By Larry Fleischman, Practice Director, Branding and Go-to-Market Strategies & Solutions, Televerde
This is the third in series of Televerde Best Practice Reports on the 10 stages within an integrated, optimized demand creation strategy
My peer Michelle Cirocco, Televerde’s Director of Sales, and I have embarked on a demand creation journey. In actuality we’ve always been on this journey, but now we have a better map to guide our way. The path is long. Sometimes it winds, sometimes it narrows, sometimes it broadens, and there are occasional switch-backs. Regardless, we know what’s on the path ahead because of a series of 10 mileposts we’ve identified to mark our way.
In our effort to share the map with you via our collaborative Televerde blog entries, we’ve already talked about the first two critical milestones – 1) Go-to-market strategy planning and 2) Data analysis & management. These first two points are so important to get right. If you’ve been to driving safety school to keep those dreaded traffic violation points off your insurance records, then you know the same things we do… most accidents happen within the first 5-15 minutes of leaving your home. So let’s get out of the driveway and onto frontage road safely!
Milestone #3: The Intersection of Demand Creation and Market Research & Analysis…
Leveraging market knowledge is critical to creating a well-informed demand creation strategy. It results in accelerated market and account penetration. It generates intelligence and insight that makes conversations with individual contacts much more relevant and compelling. It enables the most appropriate messaging and positioning strategy. And it’s the most effective way to validate or disprove market assumptions and to identify and close potential gaps in the market approach.
We discussed the importance of customer analysis earlier as part of the Go-to-Market blog entry which we believe is critical during the initial planning. Other elements of a market research strategy are equally important prior to the implementation of demand creation programs. This is because much of what’s determined during the go-to-market consultation is contingent upon honing in on your target markets, territories, accounts and competitors. It allows for a more thorough assessment and understanding of market opportunities.
Market & Territory Analysis: We always counsel clients to conduct thorough market and territory research. It can be coordinated based on industry verticals; segments like SMB, enterprise, government and education; or geographic territories which could include all of the U.S. or specific regions and states, as well as markets outside the U.S. This is intended to provide a much deeper understanding of your market landscape. The research helps to determine important elements of your go-to-market strategy like market potential, territory segmentation, general pains and challenges experienced in your market place or in specific accounts, purchasing patterns, technology install base, preferred vendors, and the strengths and weaknesses of your positioning compared to that of your competitors.
Account Profiling: We also advise clients to profile their strategic accounts in order to have a deeper, drilled-down intelligence on their targeted accounts. This includes primary research comprised of calling into each account and speaking directly with decision-makers and influencers to get first-hand views of what’s actually happening within the organization. This should be supported by relevant and validating secondary research available from credible analysts and reliable sources like Gartner, Forrester, IDC, and any other relevant third-party information sources. Similar to the market and territory research, it’s important to identify the key relevant points about the landscape of the account. This enables your sales reps to have useful intelligence at their fingertips so that their account penetration strategies will be more relevant and effective.
Relationship Maps: As part of the drill down research on an account-by-account basis, it’s important to identify key contacts and critical decision-making relationships within the targeted accounts. This is essential for mapping and accelerating the penetration strategy, as well as identifying previously unknown opportunities within, for example, specific lines of business and subsidiaries.
Competitor Profiling: As important as it is to be well informed about your target markets, territories and accounts, we believe it’s equally vital to be as knowledgeable as possible about your competitors. The obvious reason is to know how they are positioned within your areas of opportunity. Competitor profiling enables the gauging of your market’s perceptions of the competition’s products and services, information about their go-to-market strategies and messaging, and any other relevant high-value intelligence that should be incorporated into your strategies and action plans.
Research provides you with reliable and actionable insight that enables you to formulate and implement well-informed customer acquisition strategies. It’s a must-have checkpoint on your demand creation journey.
Next step on the journey: Milestone #4 – Demand Creation & Discovery Programs.
