Acme HVAC Controls, distributor of HVAC Control Devices, has a lot of competition. HVAC is a mature industry. The market is settled and tight. The installation and repair customers know what they require and they buy largely based on relationships and reliable part deliveries.
Still, Acme management smells opportunity. “We believe we can grow either through merger or through expansion into two new coverage areas.” Consequently, the company pulled their management team together for a business analysis session at headquarters. The time has come for high level decisions regarding the future of Acme HVAC Controls.
Problem: To adequately assess the HVAC market place Acme HVAC Controls needs to visualize exactly where all competitors are currently located and their general sales coverage areas. It would be helpful to view all current Acme customer locations (with sales values) as well as some of the more lucrative target accounts Acme hopes to win over through their expansion effort. In short, Acme requires a competitor map.
Over the past month, the President of Acme has gathered numerous datasets of information to support the planning meeting. Most of the data was already available through the IT Department and Sales Department:
Finally, the boss had a sales associate spend a morning on Google compiling an address dataset of competitors.
Solution: Find a low-cost, easy-to-use business mapping software and import the above noted location based datasets into a USA map view for color coding, symbolizing and analysis. Focus on the competitor locations looking for areas not saturated with distribution, and with labor demographics that support immediate hiring needs for the expansion.
At the planning meeting Acme decision makers used their competitor map as a guide to establish five likely new locations for Acme branches. The competitor map served several specific purposes that helped drive the decision-making process forward:
Your competitor map will make sense only to your business.
Thanks to business mapping software, Acme HVAC Controls is moving confidently into the future after solid decisions were made based in part on awareness of their competitors in their existing and future marketplace.
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