Customer Feedback & Surveys
Direct input from customers helps identify gaps and opportunities. Accountability Information Management is a unique B2B research company. In their recent 6-part Series — Using Research to Maximize B2B Product Business Strategies – they point out that “using artificial intelligence (AI) to find current research on the product trends for kitchens or housing or any other market, adds to the already-several different sources of research on trends.”
For example, in Cutting the B2B Gordian Knot, they used the analogy of Alexander the Great’s problem solving ability when he was asked to untie the knot no one could untie: he cut it. Knowing what trends that have emerged to split apart your customer base can help you shape your business strategy correctly by aligning or realigning product and services development. And you do that by research according to this company.
It’s a compelling series.
Competitive Analysis
Benchmarking your value against competitors using analysis is another way to resonate in today’s marketplace. Understanding how your company compares to competitors is actually critical to long-term success. Such comparisons involves benchmarking your value proposition, products, services, and overall market positioning against competitors to help identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for differentiation. It’s a data-driven approach to ensure you stay competitive but also enables strategic decision-making to enhance your market positioning, optimize pricing, and refine your messaging.
And while many companies routinely conduct such studies, the problem is they become “routine.” As Dostoevsky said, we get used to everything, and when that happens, complacency kicks in. In fact, what if what you think is your value proposition isn’t your value proposition in the eyes of your market? Worse, what if you think your market knows you and it doesn’t? Here’s what to do BEFORE you start a competitive analysis.
Validate your Value Proposition
Every company believes they have a certain “value” which becomes their “value proposition.” But is that the same value as your customers and prospects have of your company? What if your competitors are not really your competitors because of a mis-understood value proposition? Worse, what if who you believe are your customers have no idea who you really are?
Before you can get into proper competitive analysis, find out why your customers value you instead. You will be surprised at such results, which come from frank, third-party discussion with your customers.
For example, one client association which has been around for decades held a series of focus groups to determine from their key audiences not only their knowledge of their association, but if the association’s value proposition was getting through. Other associations had been popping up offering similar services, and the client wanted to see “where they stand.”
The results were revealing: 70% of the participants didn’t know about the association at all. In other words, in their core marketplace, the majority of their customers who should have been using their standards had no idea what they did!
The “to do” was a branding campaign – not a competitive analysis because if people don’t know who you are, how can you have any competitors?
Another client who believed everyone knew them believed this: “Is your building good enough for our products?” Despite this backward approach in the age of the customer (the question should have been not a question but a state: here is why your building deserves the best product, ours), we couldn’t convince the client on this reversal. The result – 20 years later – was the collapse of the company’s market share in their core product. Complacency and hubris kills.
Bottom Line? Test and refine your value proposition based on data, customer feedback, and emerging trends.