Companies that are market leaders can also grow by increasing their market shares. For many markets, a small increase in share means a fairly significant increase in sales. Many studies have confirmed that as market share increases, profitability also increases. Therefore, enterprises with a very large relative market share receive, on average, a significantly higher return on investment. Influenced by this fact, many companies are trying to increase their market shares to increase their own profitability. There are three ways companies can strengthen their leadership position.

Conquering competitors' consumers. Winning over competitors' customers is no easy task. Sales promotions and price reductions can quickly increase market share, but such gains can only come at the expense of reduced profitability, and they are lost as soon as the promotion stops. The only exceptions are price wars, which are stimulated by market leaders who have greater resources than their competitors. Much more often, gaining market share is achieved through long-term investments in quality improvement, innovation or brand creation.

Conquering competitors. Mature leading companies would rather buy competitors than win their customers. Sometimes this can give a company access to new market segments. Much more often, for companies, conquering competitors is a kind of leap that allows them to increase the scale of their activities by acquiring similar enterprises.

Gaining consumer loyalty. Nowadays, schemes for gaining consumer loyalty have grown incredibly. The best that exists is attempts to establish relationships with consumers based on meeting their needs over a long period of time.

Gaining a larger market share automatically increases the company's profitability. But here a lot depends on the strategy of its struggle for such a market share. We know that there are many companies with a large market share whose profits are small, and at the same time, many companies with only a small market share are highly profitable. The costs of acquiring a larger market share may significantly exceed the resulting profits. An increase in market share can lead to an increase in profits only if, with an increase in this share, the cost per unit of production falls or if the price premium assigned by the company covers the costs of producing goods of higher quality.

In addition, in many industries there are only one or only a few large, highly profitable companies, a few profitable and usually more specialized companies, and a large number of medium-sized companies making only small profits.

Thus, it turns out that a company's profitability increases if it gains some market share not on its own, but relative to competitors in the market it serves.

Company market share

How to calculate a company's market share in practice? This question is very often asked by novice marketers. However, even for marketing specialists who have been working in the company for many years and are familiar with the market, the issue of assessing the company’s share often remains difficult.

Is it really absolutely necessary for a company to know its market share or is it just a myth that is perpetuated despite its irrelevance. Let's try to figure it out in relation to Russian marketing.

Market share tells us what position a company occupies in the market relative to its competitors. How strong is its market position?

Market share - a simple formula

The formula for calculating market share is generally simple. A company's market share is equal to the ratio of sales volume indicators to the total sales volume of goods of the same category in the market. In this case, the market share can be determined both in physical terms (i.e. in units of production) and in monetary terms.

Where: D r- market share, %;
Q n– sales volume of the analyzed company in monetary (rubles) or in kind (units) terms;
Q total– total sales volume on the market. It can also be expressed both in rubles and in units of production.

It would seem simple - we take the sales volume of our company, which are absolutely known, and divide it by the sales volume of all companies offering similar products in the market where the company operates. And then the marketer faces the most the main problem market share estimates - where to get data on competitors' sales? For some markets, this data is not a secret - take market reports from automakers - for any year you can find data on car sales with an accuracy of one piece.

Or data on sales of products of individual brands in online retail - such figures can be found in the reports of large research companies.

A similar study can be ordered for your company. But it will cost hundreds of thousands of rubles, and is it worth the company to pay for this information or can the funds that may be required for this be better used?

For some markets (not all), research companies conduct proactive studies, from which you can find out the production and sales volumes of the main players operating in the market. As an example, I can give an example of a study by RBC for the heat meter market.

Such marketing research, which is offered on the market, is much cheaper than exclusive research, and is quite suitable for initial acquaintance with the market. Just don’t expect them to completely coincide with the real state of affairs. Even in the most “correct” study, there may be data that differs from reality.

But what should a marketer do if the company he works for does not have the opportunity to order such research?

Just start performing the direct task of marketing - collecting and analyzing information. We'll talk about how to do this later. Now let's remember why the company is so interested in the market share it occupies.

