According to the 2009 Marketing Outlook Survey, the largest independent assessment of senior marketing executives today, conducted by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, an astounding 48% of marketing respondents indicated that “senior management is mandating that marketing contribute to the bottom line by retaining and growing market share.”
Great directive, as this will increase profitability. But, after 20 years of conducting comprehensive Market Analysis projects for all types of companies, I find that too many companies base their market share knowledge on “gut feelings” instead of a real analysis.
For example, I hear explanations like “We’ve been in business for 50 years, and everyone who needs our product knows us, so we feel we have a big share of the market”.
This is almost always not true. Just because a consumer, whether it be B2B or B2C knows a company or their brand doesn’t mean they will purchase nor does it mean they are a qualified prospect. Branding does not equal sales or effective lead generation. And, it does not enable you to retain or grow market share.
I have yet to run a basic analysis for any company and not found at least 30% more prospects than their sales reps were contacting. Plus, this missed 30% were prospects like their best customers – not just anybody qualified for their product. More . .
It’s one thing to have a feeling for how your company has penetrated a given market. It is quite another thing to actually analyze and understand your share and potential, then see the results on maps and charts, and be able to effectively act upon the information. Unfortunately, many companies, even large ones, don’t have the internal expertise or resources to effectively perform the necessary analysis.
You Can’t Retain or Grow What You Don’t Know
Before you can retain and grow market share, you must first thoroughly analyze and understand your current share and potential. You must be able to, at least, answer the following basic questions:
* How much of the market currently belongs to you?
* How much more is out there?
* How profitable are your existing customers?
* Which existing customers are the most and least profitable?
* Who are your most profitable prospects?
* How do you get a bigger share of current customers, profitable prospects and market?
For those marketers who are looking for ways to retain and grow market share, I invite you to visit the following sites for advice and solutions:
Market Analysis - previous blog on topic
Want to analyze your market share and potential? Contact us info@infogrowcorp.com
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