Strategic business decisions involve risks. And it’s not always easy to decide on which risks to take. Will your decision help you grow your business? Will you operate in the market where your efforts have the most success? Market analysis provides you with solid facts. Allowing you to make well informed -or smarter- decisions rather than resting the fate of your business on ‘guesstimates’.
Different situations in which to make decisions
Depending on the age of your organization and industry you operate in, you’ll face your share of business challenges. You may plan to introduce new products or move into new markets. Or strengthen your business position by merging with another organization. To develop effective business strategies that help you manage these challenges, you need reliable input on your options. You won’t be able to set achievable targets unless you have a good insight into what’s achievable.
Lower your business risks with market analysis
One of the main risks of your decisions is losing your customers. So, it’s important you regularly check in with your current customers and prospects to ensure you’re still meeting their needs. If for instance a popular product sees a big drop in sales for several months, the problem could be anything from a decline in the product quality or a glitch on your online store. Without analyzing the cause you’ll never know and won’t be able to fix it. But there’s also the financial risks, like spending resources on products that really aren’t viable. Market insights can help prevent these risks.
Why are market insights important for your business?
With markets becoming more and more competitive, having apt knowledge about the factors that really influence your results has become crucial for any business. Market analysis provides detailed insights into competitors, customers’ pain points & preferences, their buying patterns and demographics and the latest market trends. Delivering crucial information on decisions such as where to spend your marketing budget and sales efforts, which products to improve or discontinue or how to price your offers. Decisions that directly influence your sales results.
Easily spot business opportunities
A thorough strategic analysis will help you identify new opportunities & areas for business growth, but also pinpoint problems in your existing business model in order to better meet the needs of your customers. It will show how well your offer fits those needs and what you need to adjust for a better product-market-fit. This allows you to prioritize your efforts and set better goals for your business. After all, you’ll know which goals will be achievable and how to achieve them.
Gradually add more factors for reliability
You don’t need to gather the full picture right away. Although the more factors and contributors you include the more reliable your insights get, you can’t spend all your time on research and forget about execution for a few months. As long as you start with a solid number of factors –for example, 10 external and 10 internal ones- you’ll have a good starting point. You can gradually add more factors when updating your insights regularly.
Digitize the process to gather your data faster
Market analysis is needed on a continual basis to keep up with the latest market trends and gain a competitive edge in the business market. If you work with quarterly status meetings you can update your insights right before this meeting, so you’ll know which activities to adjust if results are not as expected. Of course, you can use any method suitable to your organization. Too much work doing this manually? You should consider using a digital tool that will help you gather your data faster and give you immediate insights.
Not sure which factors to include in your market analysis? SpotOpp organizes, digitizes and visualizes all relevant data showing you your market-fit and sweet spots. Clear interpretation and results for strategic success. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you want to know more.