Company market share - history of the issue

Some authors, when describing the concept of market share, refer to the article “Market Share: A key to Profitability” by Professor Buzzell, published in 1975 in the Harvard Business Review. But this article only statistically confirmed influence of market share on company success. The most well-known strategy aimed at market share came after the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) developed its famous growth/market share strategic matrix. But, if we assume that marketing began with economics, the history of the issue began much earlier.

Even in the first economics (microeconomics) textbooks, it was shown that a company’s profit is determined by revenue (gross income) and variable and fixed production costs. Accordingly, enterprises that are more successful (have greater profits) are those that can sell goods at higher prices compared to competitors, or have lower costs per unit of production. At the same time, the total profit, in a highly simplified form, is defined as the difference between revenue and total costs.

Now let's look at the classic formula.

profit = revenue – (variables + fixed expenses).

If we expand it a little we get:

Profit = quantity x (price - variable costs) - fixed costs

In the extreme case, the monopolist can set any prices without a drop in sales volumes. Elasticity and switching to goods are substitutes; in this case, we will leave them outside the brackets. But even in the case of leadership, the market leader may have lower fixed costs due to the experience curve.

In general, everything is logical. But let’s remember when a strategy focused on a company’s market share became popular and in which companies. 70s. An economic crisis that particularly affected large US companies. Accordingly, the main demand for consultants' services was from multi-industry companies that needed to find criteria for optimizing their business. Indeed, until this moment, growing demand in the markets provided profits for most companies in the market, and with the slowdown in demand, the crisis was primarily felt by multi-industry companies with “scattered” assets.

Is it worth adopting their experience without regard to the scale of the business?

Company market share – what is worth considering

The math doesn't lie. Other than that equal conditions a company with a large market share has an advantage. But are the conditions always equal? What implicit conditions are taken into account when talking about the desire to grow market share?

— Increased sales volume leads to reduction in unit costs.

This is often true for variable costs. However, in general, costs are reduced only if fixed costs on the same level, which is far from reality. More often than not, an increase in a company's sales volumes leads to a sudden increase in fixed costs over time.

Things to remember– the goal of increasing sales (at a given profitability) can be set provided that fixed costs are maintained at the same level. If this is not the case, an analysis of the feasibility of the investment is required. Those. You need to consider an investment project and the goal is not to increase market share, but to return on investment.

— Increasing market share allows for higher prices.

This condition is not always met. Moreover, in the pursuit of market share, price competition is often used, with the expectation that prices can then be raised. It is unlikely that it will be possible to raise prices - this is not the first half of the 20th century, when buyers often had no alternatives.

Things to remember– unless you are already a company whose prices your competitors are targeting, don’t expect to be able to raise your prices in the near future. Those 1-2% of the market volume that you may get will not make you a monopolist.

— Increasing profits when achieving the desired market share allows you to compensate for the costs that the company incurred during the stage of actively increasing its market share.

This does not always happen. Actually, all criticism of a strategy aimed at increasing market share is aimed at proving that increasing market share does not always lead to increased profits. Who would doubt that … .

Things to remember– any planning involves setting quantitative goals and assessing the required investments. It is worth remembering that the main thing is entrepreneurial activity not the volume of sales, but the profit received on a long-term basis.

It is precisely in order to assess whether it is worth targeting a significant increase in sales - and what is this if not an increase in the company's market share - and an assessment of the company's position in the market is necessary. Of course, within the framework of the full scope of economic calculations.

How to estimate market size to calculate a company's market share

Now back to the question, How can a marketer estimate market share if accurate data on market volume is not available?. First of all, I can advise, when complete absence understanding the market, for example, if you are just starting to work in this market, still do not skimp on purchasing a ready-made study, if it is available on the market. This the best option to quickly get acquainted with the general situation in the market where the company operates.

If such research does not exist or it is impossible to purchase it, it is worth looking for data in reviews published by industry publications. Even the most general indicators will do. At the first stage, you just need to assess the significance of the company for the market. If the company’s market share is estimated to not exceed 5-10%, don’t worry, you don’t need accurate data.

Read again the conditions that are necessary to target market share. It’s just that with a market share of less than 20-30%, the company has virtually no influence on the market. Accordingly, goal setting with a focus on market share is ineffective. Focus on other indicators.

