The Steps to Vertical Market Leadership: ITSMA’s Vertical Maturity Model

Vertical market knowledge is table stakes for gaining credibility and access to top customers these days. Gathering vertical market knowledge and experience isn’t difficult—it comes naturally in the course of working with or talking to customers. But in most companies, information and experience remain trapped between the ears of individual employees or simply lost as employees move on to the next project or the next conversation.

Even in companies that have structured themselves around verticals, knowledge and expertise aren’t guaranteed. They may be a hollow shell—driven by an effort to chase competitors or to shore up flagging sales.

Agree on Competence Levels

That puts marketing in a bind: Without an objective sense of the company’s vertical experience and expertise, it risks over-marketing the company’s capabilities and alienating customers, or under-marketing because it is unaware of some pocket of brilliance hidden somewhere inside a vertical practice. To help marketers find their place along the vertical market maturity continuum and develop appropriate marketing strategies for each stage, ITSMA has developed a conceptual framework. The framework gives companies an agreed-upon way to gauge progress of vertical market competence and perception and match the right marketing strategies and resources along the way.

The model measures vertical competence on a scale from 1 (undifferentiated) to 5 (leadership). It ranks the company’s vertical market expertise on six different attributes:

• Market perception
• Thought leadership
• Reference management
• Offer development
• Delivery capability
• Marketing role and organization structure

The model brings a certain level of objectivity and consistency to what can be a very subjective and emotional discussion: the competence and reputation of employees and offerings in the marketplace. It also provides a common language for corporate executives to compare progress across the various verticals.

Marketers pay a price when they try to develop a market strategy without understanding where their company sits along the continuum of vertical market expertise and perception. Indeed, marketing will be very different for companies that are lower on the maturity curve than vertical market leaders. The most brilliantly executed marketing program will be a flop if it tries to capitalize on a perception of vertical market expertise that simply isn’t there.

Though achieving vertical market leadership requires big investments of time and effort, when the payoff does arrive, it could be significant. More important, once leadership is achieved, its benefits become self-reinforcing. Market leaders attract the best talent, which attracts the best clients. Virtuous cycles don’t get much better than that.

Want to learn more? ITSMA members can read all about the Vertical Maturity Model here: http://www.itsma.com/research/abstracts/U0061.htm.

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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.