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At the Intersection of Market Research & Demand Creation
Larry Fleischman
10:57 am on September 8th, 2010
By Larry Fleischman, Practice Director, Branding and Go-to-Market Strategies & Solutions, Televerde
This is the third in series of Televerde Best Practice Reports on the 10 stages within an integrated, optimized demand creation strategy
My peer Michelle Cirocco, Televerde’s Director of Sales, and I have embarked on a demand creation journey. In actuality we’ve always been on this journey, but now we have a better map to guide our way. The path is long. Sometimes it winds, sometimes it narrows, sometimes it broadens, and there are occasional switch-backs. Regardless, we know what’s on the path ahead because of a series of 10 mileposts we’ve identified to mark our way.
In our effort to share the map with you via our collaborative Televerde blog entries, we’ve already talked about the first two critical milestones – 1) Go-to-market strategy planning and 2) Data analysis & management. These first two points are so important to get right. If you’ve been to driving safety school to keep those dreaded traffic violation points off your insurance records, then you know the same things we do… most accidents happen within the first 5-15 minutes of leaving your home. So let’s get out of the driveway and onto frontage road safely!
Milestone #3: The Intersection of Demand Creation and Market Research & Analysis…
Leveraging market knowledge is critical to creating a well-informed demand creation strategy. It results in accelerated market and account penetration. It generates intelligence and insight that makes conversations with individual contacts much more relevant and compelling. It enables the most appropriate messaging and positioning strategy. And it’s the most effective way to validate or disprove market assumptions and to identify and close potential gaps in the market approach.
We discussed the importance of customer analysis earlier as part of the Go-to-Market blog entry which we believe is critical during the initial planning. Other elements of a market research strategy are equally important prior to the implementation of demand creation programs. This is because much of what’s determined during the go-to-market consultation is contingent upon honing in on your target markets, territories, accounts and competitors. It allows for a more thorough assessment and understanding of market opportunities.
Market & Territory Analysis: We always counsel clients to conduct thorough market and territory research. It can be coordinated based on industry verticals; segments like SMB, enterprise, government and education; or geographic territories which could include all of the U.S. or specific regions and states, as well as markets outside the U.S. This is intended to provide a much deeper understanding of your market landscape. The research helps to determine important elements of your go-to-market strategy like market potential, territory segmentation, general pains and challenges experienced in your market place or in specific accounts, purchasing patterns, technology install base, preferred vendors, and the strengths and weaknesses of your positioning compared to that of your competitors.
Account Profiling: We also advise clients to profile their strategic accounts in order to have a deeper, drilled-down intelligence on their targeted accounts. This includes primary research comprised of calling into each account and speaking directly with decision-makers and influencers to get first-hand views of what’s actually happening within the organization. This should be supported by relevant and validating secondary research available from credible analysts and reliable sources like Gartner, Forrester, IDC, and any other relevant third-party information sources. Similar to the market and territory research, it’s important to identify the key relevant points about the landscape of the account. This enables your sales reps to have useful intelligence at their fingertips so that their account penetration strategies will be more relevant and effective.
Relationship Maps: As part of the drill down research on an account-by-account basis, it’s important to identify key contacts and critical decision-making relationships within the targeted accounts. This is essential for mapping and accelerating the penetration strategy, as well as identifying previously unknown opportunities within, for example, specific lines of business and subsidiaries.
Competitor Profiling: As important as it is to be well informed about your target markets, territories and accounts, we believe it’s equally vital to be as knowledgeable as possible about your competitors. The obvious reason is to know how they are positioned within your areas of opportunity. Competitor profiling enables the gauging of your market’s perceptions of the competition’s products and services, information about their go-to-market strategies and messaging, and any other relevant high-value intelligence that should be incorporated into your strategies and action plans.
Research provides you with reliable and actionable insight that enables you to formulate and implement well-informed customer acquisition strategies. It’s a must-have checkpoint on your demand creation journey.
Next step on the journey: Milestone #4 – Demand Creation & Discovery Programs.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Connect to us on LinkedIn
Subscribe to us on YouTube