Revenue Growth: Market Analysis & Identifying New Revenue Opportunities

I enjoy helping companies and have been doing some interesting consulting and advisory projects over the past few months. Most of such projects I’ve done in the past are focused on scaling and accelerating revenue growth and helping accelerate the sales pipeline via improving the entire Marketing > Sales funnel/pipeline.  I’ve typically helped companies where revenue was either flattening or perhaps growing 40% annually while the CEO needed to figure out a way to grow 2x or 100% annually.  Those types are always challenging and interesting – one of my client CEOs and investors referred to the outcome as a “shot in the arm” or as one of my former bosses and local CEOs called a “step function” meaning that qualified lead flow like MQLs and boost in sales pipeline and ultimately a jump in sales by 3x  – 10x in a very short span of time.

But a few weeks ago, I finished a slightly different type of project where the company was already growing well but the CEO wanted to expand market share even faster by identifying additional upside or untapped areas for growth.  It was an interesting project that first required us to do a deep-dive via a Market Analysis to help the CEO and the leadership team research and identify untapped and upside sales opportunities to grow revenue and expand market share faster – here is what we wanted to look at:

  1. Expand into a new market or segment with an existing solution (how much new investment required but no disruptions to the business)
  2. Expand into new verticals, horizontals, or geographies – how to execute without overinvesting in new resources (cost-effectively)
  3. Expand cross-sell opportunities to existing clients by adding a new product or with enhancements to the current offering
  4. Expand by targeting new buyers or personas
  5. Optimize selling efficiency and effectiveness to compete better in the industry with an existing product

Identifying these untapped and upside opportunities required a comprehensive greenfield market research and analysis (i.e. greenfield because it lacks any imposed constraints) for which they needed an additional experienced resource so they invited me to help. What was great is the end result after over a month of work because the product of this effort opened up new internal conversations and new upside opportunities that were not obvious or very clear prior to doing this research.  Plus I feel what helps (and I enjoy doing this because it’s interesting and adds a lot of value) i is to have an independent pair of eyes offering a fresh perspective and ability to consider factors that are outside the box and your daily vantage point.

The outcome of the research and the executive discussion during the final presentation led to some great decisions that will create a lot of growth for the company. The ultimate business decisions based on this research were exciting to the CEO, the leadership team and the company as a whole and its teams are now aligned (and excited and newly energized) to deliver on a very exciting 2019 (and grow more revenue beyond this year and over a span of next few years at an accelerated rate).

Here is the outline that we needed for this particular greenfield market analysis. Note that I used a good deal of my MAP Method  (Market – Account – Persona) in the initial parts of the research.

  • Market Size
  • Market Growth
  • Market Trends
  • Market Risks
  • Market Segments /Segmentation Analysis
  • Financials & Comparables Analysis of the Market Players
  • Industry Economics – cost structure and profitability (also financials & data analyzed in Excel)
  • Notable Untapped Market Opportunities
  • Analysis of the “A” or Ideal types of Accounts/Companies and Target Buyer Profiles – the “Who”
  • Competitive Analysis – analyze the competitors and apply the SWOT Analysis to the top ones
  • Successful Business Models, Differentiation Strategies and Go-to-Market Strategies
  • Successful sales strategies, distribution channels, emerging new channels and buying trends
  • Successful marketing strategies
  • Technological progress and trends – and for product-led companies like SaaS, assess where the offering fits on the Product Diffusion Curve
  • Overall success factors of top industry players
  • Porter’s five forces – specifically start to assess the threats and barriers to new entrants and the level of rivalry in the industry

 

What else? What are some additional thoughts on identifying untapped opportunities and upside opportunities to grow your revenue using a Market Analysis?