It’s worth making a reservation here. Assessing market size is needed not only for setting goals. First of all, it is needed to assess the company’s prospects in the market. After all, when assessing the volume of the market, you assess the volume of potential demand and, therefore, the attractiveness of the market for the company. Just remember the principles of segmentation. The segment must be measurable, large enough, and last long enough for the investment to result in a corresponding increase in sales. And, since a segment is only a part of the market, all of the above applies to the market as well. A company must understand the size of the market in which it operates in order to set realistic goals. But high accuracy is completely optional here. For small company it is enough to understand that its sales goals can be achieved in the market in which it operates.

General market assessment procedure could be as follows:

First, we set the boundaries of the market.

1. We calculate the market volume based on demand.

• We estimate the number of consumers.
• Estimates the average consumption per consumer.
• We obtain an estimate of the market volume based on consumption.

Even in the B2B market, obtaining this data is not that difficult.

To estimate demand, you can apply the formula:

Demand = Number of consumers × average cost units of product × Number of units consumed.

It is worth noting that in this form the formula can be applied to individual product groups in which individual products are comparable in price. Otherwise, you have to compare too different products on the market.

For an approximate assessment of the market, you can use a calculation based on consumption norms. In this case, we can estimate the market volume in physical terms.

Demand = Number of inhabitants × Consumption rate.

Often this method helps evaluate a potential market when a company plans to enter another region. Per capita consumption data is sometimes provided in analytical articles. In addition, this indicator can be calculated on the basis of available information on individual markets that the company knows quite well.

1. We calculate the market volume based on supply

• We create a list of manufacturers and importers
• We group them by volume (usually 3-4 groups are enough)
• We estimate the number of manufacturers and importers in each group.
• For a representative of each group, we estimate the volume of supply
• We obtain an estimate of the market volume based on the supply.

To estimate supply, you can use data on production and imports of products. Let’s say right away that this makes sense if we're talking about about the market for which you can estimate the volume of imports and exports. In this case, the formula is quite simple:

Supply = Production + Imports – Exports +/– Inventories.

Since the volume of warehouse inventories is almost impossible to estimate, and in consumer goods markets this factor does not play a role, this part of the formula can be neglected. This method is advisable to use to assess the volume of the industry market on a national scale and to assess market dynamics

Evaluation by distribution channels.

If a product is brought to the consumer through a chain of selling companies, then it is possible to estimate the sales volume through distribution channels. After all, all products are sold to the end consumer via the network retail outlets, the number of which can be estimated by also dividing them into categories.

• We are building the structure of sales channels
• We estimate sales volumes for each of the participants in the distribution channel to end consumers.
• We calculate the offer for each of the groups of producers.
• We obtain an estimate of the market volume by sales channels.

If you understand the situation, the market volume values ​​obtained by each method will be approximately the same. A spread of 10-20% can be considered quite good accuracy. If not, you didn’t take something into account. You will have to clarify your understanding of the market.

Individual indicators that can be found both in open sources and can be obtained from experts, who will be those who work in contact with buyers, that is, your sellers, will help you with this.

Essentially, you are creating your market map, which you will gradually refine throughout your entire tenure in the company. After three to six months of active work with market information, understanding comes general patterns market.

In practice, it takes about one year for a marketer to become a market expert. This is what we should strive for.

