Investigate

If you are ready to leap into the US market, great, we can help you with the leaping (See Execution).   Similarly, if you have already leapt then we can help you with that as well with Interim non-Executive or Executive leadership.

If you are at a slightly earlier stage of the project, you may want to do an analysis of the market you are entering.  The difficulty that most overseas companies face is that they don’t know the competitive environment in the US and don’t know who to ask or where to go to find the information.

ConnectUS has the connections and market knowledge to guide you through the analysis you need to make a solid business decision based on facts, experience and, OK, gut feel.  Together with our partners we have decades of collective experience and connections to significant players in all areas of HR technology.

This is what Inc.com says about the level of detail needed in a market analysis – “if you are building an internal plan and have no audience other than your own team, then do enough market research to make sure you're not missing key points.  The value of information is limited by its impact on decisions. If more market information is not going to help you do something better, then don't bother.”  In other words, we’ll match the amount of information provided to your need, giving you enough information to make a decision – without going way over the top with detail you don’t need at this stage.  That way you maximise your effectiveness and minimise your cost.

If you require a more detailed analysis because you are raising capital, our partner analysts can provide you with enough for a Ph.D dissertation on your chosen area, if you need it.

We’ll start by summarising your intended target group of companies; it’s important to have a clear, shared definition of the segmentation of the market. eg. What constitutes a large company or SME ? 

We’ll identify the need being filled by your product whether currently known to the target companies or not.  We’ll provide you with growth statistics on your target area together with the saturation of the market and directional trends that could affect you.

We’ll analyse and report on the factors influencing trends with your target companies whether technical, social, economic or political.

Once we have a clear understanding of the market, we’ll dig into the competitive environment.  We’ll show you the top competitors in your segment (assuming there are some) – providing not just a summary of the top competitors but a comparison of their products against yours in the targeted market.  We’ll work with your subject matter experts to make sure we really understand your product offering so that we can compare it against what we know about the other competitors.

Once we understand your target market, product offering and competitive environment – we’ll provide you with a proactive report on how to position your product and recommend marketing channels.

My personal belief is that you can make almost any solid product successful in the US market with great execution.  A clear understanding of the market is a great start to great execution.