Let’s face it, we all want to grow. Regardless of company size or business category, growth is your goal. And yes, you want to be smart about it. Certainly M&A strategies can play a role, but what about organic growth? Whether you are expanding your product or service offerings or entering adjacent markets, before you begin deploying resources around the new opportunity, consider these four critical guidelines:
- Be rigorous – Don’t get distracted by the excitement of the net new upside; it’s always more tempting than the daily slog of making your existing core business perform according to plan. It’s important not to alienate your current customers as you add or change offerings. Customer satisfaction research helps you know what aspects of your current and proposed offering are of greatest importance to your current customer base, as well as how well you are currently meeting customer expectations.
- Be curious – Market acceptance is critical, but always hard to assess. Remember, buyers need to abandon legacy solutions to embrace yours. Independent research can help you assess buyer “switching behavior”, which is critical in estimating adoption rates and revenue forecasts.
- Be courageous – Owning it means being willing to be uncomfortable as headwinds appear. If your vision is based on a feature set that differentiates you from the competition, the right market research can help answer the question of, “How important are those features to buyers?” It also helps you unpack the customer journey in human terms and validate that your innovation resonates strongly with your target audience.
- Be inclusive – Champions of new ideas are sometimes reluctant to expose their plan within the company, for a variety of reasons. It’s critical to get everyone on board in order to succeed. If you’re concerned about security, you can address that; if your concern is more about naysayers within the company, you will be well served to take the time to get their buy-in and listen to their ideas about how to improve the design. An important benefit of market research is providing internal rationale rooted in customer feedback for new projects.
Owning the growth initiative means owning the process – and the leadership to galvanize stakeholder input and important resources within the company. Market research conducted by an objective and experienced third-party research team is a critical component in guiding and supporting those efforts. Whether it’s understanding how to maintain your core business as you expand, differentiate your new offering from a customer-driven perspective, or measure market acceptance and growth potential, 1st Resource can help you find the answers you need. Let us know how we can help.
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