Application

Methods for estimating market size

Method	Description	Advantages	Flaws
Analysis of secondary information	It includes an analysis of all documentation that may contain information about the market we are interested in and may be useful in marketing activities: statistical data, data from governing bodies, market reviews, specialized magazines and articles, Internet data, etc.	One of the cheapest ways to assess market capacity.More quick way compared to conducting field research.	The information received is fragmentary, the data is highly generalized and lacks specificity; the method of obtaining the data is not always clear.
Market research from the perspective of production and sales of products.	Includes research into manufacturing, wholesale and retail. If the number is small - all enterprises in the industry, if large - a sample. Information obtained from this source allows us to determine not only real sales volumes, but also the representation of manufacturers and brands.	Compared to consumer research, it is a faster and cheaper method. Allows you to identify the opinion of sellers about the system of sales activities of manufacturers.	Difficulty in collecting information. Frequent refusals. The possibility of providing inaccurate, deliberately false information from sellers. It is not always possible to take into account unsold balances.
Costs and consumer behavior.	We study either the costs that consumers made for the products we are interested in over a certain period of time, or the frequency of purchases and volumes of purchased products together with the average retail selling price.	Breadth of information received. Possibility of determining social demos. and other characteristics of consumers, their motivations, assessments of manufacturers, sellers...	Longer lead times. Difficulty verifying the veracity of information received from consumers. High costs of obtaining information.
Calculation of capacity based on consumption standards for a given type of product.	This approach is used, as a rule, for food products, raw materials and Supplies. The statistical basis for calculations is annual rates consumption per capita and total population. Thus, the final capacity figure is obtained by multiplying the consumption rate per inhabitant by the value of the total population.	Cheap and fast method, ideal for preliminary assessment of market capacity.	One of the most inaccurate calculation methods. Does not allow assessing market capacity by product range. Difficulties arise in determining consumption standards.

The review is based on analytical monitoring of the Russian market to identify new trends in marketing and advertising.

How to act today to:

• survive in a competitive war,
• Marketing and advertising decisions brought the business closer to sales.

Prerequisites

So, what's new in the market and why should we talk about new approaches today?

First reason:
SUPER-fast market development

The graph (diagram 1) shows the change in income of the population. In 1990, we started with an income of $5 per person per month. With such income, market development is impossible. We can only talk about the struggle for survival. The consumer is completely indifferent to many product groups. He only uses essential groups. Also, with an average income of $5 per month per person, there is complete indifference to brands and priorities are given to weightless, unbranded goods. This situation persisted in Russia until the mid-nineties.

Since 1997, household incomes have exceeded the symbolic value of $100 per month per person, shown on the graph with a dotted line. At this moment, the rapid growth of the Russian market began. This was the case in Eastern Europe, so it was in Latin America. And we saw this in 1997 in Russia, when sales of many product groups increased by 30-50% in one year. Today we have a threefold increase in income in three years from 40-50 dollars in 1998 to 110-120 dollars on average in Russia in 2001.

2001 was a year of important changes and extremely rapid growth in incomes of the population and, accordingly, the Russian market. The population begins to choose goods. Loyalty to certain brands of goods appears. Another proof of the rapid growth of the market is the growth of Russia's GNP by 5% in 2001. And this is the largest growth rate of all economies in the world over the past year.

Diagram 1

Source: Goskomstat, research and analysis of the Kachalov Agency and Colleagues

The second reason:
OVER-saturation of the market with product groups and brands

In the early nineties, there were 200 product groups on the Russian market. Already in 2001, the number of product groups was about 1,400. We are observing a sevenfold increase in product groups. Over the past 10 years, there has been a twenty-fold increase in the number of brands in each group from 3-5 brands in the 90s. up to hundreds of marks per group in 2001 (Figure 2). In just 10 years of the market, Russia has traveled a path that took other countries hundreds of years of market development.

As an example, today in class alcoholic drinks about 20,000 brands are registered.

The huge number of brands in the group characterizes the over-saturation of the market.

Third reason: SUPERinformationalism of the market and society

In the past, the amount of information that was bombarded on the consumer increased very slowly. Thus, the first doubling of available information occurred over several thousand years of development of human civilization by the sixties of the last century. After this, the growth of information became explosive (diagram 3).

Since the late nineties, the amount of information bombarding consumers has doubled every year. Communications of companies: advertising, mailing, etc. - one of the streams of influence on the buyer. Every year our marketing activity becomes less and less noticeable in the general flow of information.

Formally, in order to remain in the same place in terms of visibility in the context of doubling the overall information flow, the company must also double the number of communications per consumer. But the company cannot double its advertising spend every year. It's too expensive.

Diagram 2

Source: Rospatent, McKinsey, research and analysis of the Kachalov Agency and Colleagues.

Diagram 3

Four Major Trends in Marketing and Advertising

These three SUPERreasons require the search for new approaches to marketing and advertising. Moreover, the main areas of change in approaches today are:

• increasing marketing efficiency,
• reduction of communication costs.

