Market Planning and Assessment for Service Firms
“It ain’t the things we don’t know that gets us in trouble. It’s the things we [think we] know that ain’t so.”
-- Artemus Ward, 19th century humorist
We all have a tendency to fool ourselves into thinking that our firms are broader and more diversified than they are. However, for the professional services firm, knowing the market for your services is instrumental to developing a viable marketing strategy. And, you cannot pick the right strategy without knowing who your customers are and why they utilize your services. Is it price, quality, responsiveness, project management, or a capability that few competitors can duplicate? Surprisingly, many professional service firms either do not know, or have a mistaken impression of, where their business comes from.
Having a knowledge of the market and your customers is crucial to linking your firm to its customers and the public. And, as the above quote implies, such knowledge is best derived through systematic inquiry rather than through a seat of the pants approach. TEMI can analyze your client base to help you more fully understand exactly where your business comes from and why.
-- Artemus Ward, 19th century humorist
We all have a tendency to fool ourselves into thinking that our firms are broader and more diversified than they are. However, for the professional services firm, knowing the market for your services is instrumental to developing a viable marketing strategy. And, you cannot pick the right strategy without knowing who your customers are and why they utilize your services. Is it price, quality, responsiveness, project management, or a capability that few competitors can duplicate? Surprisingly, many professional service firms either do not know, or have a mistaken impression of, where their business comes from.
Having a knowledge of the market and your customers is crucial to linking your firm to its customers and the public. And, as the above quote implies, such knowledge is best derived through systematic inquiry rather than through a seat of the pants approach. TEMI can analyze your client base to help you more fully understand exactly where your business comes from and why.
What Do You Need to Know?
Successful market plan development requires knowledge about your customers, your core competencies, and the current status and trends in markets and technology. Can you answer the following questions?
- What is the distribution of our client base by type, size, industry, location, etc? What percentage of our revenue comes from each category?
- What characteristics of our services provide the greatest value to our clients?
- What marketing communications and channels have been most successful?
- Who are our major competitors and how many projects have we lost to each?
How TEMI Can HelP
TEMI can draw upon its unique combination of capabilities in technology assessment, business intelligence, and strategic planning to analyze where your business comes from and to help align your service characteristics and core technologies with market and technology trends. If your goal is to get closer to your customers – and it should be – we can help. If expansion is in your plans, TEMI can help define and segment new markets for your services and develop business strategies commensurate with your core competencies and service characteristics. Let us help you energize your market development efforts!