A thorough
understanding of markets and customers is the foundation on which business
strategies and plans are built. Knowing your customers’ needs and wants, as
well as what they are willing to pay to satisfy those needs and wants, is
essential for defending your markets against the incursions of competitors as
well as increasing your own profits.
Market intelligence is about developing a picture of a
market by using readily available sources of information to understand what is
happening in that market and what the likely market potential is for a
company’s products and/or services.
Large companies
often invest significant amounts of money gathering and analyzing data about
their markets, customers and competitors to better position and price their
products and, hopefully, to gain an advantage over their competitors. Such market intelligence is even more vital
to success for middle market companies in transition. Yet, those companies often lack an organized
process for gathering and analyzing basic market data. How can middle market
companies develop better market intelligence?
Here are 5 market intelligence techniques
any business can use to increase its sales.