Focus on Market Share

rodolphe meynier Published by Rodolphe Meynier – 23 February 2023

The year 2023 has begun in a climate of economic uncertainty linked to a possible future recession. To address the impact that such a situation can have on an organization’s sales function, Celsius – Halifax North America is proposing a series of three articles on the trends to be observed in order to react and position oneself favorably in such a context.

FOCUS ON MARKET SHARE RATHER THAN REVENUE

The best strategy in times of uncertainty is certainly to hold on to what you have and make sure you’re ready when the economy turns around. It sounds easy enough to say, but it’s not so easy to do… because in sales, we always have the reflex of wanting to reach financial objectives, whereas in this case, we want to focus on a repositioning in terms of market share. What we want is a bigger slice of the pie for our good customers!

How to achieve this strategic repositioning

This is an exercise in relationship building and diagnostic analysis. It is during difficult times that we realize how important it is to build quality relationships with our clients. Mutual trust will be your most valuable tool to maintain the client relationship, and potentially even strengthen it! This bond of trust is essentially based on a thorough knowledge of your client, his needs, his business objectives and his constraints. Your good knowledge of your customers will allow you to offer them real added value. Thus, this information on each of your customers must be rigorously kept up to date. It is your keystone! It will also allow you to make a precise diagnosis of your portfolio in order to establish your action priorities.

These action priorities inevitably involve client qualification, which allows us to focus on the right players, those with whom we can hope to grow. The current situation requires us to redefine what the ideal client is for us by studying his profile, evaluating his development potential and taking into account our current and future relationship.

Then, to successfully increase your market share with your best customers (those identified by qualification), you must first know what role they give you. Are you a single supplier or are there several sharing the same pie? If so, who are the other players? This information will allow you to better position yourself and establish specific objectives to become more important with this customer. 

Keep in mind that clients are currently in market “observation” mode. Many will not be ready to move or change their way of doing things in this context. That’s why you need to not only update your current portfolio, but also rebuild your game plan. This is the right time to take the time to study the territories and sectors of activity where you are, and to identify other potentially interesting clients. Never forget that the market is constantly changing and that a client who was not interesting yesterday may be interesting tomorrow… This is also the time to go back and rekindle the fires with those who were once clients and have since evolved.

This more conservative strategy will give you a leg up when the markets return to growth!

Now, if you want to check if you are ready for this strategy, I invite you to do your MATURITY INDEX of your sales function.

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