How to Transform Market Potential into the Development of Own Business

5 000 companies and 25 000 individual entrepreneurs – that is the quantity by which the business environment in Ukraine grows every month. Each of these "newcomers" is your potential customer or even partner! How to expand your base of business contacts with the help of targeted market analysis? What non-standard solutions help develop business today?

The author’s column of the head of commercial activity of YouControl Oleksii Akhmetov tells about all these secrets, specially for All Retail.

"Action is the fundamental key to all success", Pablo Picasso said, and I agree with him. His creative genius, in no small way, was able to be realised due to non-standard thinking. The same is true in business: any non-standard approaches are often highly appreciated, sometimes even higher than classic system solutions. That is why many companies and their executives are constantly looking for non-standard solutions.

Search for Non-Standard Solutions

In 2021 we are observing a tremendous increase in supply of a wide variety of products for the ultimate consumer. Sometimes demand does not have enough time to be created, and supply is already arriving at virtual counters. Many different businesses are started, even more opportunities to implement a variety of ideas are appearing.

Because of this the consumption curve changes towards spontaneous purchases, people begin consuming more often and in a less quality manner. As a result, every business tries to find a non-standard approach to its customer, to get in his/her need and to get there on time. In these realia my driving principle becomes the following one – good today is better than perfect tomorrow.

Every month on average 5 000 companies and 25 000 individual entrepreneurs are registered in Ukraine. All these companies sell something to someone and buy something from someone, creating significant demand. Every business, both new and experienced, needs to expand the list of customers. Every sales manager strives to replenish their customer portfolio with loyal customers. In practice, of course, everything looks more complicated and for their successful involvement it is necessary to perform key actions. And the first of them is market analysis.

Analysis of Market Potential 

ABC analysis of a customer portfolio helps understand which of the customers bring the most income. This allows a business to realise its own "points of influence". Their correct recognition indicates where and to what extent it is necessary to invest resources. A deeper analysis, in addition to bargaining, will allow to perform segmentation by business fields, functions of people in companies. However everything will depend on experts and how much time you will spend on such research. Therefore, the need to understand all the details of the current portfolio is the first thing with which you should start developing the commercial component of your business.

Studying the Current Portfolio 

Based on ABC analysis, there are data on existing customers and necessary knowledge about their business. If you aim at the Ukrainian market, information on the number of companies in the market is already available from open sources. For narrower segmentation it is convenient to use the tool "Market analysis" from the analytical system for checking counterparties YouControl. It allows users to find the required list of companies by NACE/KVED (classifier of types of economic activity), region, revenue, date of registration and by many other filters.

Thus without much effort you can single out the TOP-100 largest companies by revenue or by any other parameter. For example, do you know how to find wholesale companies with revenue of over 100 mln with their telephone numbers and addresses? There are more than three thousand of them in Ukraine. And "Market analysis" will upload these companies with lists, names, contacts. You can also find lists of all companies that work for export by specific product groups. It is an effective working tool for every sales department in any business.

Research in Trends

While analysing market potential, it is also important to take into account the growth trends of this or that field. This is necessary in order to understand the dynamics of growth or decline of each of them. A field can be profitable but risky. Understanding this, you can adjust the strategy for the coming years. You can use your own internal research or analytics, which is published in the public domain by the companies you trust. There is also an option to order a study that, in addition to trends, will help thoroughly assess market potential and increase your efficiency.

Thus the study by a financial analyst, Doctor of Economics, Roman Kornyliuk "Sectoral Economic Trends of the Last Decade", which highlights the main locomotives of the Ukrainian economy, has recently been published. The dynamics also show which fields have turned from leaders into outsiders during this time and vice versa. With the help of this analysis you can determine which industries are currently the most attractive for investment, and where it is better not to invest.

Constant Monitoring

While searching for customers in the B2B segment, it is important to monitor companies that have recently been registered. For them services for the development of support and their own business may be relevant: opening a bank account, accounting and legal services. Therefore, businesses that aim at selling their products to new companies should not forget about constant monitoring.

Search for a "Distant" Partner

In conclusion, here is a life hack on how to look for a foreign partner. Many non-resident companies participate in Ukrainian tenders. To do this, they submit their offers and contacts to the system for participation. This is a very original way to enter international business, if you have such a goal. These data are also publicly available. The only question is the time and human resources that need to be used to study the information from the tenders.