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Market Smart: How to Gain Customers and Increase Profits with B2B Marketing

3. Assess what people did say as well as what they didn’t.

4. Summarize key data points, notable findings, and
answers to your original questions. Create charts, tables,
and graphs to organize and display your findings—this is
important if you are sharing your research with others.

Step Five—Identify segments

The last step is to identify the different segments that exist in
the market. This is important, because it’s rare that a company
can serve all segments. Different segments have different
needs, so it makes sense that they look to different suppliers.
Defining the segments by needs will help you identify which
segments you will target—and which you won’t.

Segments differ based on buying characteristics. For example,
if Buyer A is price insensitive, relies on consulting engineers to
inform her decisions, and buys for offshore rigs, they are in a
different segment than Buyer B who is primarily budget driven
and buying for a small, commercial office.

For an example of customer segmentation, go to
www.marketsmartb2b.com/resources.

Compile your findings

As you did at the end of the company analysis process, the
last step in the Customer process is to compile your results
and identify your key findings.

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© 2012 Lisa Shepherd