Some of the new approaches can be grouped into the following blocks:

Efficiency of Investment in Brand:
• “Umbrella” of the brand structure
• Conclusion of Local Brands

Savings on Communications:

• Integrated Marketing Communications, IMC

Effectiveness of Messages to the Buyer:

• 5 second rule
• Agency fee from the result in product sales “Contribution to sales”

Of course, this is not all that is new that the 21st century has brought to business practice. But in the opinion of the Kachalov Agency and Colleagues, these decisions are one of the key ones. Below we will try to illustrate the main points.

Step one: strong brand and brands

The umbrella principle: brands are under the “umbrella”

The diagram (diagram 4) shows the structure of the organization of the Nestle brand portfolio. We see that goods from different product groups are united under one common “umbrella”. Under the “roof of the umbrella” coffee, chocolate, ready-made breakfasts and other goods peacefully coexist. Successful sales of Nestle products are facilitated by their unification under one powerful umbrella.

The main benefits for companies using an umbrella brand structure are savings on marketing resources when introducing new individual products. After all, the consumer already knows the main umbrella brand well and has a positive attitude towards its reputation and quality.

Let us recall the main “pitfall” of such an organization of the product-brand structure: the noisy failure of one product in the umbrella structure can lead to a drop in sales of other products.

Advantages of the Umbrella Structure: reduced costs when marketing individual products.

The danger of the Umbrella Structure: the failure of one product affects other products.

It must be remembered that when displaying stamps under the “umbrella” there are two restrictions:

• there must be common target groups of consumers,
• product groups must be adjacent.

Let's see who is using umbrella solutions. These are the companies:

• Stollwerck with the Dary Pokrova brand, which has 12% of the chocolate market in Moscow.
• Wimm-Bill-Dann, which occupies 40% of the yogurt market in Russia.
• Coca-Cola, which controls 30% of the soft drink market. Since 2001, the company's logo has been prominently displayed on the labels of its products.
• Crystal plant, which owns 40-45% of the vodka market in Moscow.

There are many such examples. We see that these companies are market leaders. They use umbrella technologies when building a product-brand structure.

Diagram 4

Locality: for Russians - Russian

Foreign companies offer interesting solutions for developing brands in Russia. A special feature of this development is the locality of brands. Foreign companies are trying to be closer and closer to consumers in different markets.

Brands are being developed that meet local market requirements. For example:

• Danon is developing the Rastishka and Utrenny brands.
• The beer holding Sun Interbrew “accustoms” consumers to Tolstyak, Klinsky and Sibirskaya Korona.
• Nestle - “Russia” and “S.O.K.”
• Stollwerck - “Gifts of the Intercession”, “Aerial”.

This is how foreign companies ensure that local consumers hear and understand them. This allows them to expand their share in the Russian market.

This step allows you to save the company’s marketing budget.

Different information channels work together, but the effectiveness of each individually decreases. So, let's look at the main differences between the new approach and the existing one, and the main new trends in communication with consumers (Table 1).

The purpose of communications TODAY is to change buyer behavior, to force the buyer to act:

• Try or buy a product for the first time.
• Retain for repeat purchases.
• Convince you to buy more within your consumer basket.

The basis of the traditional approach to conveying a message is creative implementation and placement in the most rated programs. An integrated approach emphasizes the content of the statement and the location. where the consumer is disposed to perceive information.

The main goal of communications today is not just to inform the buyer, but to force him to act. This action is a step towards a purchase or the purchase itself. This is the main divide between traditional and new approaches in communications - CONVINCE the buyer to act!

Step Three: The 5 Second Rule

As we saw at the beginning of the review, the market is characterized by a sharp increase in the flow of information. The reduction in time for consumers to become familiar with information is completely understandable. Various studies show: you and I only have 5 seconds to capture the consumer’s attention.

It is in these 5 seconds that we have a chance to persuade the buyer to listen or look further at our communications and advertising. If these 5 seconds are so important, then what should we have time to say?

First of all, show an understanding of the consumer's problem. And then show, masterfully demonstrate, the solution to the consumer’s problem. The buyer gives money to someone who:

• knows the problem
• knows how to solve it.

