation that usually calls for basic, long-term change. That point is even more relevant today.

February issue of the  McKinsey Newsletter with links to more articles related to the topic.

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Category: Strategic Planning  |  Comment

Don’t Wait for Better Times, Make It Happen

October 9, 2010, 8:40 pm by Jan Griffioen

According to leading economists the recession ended in June of 2009.  Has your company noticed any improvement yet?

These are tough times, in particular here in the Midwest.  To get your business back on track you can’t afford to sit back hoping for good old times to return.  You have to take charge and start working on the future of your business.  Expecting different results from the same old approach to business does not work.  You have to embrace change, fundamentally rethink your business, and set a new course.

Too many companies dependent on the automotive industry failed to see the fundamental, structural changes taking place in their industry.  GM’s market share has been declining for more than twenty years.  Suppliers that are only now beginning to think about diversification and reducing their dependence on the automotive industry are far behind the curve.  Why couldn’t they see the trend earlier?  Why didn’t they change before it was too late?

What is happening in your industry right now?  What’s going on among your customers, competitors and suppliers?  What trends are you seeing?  What are the possible impacts on your business, short-term and long-term?

In a strong economy it’s relatively easy for a business to grow.  As the saying goes, “a rising tide lifts all boats”.  But achieving significant growth is a lot harder in a slow economy, let alone a recession.

You can’t afford to sit back and wait for the tide to turn.  You have to take the initiative and make bold, smart business decisions, not just to keep your business alive, but to achieve growth.

This is where the difference between leadership and management, between strategic thinking and day-to-day operational, tactical thinking becomes evident.

Smart leaders don’t wait for consensus in the marketplace.  They don’t wait for competitors to pave the way.  Smart companies are aware of the dynamics in their industry.  They know what customers want and understand their own strengths and capabilities.  They have deep knowledge of their competitors and what they’re up to.  Smart companies lead; they make their own decisions.

Proactive companies set a course that is unique for their business.  They don’t just seize new opportunities, they create them.  It is about making smarter, better business decisions to beat (better yet, avoid) the competition.  Are you creating your company’s future?

Many managers run their business with an operational, day-to-day mindset.  While barely adequate during good times, this approach is downright destructive during bad times.  A new mindset needs to be adopted that’s based on deep knowledge of the marketplace, an understanding of what the future may look like, and having the courage and conviction to set a new course.  You can’t wait for things to happen.

Develop a strategic mindset and start thinking in terms of ‘what if’.  Make Strategic Thinking part of your business DNA.  As a business executive your main responsibility is strategic decision making.

To be fair, operational management and solid execution are very important.  Little gets accomplished without good execution.  But you won’t achieve success unless you have a sound, carefully thought-out strategic plan and a vision that help your company navigate through a very dynamic, competitive marketplace with demanding customers and smart, aggressive competitors.

A structured, properly conducted Strategic Planning process forces you to gather information, find out what’s going on in the marketplace and identify the opportunities and threats.  Strategic Planning let’s you explore and evaluate options, identify and seize the best growth opportunities for your business.

And don’t forget that Strategic Planning is a process, not an event.  Strategic Planning is not an annual off-site at the local country club.  Above all, strategic thinking is a mindset.  Be bold.  Think big.

More thoughts about the process of Strategic Planning in an upcoming blog post.

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What is Strategy, Anyway?

July 26, 2010, 11:51 am by Jan Griffioen

The term ‘strategy’ is often misused, in particular in business.  Someone may say “What’s our strategy for solving that problem?”, or “Let’s strategize to win that account.”  In reality, these are tactical, operational issues, not strategic.  The term ‘Strategy’ is often applied to any kind of planning activity, whether it’s really strategic or not.

A company that does not understand the essence of strategy and that has not adopted a strategic mindset is most likely a laggard in their market.  Companies that fail to embrace strategic thinking are narrowly focused on the short-term and are reactionary in their actions.  These firms neglect to take a longer-term perspective of the business.  They find themselves at the mercy of the competition, customers and the economy, rather than taking the initiative and creating their own path.

What is Strategy?

It’s always good to think through what you’re going to do and why, before looking at the details of how.  Strategy deals with figuring out the WHAT and WHY, and takes a long term perspective.  On the other hand, tactics is concerned with the HOW to achieving a goal, rather than setting the goal.  Tactics is by nature more short term focused.

The key business questions Strategy deals with are:

Essentially, Strategy is about answering the fundamental question: “Are we doing the right things?” Tactics deals with another problem: “Are we doing things right?“  Or, in other words: Strategy is to Tactics what Leadership is to Management.

Strategy is about taking the initiative, changing the status-quo and creating your company’s future, rather than being reactionary.  Strategy involves taking a longer-term approach to achieving market leadership.  On the other hand, Tactics deals with operations, and using the company’s resources effectively and efficiently, given the markets you’re in and the current conditions. Tactics is focused on the here and now.

For your business to be successful you need both a good plan (strategy) as well as effective, skillful execution (tactics).  You can neither neglect the short-term nor the long-term.

Strategy without tactics is the longest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

~Sun Tzu – The Art of War

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Category: Strategic Planning  |  2 Comments