We help our clients address a range of marketing issues including:
Developing new products
In many companies the product development process is internally driven. Companies select features to build based more on internal capabilities, views, and opinions than on an external assessment of market potential and need. We help companies break out of this product focused development process by introducing a market perspective, allowing companies to assess which products and features:
-
The market is truly interested in having.
-
The market will pay for.
-
Are most likely to motivate people to purchase.
-
Are only threshold conditions necessary for any product because everybody has them.
-
Are truly differentiating features that actually separate your product from the competition in ways people care about.
Back to Top
Understanding decision-making processes
Whether entering a new market sector or trying to better understand one they already sell to, many of our clients seek to understand decision-making processes for their products and services. Many companies believe they need to sell higher into their prospects' hierarchies. We help companies map the decision-making process for their technology by understanding:
-
Who represents the entry-point and the champion?
-
Who makes the buy decision?
-
Who can kill a deal?
-
What types of people serve on decision-making committees?
-
Is it really a C-level decision, or are decisions actually made at lower levels?
-
What are the points of greatest opportunity and threat in the process?
-
What criteria are important in product evaluations, and what are not?
-
How long does the process take?
Back to Top
Communications and positioning
Many of our clients struggle to differentiate themselves from competitors in meaningful ways that take advantage of short-term opportunities and establish a basis for long-term growth. We assist in these efforts by helping our clients better understand:
-
How messages can break through the clutter, gain attention, and motivate prospects to purchase.
-
What language and vocabulary the market finds understandable and intuitive, and what they find confusing and obscure.
-
The attributes and product features that truly motivate purchase.
-
The attributes and features the market see as believable delivered by particular firms.
-
What the market already thinks about companies in the marketplace.
-
Which attributes and features are threshold conditions all firms and products must possess to gain consideration.
-
Which attributes and product features truly differentiate our clients from the competition in the mind of the market.
Click here to learn more about our thinking on effective product messaging
Back to Top
Sales Effectiveness Analysis--Win/Loss analysis
Some of our clients need to understand why they win or lose vs. specific competitors, what competitors are doing that might represent a threat, and how they can improve their sales success rates. To do this, we help companies better understand:
-
Why people purchase from our client and from key competitors, and why they don't.
-
What specific marketing messaging and sales tactics competitors employ--what works and what doesn't.
-
How customers of key competitors rate their experience with the competitor product--whether and to what extent they like it and why or why not.
-
What marketing and sales strategies could our client employ to improve success rates in head-to-head sales situations with key competitors.
Click here for our recent publication on Sales Effectiveness Analysis
Back to Top
Assessing price models and price points
When bringing a now product to the marketplace or entering a new market sector one of the biggest questions is how to price your product. We assist companies with pricing issues by helping them better understand:
-
The most intuitive pricing models perceived by the market--own vs. lease, bundling vs. a la carte, license based, site vs. individual, managed service, etc.
-
Why the market prefers the pricing model they do.
-
What pricing models are unacceptable--because they're too innovative for the current market, too complex, or not in the perceived interest of most companies.
-
How much companies will pay for products with certain functionality, specific features, particular configurations, etc.
-
What the market expects in terms of discounting, consulting fees, training, service-level agreements, and other enhancements and add-ons.
Back to Top
Measuring/tracking customer satisfaction
Satisfied customers are a vital asset to any organization. Understanding how satisfied they are, and why, is something we help clients do. Specifically, we help companies better understand:
-
How satisfied customers are with our client's product or service and why.
-
What specific aspects of our client's product or service performance are most important and how they rate our client's performance in these areas, in the context of how they evaluate competitors.
-
What specific steps our clients can take to improve performance in key areas.
-
How our clients can create realistic and meaningful research metrics to measure performance on an on-going or periodic basis for internal purposes, such as meeting overall corporate satisfaction level goals or tying satisfaction to employee compensation.
Back to Top
|