Then you can use additional arguments, evidence and other means of persuasion. But it is during the first 5 seconds that the main choice of buyers is made: to listen further or skip your message or advertisement.

In examples it looks like this:

Do you want to quench your thirst?- Sprite, don't let yourself dry out.
Do you want to grow?- Rastishka from Danon, grow healthy, grow with Danon.
Do you want to keep your teeth white?- Dirol will help.

Table 1

Step four: agency fee from contribution to sales

The most common approaches to payment for services are well known advertising agencies. First of all, this is a commission from the allocated advertising budget. Typically this commission is 10-15% of the cost of purchased and placed advertising. This approach actually and inevitably encourages agencies to buy more advertising in more expensive locations.

Today we offer the following new approach in interaction with your advertising partner: a commission from the contribution of the partner’s marketing efforts to product sales (Table 2). The work procedure is approximately as follows:

• The tasks before an advertising or marketing campaign are fixed. Objectives are fixed in terms of purchasing activity (see Step 2) and, accordingly, the resulting sales volumes.
• Based on sales results, remuneration is paid to the advertising and marketing partner.

Undoubtedly, there are limitations to making such a decision. Conditions are important! You cannot move to new conditions in one day.

Basic conditions:

• Typically, such agreements cover all activity throughout the year. Individual stocks are practically not subject to such valuations.
• The Agency and the Client must have big story relationship: from one year to two years. This allows you to accumulate experience and form a unified approach to product business development.

We have the opportunity to leverage the experience of one of the largest advertisers in the world. This is Procter & Gamble with a marketing budget of about 3.6 billion dollars a year.

Procter & Gamble introduced payment based on sales results in 1999. Trend in budget structure:

• reduction in the share of television and print advertising,
• increase in promotions at points of sale,
• growth of direct marketing.

table 2

To increase the effectiveness of marketing communications and reduce costs, USE:

• “Umbrella” when building a product-brand structure.
• An integrated (complex) approach to planning and building marketing and advertising communications.
• 5 Second Rule: Show the customer’s Problem and its Solution clearly and immediately.
• Link payments to regular marketing and advertising partners to their contribution to product sales.

Increasing market share

Travel firms that are market leaders can also grow by increasing their market shares. For many markets, a small increase in it means a fairly noticeable increase in sales. Many studies have confirmed that as market share increases, profitability also increases. Therefore, travel firms with a very large relative market share receive, on average, a significantly higher return on investment. Influenced by this fact, many travel companies are seeking to increase their market shares to increase their own profitability.

You can increase market share by winning over competitors' consumers. In general, this is not an easy task. Stimulating the promotion and sale of tourism products and reducing prices can quickly increase market share, but such an increase can only be obtained by reducing profitability, in addition, it is lost as soon as the incentives cease. The only exception is price wars, which are stimulated by market leaders who have greater resources than their competitors.

Capturing a large market share is sometimes achieved by pursuing an aggressive pricing policy over a long period. Much more often, such market share gains are achieved through long-term investments in quality improvement, innovation, or brand building.

Experienced leading travel companies sometimes prefer to buy competitors rather than win over their consumers. Sometimes this can give the travel firm access to new market segments. Much more often for travel firms, conquering competitors allows travel firms to increase the scale of their activities by acquiring similar firms.

It is possible to increase market share by also gaining consumer loyalty. Nowadays, schemes for gaining consumer loyalty have grown incredibly. The best that exists is attempts to establish relationships with consumers based on meeting their needs over a long period of time.

Gaining a larger market share automatically increases the level of profitability of a travel company. But here a lot depends on the strategy of struggle for market share. There are a large number of travel companies that own a large share of the market, whose income is small, and at the same time, many travel companies that own only a small share of the market are highly profitable. The costs of acquiring a larger market share can significantly exceed the resulting profits. An increase in market share can lead to an increase in profits only if, with an increase in this share, the cost per unit of production falls or if the price premium intended by the travel company covers the costs of creating tourism products of the highest quality.

In addition, in many segments of the tourism industry there are only one or a few large, highly profitable travel firms, a few profitable and typically more specialized travel firms, and a large number of mid-sized travel firms that generate only small revenues.

