Professional Services Professional: Business Executive

Assessing the playing field

• Identifying the forces that drive competition in your industry sector using Porter’s five forces
• Examining the prevailing market structure in your industry
• Using perceptual mapping to position products/services relative to competitors and highlight potential market gaps

Knowing your playing field

• Appraising your organisation’s cash cows, stars, dogs and question marks using a Boston matrix
• Knowing where your product/service is in its life cycle – R&D, introduction, growth, maturity and saturation, decline
• Sourcing and comparing information on company and competitor performance

Recognising the key players in the field

• Classifying the key players in the business-to-business chain that links to end-consumers
• Diagnosing the current Political, Environmental, Social and Technological (PEST) factors that influence the sector
• Determining the underlying trends, cyclical factors and random movements that underpin your market sector

Deciphering financial statements

• Cash flow statement
• Profit and loss account
• Balance Sheet

Analysing accounts

• Determining if the four criteria for making a satisfactory return on investment are being met
• Identifying whether a sound financial position is being maintained, avoiding risks from overtrading or heavy borrowing
• Selecting an appropriate growth strategy, either by becoming more efficient, gaining economies of scale or improving quality of products

Appraising investments

• Investigating the internal rate of return for an investment
• Applying discounted cash flow to an investment to determine the value of future returns
• Utilising break-even analysis to determine the payback period for an investment

Selecting your strategy

• Choosing the strategic position of your product/service in the marketplace using Kotler’s 4Ps
• Selecting and analysing which of Porter’s three marketing strategies is most effective for your product/service: differentiation, cost leadership or focus
• Developing a growth strategy using the Ansoff matrix

Researching your markets

• Selecting the marketable features and benefits of your product/service
• Specifying the needs of the three categories of business buyer
• Deciding the 20% of customers that account for 80% of your profit

Sending your message to your people

• Determining which of your market segments are worth trying to sell to
• Knowing your unique positioning proposition
• Applying the five questions that underpin all advertising and promotion activities