Published in:
Printing Industries of America, Inc., Sales & Marketing Advisory, January 2001
What is needed for business development to become priority number one and to be improved? Customer and target market research can take many forms and usually pays off many times over if it's systematically applied. Customer and target market research should serve effective business development. This includes development of personalized, extraordinary customer oriented services, as well as internal and external communications about those services.
Researching effective business development in today's environment is also a changing organizational tapestry of cultural values and activities, not a position or event.
A dynamic illustration
A focus group session involved several buyers. The resulting videotaped buyer feedback developed during the session concerning supplier performance, buyer expectations, criticisms, and opportunities for performance improvement were nothing short of revolutionary to the focus group sponsor. Yet, on reflection, there was little substance that was totally new or didn't make logical sense from the buyer's perspective.
In retrospect, what ultimately made this session's buyer feedback revolutionary was not so much the information as its authenticity in the medium of a video tape of recognizable "heavy-hitter buyers" that could be played and replayed to key personnel and entire organization.
The focus group's sponsoring supplier president mandated that everyone in his organization view the tape and that "understanding the message" of what had to change would be compulsory. And after some thought-provoking discussion, he subsequently committed to also requiring prospective employees in the final interviewing process and major suppliers to view the video tape. They were to understand the tape's implications for what's expected in terms of supplier organizational attitude and cultural values for building business and perceived customer value.
It's easy to overlook customers' changing landscapes and supplier relationships. Orders keep coming in; no one noticed when certain customers had quit buying; the company still makes a marginal profit, and business seems good for the moment; and no one had a clue about the customer's business goals or objectives. All of this resulted from being comfortable and doing what the business has always done – process the order and wait for the next phone call.
Too few single moments can effectively change an organization's direction and culture. It's what buyers want and need that will determine what our industry looks like, what our graphic arts supplier organizations look like, and ultimately, how individuals in our organizations are expected to perform.
Changing conditions require constant information gathering
Buyers' expectations, wants, and needs – like our own organization's dynamics – are constantly changing. Yet, we seem forever surprised and disappointed when a favored customer changes suppliers. All too often, the current supplier is the last to know:
- That performance value isn't perceived by the buying organization;
- What the customer expects or needs; and
- That a change in suppliers is in order because a competitor wasn't willing to accept comfort and status quo, rather applied constant vigilance for additional business development.
If ever there was required justification for ongoing, systematic customer and market research, isn't ongoing business development to fuel the company's future revenues reason enough to make it a priority? Examples for additional business development opportunities resulting from research include:
- Ongoing secondary research about target markets and target customer;
- Primary research, including annual or semi-annual written customer surveys;
- Major account reviews involving senior management to management discussions about the two companies' respective operating environments; and
- Focus groups designed to uncover customer opinions about customer-oriented issues.
And for anyone responsible for or involved with business development (the most important priority in your company), the following research activities might be worth not only considering, but organizationally following through with action steps that ultimately increases the value of your organization to all its constituencies.
Research checklist
Which customers have not bought in the last 30, 60, and 90 days? Review changes in ordering patterns. This list requires follow-up contact and reporting. Track how many proactive contacts lead to additional business. You'll also be surprised at what you can learn in the contacts – if there's an interest in developing improved customer understanding.
Systematically review every three to six months changing production run quantities, lead times, or product and service patterns. You'll probably be startled at how these have changed over the last two to five years and how these changes impact resources for effective order entry and reliable production.
Review how many of your top 20 customers you've had management-to-management meetings with over the last six to 12 months. Were meeting minutes taken and a brief report or meeting recap issued? It's amazing how an effective meeting's value is elevated to all concerned by a simple, short, and promptly submitted recap.
Document and track every request from customers your organization does not respond to positively. Customer markets are constantly changing, and new services and needs are constantly evolving. Those requests are part of the market pattern of customer changes. And you're either ignoring those changes and requests, or recognizing that market change represents opportunity to the alert supplier.
Become a part-time student on how other companies in our industry are using technologies to create value for target customers and markets. Then look to your own customer base and potential customers for applications and opportunities.
The focus, regardless of the application, is ongoing development of perceived customer value from you – the alert supplier.
Technology applications for creating perceived customer value
Management and use of technology requires a new way of gathering and assessing information. For example, some companies have created web sites that greatly speed order entry workflow for both standard products and repetitive items. Total cost of preproduction, especially for small-dollar orders, is greatly reduced; gross margins are noticeably increased; and reliable shipment on new orders is often under 48-72 hours. This application is especially dynamic for organizations processing large numbers of orders.
Also, many companies are increasingly serving as image repositories for target customers, recognizing that certain electronic prepress departments operate more accurately as fixed costs, and are ultimately in place to ensure that the target customer prefers them as the supplier for the future.
Another supplier has developed software, now publicly available, that allows customers and internal personnel, like CSRs and sales reps, to access the status of their jobs over the Internet – in real time.
Still other companies are focusing on database management for customers needing storage, distribution, and fulfillment, ultimately enhancing those customers' business development results – a priceless contribution, which truly reduces pricing pressures on the supplier and ensures – though never guarantees – a long-term working relationship.
Summary
Because of the speed of change in today's business environment, researching our customers' and potential customers' changing performance needs and expectations is becoming mandatory to ensure future business development. That's another way of saying we have to be proactive; our markets no longer come to us.
Business development requires ongoing intelligent gathering and management of information that focuses on increasing our value to target constituencies through ongoing integration of different technologies. At its best, this also includes our suppliers.
And predictable business development requires intelligent ongoing information gathering about how our business environment is creating opportunities for alert graphic arts suppliers who truly have their customers' interests and performance as the focus and core of their existence.
After all, it's primarily the customer we're here to serve. They pay our bills.