Thus, it turns out that the profitability of a travel company increases if it gains a certain market share not on its own, but in relation to competitors in the market it serves. For example, Gamalia has only a small share of the total travel market, but it receives high profits due to the fact that it is a travel company that has a large share of the luxury travel market in its segment. It won this large share of the market it served because it did everything else “right” - it created a high-quality tourism product, provided high level services and did not allow their costs to increase.

Improving the cost structure

Increasing market performance means generating greater profits from the same sales volume. Market leaders have an advantage in firm scale, which keeps their costs lower than their competitors. However, to reduce costs, the size of a travel company is not everything. Cost reduction can be achieved if a travel company owns another company whose activities are not related to the main activities of the travel company, but are associated with additional costs.

Most often, the lowest costs are observed if the market leader is focused on one type of tourism activity. The buying and selling of subsidiary firms often reflects the main travel firm's desire to strengthen itself by simplifying its operations.

To remain competitive, market leaders are constantly fighting to reduce costs, which consist of the following main areas:

Reduced capital costs.

Reduced fixed costs.

Reduced variable costs.

Adding value.

Defending a leading market position

In an effort to expand the overall market size, a leading travel company must constantly defend its current position from attacks by competitors.

A leading travel company must prevent the emergence or immediately eliminate its weaknesses, the emergence of which provides favorable opportunities for competitors. it needs to keep its costs low and its prices accordingly raised to the level of value that consumers associate with the traded brand. It is necessary, figuratively speaking, to “plug the cracks” so that competitors do not crawl through them into the leader’s market. But best protection- attack, therefore a leading travel company must act in the market as an innovator, and a constant flow of innovations is the best response to the intentions of competitors. A leading travel company should not stop there. It should be the initiator of the introduction of new tourism products into the tourism sector, Creation efficient distribution systems and cost reduction. Its competitive efficiency must constantly increase, and in the eyes of consumers, the travel company must acquire everything higher value. It must go on the offensive, set the pace for the entire tourism sector and play on weaknesses competitors.

Since 2011, the company has been increasing its pace of development in the Russian market. In order to increase the volume of products sold and expand the customer base, a new direction was organized within the marketing department in 2013 - sales support.

Maria Mironiceva,

Head of Marketing and Internal Communications at PERI

In this article you will read:

• Why create a sales support department staffed by one manager?
• How just one employee prepares the ground for sales
• Where to find profitable customers and increase the company’s market share
• What will force clients to contact managers on their own?

Best article of the month

We have prepared an article that:

✩will show how tracking programs help protect a company from theft;

✩will tell you what managers actually do during working hours;

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With the help of the proposed tools, you will be able to control managers without reducing motivation.

To increase the enterprise's market share, before, project managers went “out into the fields” and drove around the territory, but often missed projects. The reason was that employees did not receive timely information about new objects in their area of ​​​​responsibility. We realized that they were only working on part of the market with potential objects.

The company needed a full-fledged system of leads (“sales tips”) in order to systematize the activities of project managers and set priorities. Traditionally, the job of the marketing department is to attract customers. We did the opposite: we decided to help the project manager come to the client, since the objects and customers are geographically remote from each other. I'll tell you how they did it.

How companies lose customers

The company has 50 project managers who work in 23 cities of Russia. But there are many more settlements in the country, and the need for equipment arises in different cities. Due to the specific geography of Russia, they set a goal to expand territorial coverage. There were two solutions in this situation: either to hire over 100 new managers (project managers), or to build an effective sales system that would increase the enterprise’s market share. The first method requires significant financial investments and is not very effective on the scale of the Russian Federation: investments may not pay off.

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After talking with the heads of the areas, we realized that they lacked information about objects outside their territories. For example, an employee in Yekaterinburg begins his working day by touring construction sites in a designated sector and negotiating deals with clients. At the same time, they plan to build a new industrial complex in neighboring Tyumen. If the project manager does not find out about this in a timely manner, he will not have time to request the terms of reference and prepare based on it Commercial offer on the placement of formwork systems. If we miss the moment when a potential client completes the facility with formwork equipment, the customer will purchase products from another manufacturer.

