Before You Do Anything, Assess the Business and the Market

Becoming a marketing leader is like watching a storm approach: You have some brief, indeterminate amount of time before the deluge hits. Take advantage of it to do something very important: Begin conducting a comprehensive research investigation to assess the business and the market.

Expect to get lip about taking the time and resources necessary to do it right.

Senior management will want you to just get started—chances are, they’ve already lost whatever patience they had while the transition to, well, you, was taking place. They might not like the idea of spending money to discover what they think they already know.

Defend yourself by putting the true risk in context: The company will spend millions of dollars to market the new product or service in the coming years; without deep, accurate market facts and insight, this investment could be misdirected or result in “me, too” marketing programs. The goal is to use this research to inform a world-class marketing program that will help the company generate profitable revenue.

Remember, you need to know the business as well as or better than anyone else in the organization—and be ready to discuss its possibilities from multiple perspectives. This knowledge will not only enable more effective marketing strategy and planning; it will also help position you as a peer at the management table.

Bob Baginski, ITSMA’s senior vice president and longtime services marketing veteran, has laid out a five-step framework to help marketers acquire broad and deep knowledge of the state of the business and the market:

• Markets. It’s critical to understand what’s happening inside your company and your most important markets.
• Clients. Just as important as knowing the market is understanding the challenges facing your most important customers and market influencers.
• Alliances. Partners and alliances can play a vital role in market development and sales. You need to know who they are and their strengths and weaknesses.
• Competitors. As a newcomer, you enjoy particular advantages in gaining this information—you are, as yet, unencumbered by the internal tribal beliefs that might be coloring your new colleagues’ beliefs about competitors.
• Company. Here too, newness matters. You’ll have the chance to do a clear-eyed assessment of the level of maturity and differentiation of your new company’s products and services.

Each of these categories needs to be developed fully during the course of the research. Each will bring a series of important questions you need to ask over the course of two to six months.

Of course, the effort—if done right—will generate a ton of information. That’s why it’s important to package the results so that they are easily consumed. Otherwise, the value of what you’ve done will be lost. The packaging should be done in three cascading varieties: a one-page snapshot for top executives, an executive summary that explains the reasoning behind the points on the snapshot, and a full report for those who want to investigate particular details or find source information.

Though time consuming, the business assessment will be well worth the effort. “I find that business unit leaders—rightly or wrongly—typically sit in their own silos and do not have a comprehensive view across the entire company and its markets and clients,” says Baginski. “So if I show up at meetings armed with the information from the business and market assessment, I can add real value—not only in terms of plotting the marketing strategy but also to help the business unit and other business process leaders gain a more thorough understanding of our business.”

In the process, the marketing leader has earned a seat, as a peer, at the management table.

ITSMA members can download a tool with all the most important questions to ask in each of the five categories as well as a chart showing how to create a summary snapshot here.

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ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. We work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA annual program clients include business leaders such as AT&T, Cisco, Deloitte, EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our comprehensive research, consulting, and training on topics including ITSMA Account-Based Marketing℠, Brand Positioning, and Solutions Development provide the insight and experience companies need to improve business results. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.