Gaining Market Insights to Maximize Business Potential

Gathering market information is an essential part of any business or organization - no business can work isolated from their industry, market, clients and partners. All businesses, regardless of size and type, have to continually maintain contact with their clients and business partners to keep current with relevant marketplace issues and trends.

The problem is businesses have time and resource limitations, impacting their ability (and willingness) to implement ongoing market intelligence/information programs. But businesses need to have a market intelligence program. The business environment and market factors evolve too quickly not to keep abreast with changes and trends.

Market intelligence gathering needs to be a priority, ongoing and two-way. Consulting a marketing expert and professor, we discussed the importance of using conferencing to help businesses gather this information. The consensus is that conferencing is a highly effective way to gather market intelligence while serving the needs of business partners. Highlights of that discussion are:

• Schedule regular market intelligence meetings with key clients and business partners. A quarterly meeting is a good starting point. Conferencing is the perfect way to conduct these meetings, whether it is an audio or web conference. Conferencing will provide both convenience and flexibility, while joining together participants from multiple locations.
• Consider establishing a council of members from your industry (including customers). A regular group of participants would establish continuity for the discussion, as well as a comfort level. The number of participants depends on your business, but 3 to 5 would give all participants an opportunity to share information and provide lively discussion.
• Respect the time of meeting participants by limiting both the scheduled time and the focus of the conference to thirty or sixty minutes. The conference should address key marketplace issues in a focused and efficient way. Limit the discussion to one or at the very most two topics sent to meeting participants beforehand. Keep the focus on market trends, so participants don't feel uncomfortable revealing confidential information or strategies.
• If appropriate, have one of the members take the lead for the discussion. Try to rotate this role. If participants are more involved, they will take a more active role in the process.
• Have someone responsible for recording the meeting and sending out a summary to all participants. Limit the summary to one page, highlighting the key marketplace discoveries. Feedback is important to all. Participants are investing their time and knowledge, so they should also benefit from the discussion.
• Always keep a record of the market intelligence you receive from these meetings. You can utilize this information as you plan your future strategies to maximize your business potential.

The complete offering of conferencing services Two Rivers Conferencing provides can help you with your market intelligence program. The suggested meetings can be effectively scheduled and seamlessly handled through our conferencing services.