How one employee replaces a department

The idea arose to create a sales support department; the manager for information analytics and support was chosen as its main figure. We hired a new employee for this position and drew up an action plan. One person is enough if some of the work is outsourced to specialized agencies.

Manager's task. The employee's goal is to organize and provide managers with information about potential clients and projects. In addition, he analyzes whether this information is being fully used. The final outcome of the transaction depends on the project manager - how effectively he will work out the “tip.” And in order to reduce the time spent searching for new clients and projects, the manager-analyst provides him with processed and systematized information about projects and contact information for decision-makers.

In addition, the sales support manager was tasked with analyzing individual markets and regions. On this basis, a systematic action plan is developed and the company's strategy is adjusted.

How to increase an enterprise's market share: tools

The sales support manager's area of ​​responsibility includes three areas that allow increasing the enterprise's market share.

Review of potential projects. This is a search for available information about potential projects and clients in open sources. Today there are a large number of automated systems on the market that provide complete and structured information about industries, companies and projects. If you set up the selection criteria correctly, you will monitor the market situation on a daily basis, track the stages of trading procedures and receive reliable data about counterparties. An example of such a system is Spark Marketing.

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The construction industry has a number of specialized services, such as Investprojects and PoiskStroyek, which monitor new projects in the industry on a daily basis. Data is provided in two formats: in the form of periodic mailings or online access to the object database. Some services search for information not only through cold calls and in open Internet sources. Their employees visit construction sites in the region every day, check the status of the project and find additional information. Subscription to such services costs from 30 thousand rubles. per month for data on all federal districts and types of construction.

By combining both tools, we set up an uninterrupted flow of information about new projects from the sales support department to local project managers. Thanks to this, an employee in Krasnoyarsk received information about a facility under construction in northern Russia. The very next day, the employee negotiated with potential clients and concluded a deal.

Analysis of regions and industries. We are actively expanding our product range and thereby entering new industry sectors. To develop a work strategy and build a sales system, a qualitative analysis of the industry is required. For example, we are interested in the oil and gas sector market. It is not so important to understand the dynamics in this industry and commission a global study of it.

The main criterion for collecting information is an overview of the market in terms of the sale of formwork. To do this, you need to know the market players, their requirements for licensing and product certification, and planned projects in the regions.

The analysis is based on data obtained from four sources. We turn to experts who know the industry and are able to give an independent assessment. We make an inquiry to professional associations in this sector. We interview market players. We study open sources on the Internet.

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Feedback. We regularly ask department heads which research into which markets and regions is relevant to them at this stage of the company’s development. To do this, we organize surveys once or twice a year.

Since we work in the construction and industrial markets (with different industrial sectors), managers are interested in different areas: research into the bridge construction segment in a specific region or analysis of the pulp and paper industry. Project managers' needs vary, but based on feedback, we identify priorities and create an annual research plan that helps increase the enterprise's market share.

As a rule, we conduct five to six industry studies per year. So, in order to collect information about those under construction or planned sports facilities in Russia, it takes about two months. When the head of the region or the head of the department has such information, he receives a complete picture of the region or industry, which allows him to move towards increasing the company's market share.

Tenders. This is another source of information about new projects and potential purchases of our equipment. In order not to miss profile auctions, the sales support manager works with the aggregator site. It accumulates information from various tender sites. Every day, based on key queries, we monitor data on tenders that have appeared in a specific region or throughout Russia. A monthly subscription to this resource is inexpensive and costs the company 10 thousand rubles.

Increasing the company's market share: result

Over three years, 4 thousand potential construction projects were attracted. In addition, since 2011, the annual increase in the company's turnover has averaged 30%. Over the past five years, we have managed to double the company's share of the formwork equipment market.

Information about the author and company

Maria Mironiceva graduated from Moscow State University economics, statistics and computer science. Received an MBA from Russian Academy National economy And civil service under the President of the Russian Federation. In 2008, she began her career at PERI as an assistant marketing manager.

PERI- manufacturer and supplier of formwork and scaffolding. The main production is concentrated in Germany. The company was founded in 1969 and operates on the b2b market for construction equipment. A subsidiary in Russia opened in 2005, the first plant in 2015. The number of staff in Russia is 300 people. Official website - www.peri.ru