One factor we’ve discovered from our years of studying marketing in the professional services is that corporations that conduct enterprise analysis usually tend to develop quicker and be extra worthwhile.
Take into consideration that for a minute. Sooner progress and extra revenue. It makes you begin considering of analysis in a unique mild, doesn’t it?
There are, after all, many kinds of enterprise analysis choices on the market. Which of them do high-growth corporations do most frequently? Right here’s what we discovered within the 2025 study:
This will likely begin you fascinated about what sort of analysis your agency may do and the way it might assist it develop. In our expertise, consumer analysis is among the many most useful. Why? As a result of it means that you can get particular insights into your audience that you need to use immediately to regulate your messaging, your providers and the way in which you market your agency.
What are the massive questions you need to ask? Whereas your trade and circumstances will have an effect on the way you design your survey, there are a couple of broad questions that nearly any agency will profit from answering. To this finish, we’ve put collectively a listing of the highest 10 enterprise analysis questions with the potential to ship higher progress and profitability:
1. Why do your greatest purchasers select your agency?
Discover we’re specializing in one of the best purchasers, not essentially the typical consumer. What do they discover interesting about your agency? And why did they select you over rivals? Their solutions could shock you—and spur you to transform your messaging and pitches.
2. What are those self same purchasers attempting to keep away from?
That is the flip facet of the primary query and gives a priceless perspective. The reply could maintain you from being dominated out through the early rounds of a prospect’s choice course of. It may additionally form your small business practices and technique.
In our 2022 research on professional services buyers and sellers, we discovered that the consumers most need to keep away from hiring a service supplier that received’t do what it guarantees, places low-quality workers on the undertaking or communicates poorly—amongst different issues.
These issues replicate the broad skilled providers market, so your clientele might have a considerably totally different set of worries. Should you perceive how your prospects assume you are able to do a a lot better job of turning them into purchasers.
3. Who’re your actual rivals?
Most corporations aren’t superb at figuring out their true rivals. After we ask a agency’s workers to checklist their rivals and ask their purchasers to do the identical, there’s on common a couple of 25% overlap of their lists.
Why? Typically, it’s as a result of you understand an excessive amount of about your trade and too readily rule out rivals you deem inferior. At different instances, it’s since you are viewing a consumer’s issues via your filter and overlook fully totally different classes of options that your consumers are contemplating. For instance, an organization going through declining gross sales might simply take into account gross sales coaching, new product growth, or a brand new advertising marketing campaign. Should you present new product growth consulting, the opposite potential options are all rivals, even when they don’t match neatly into your thought of a competitor.
4. How do potential purchasers see their best challenges?
The reply to this query helps you perceive what’s on potential purchasers’ minds and the way they’re prone to describe and speak about these points. The important thing right here is that you could be provide providers that may be of nice profit to organizations, however they by no means take into account you as a result of they’re fascinated about their challenges via a unique lens.
They could need value discount if you find yourself providing course of enchancment (which, in truth, reduces value). Chances are you’ll want to attach the dots, or you’ll miss the chance. That is just like the dilemma of understanding your full vary of rivals addressed by Query 3 above.
5. What’s the actual profit your agency supplies?
Certain, you might have a good suggestion how your providers may also help purchasers. However what’s the best worth your purchasers get out of your agency? Many suppliers are stunned to be taught the true good thing about their providers. What attracts a consumer to your agency initially may not be what they find yourself valuing most after working with you. For instance, you might need received the sale primarily based in your good repute, however after working with you, your consumer may worth your specialised expertise and experience most. Or they may discover themselves counting on you to advise them in robust conditions.
While you perceive what true worth and profit you provide, you’re ready to construct upon it—and even develop new providers with different true advantages.
6. What rising developments and challenges are you interested by most
The place is the market headed? Will it develop or contract? What providers may be wanted sooner or later? That is pretty frequent analysis territory in massive market-driven industries, nevertheless it’s surprisingly uncommon amongst skilled providers corporations.
Understanding rising developments may also help you preserve and higher goal restricted advertising {dollars}. We’ve seen many corporations add complete service traces, together with new hires and large advertising budgets, primarily based on little greater than hunches and anecdotal observations. Choices like these needs to be pushed by analysis and information. Analysis reduces your danger related to adjustments of this magnitude.
7. How sturdy is your model?
What’s your agency recognized for? How sturdy is your repute? How seen are you within the market? Solutions to every of those questions can differ from market to market. Understanding the place you stand can’t solely information your general technique, it might even have a profound influence in your advertising price range. While you perceive your model’s strengths and weaknesses you possibly can higher grasp why you might be getting traction in a single section and never one other.
8. What’s one of the best ways to market to your ultimate purchasers?
Wouldn’t or not it’s good to know the place your greatest potential purchasers go to get suggestions and referrals? Wouldn’t or not it’s nice if you happen to knew how they need to be marketed to? These are all questions that may be answered via systematic enterprise analysis. The solutions can enormously scale back the extent of spending wanted to achieve your greatest purchasers. This can be one of many causes that corporations that do common analysis are extra worthwhile.
9. How do you have to value your providers?
That is usually an enormous stumbling block for skilled providers corporations. In our expertise, most corporations overestimate the position value performs in shopping for selections. Typically corporations are instructed that value is the rationale they don’t win an engagement. It’s the best purpose for a purchaser to share when offering suggestions. However is that the actual purpose?
When a agency hires an neutral third social gathering to dig deeper into why it loses aggressive bids, it usually learns that what seems to be value could actually be a perceived lack of know-how or decrease perceived worth. We’ve seen corporations lose enterprise due to typos of their proposal — whereas attributing the loss to their charges. Pricing your providers proper is vital. However so is positioning your pricing by the way in which you write and speak in regards to the worth you ship.
10. How do your present purchasers actually really feel about you?
How possible are purchasers to refer you to others? What would they modify about your agency? How lengthy are they prone to stay a consumer? Questions like these may also help you fine-tune your procedures and get a extra correct really feel for what the longer term holds. In some instances, we’ve seen purchasers reveal strengths a agency knew nothing about—or thought was unimportant. In others, they’ve uncovered vital vulnerabilities that want pressing consideration.
The difficult half right here is that purchasers are hardly ever wanting to inform you the reality instantly. Many dislike having tough conversations or are fearful that they’ll make issues worse by sharing their true emotions. That is maybe the largest downside to doing your individual consumer analysis. You’re going to get a lot greater high quality solutions if you happen to rent a 3rd social gathering, one that can maintain respondents’ solutions nameless and encourage belief. Even at Hinge, the place analysis is one among our core providers, we rent an outsider to conduct analysis on our personal purchasers.
Understanding the important thing questions mentioned above can have a optimistic influence in your agency’s progress and profitability. That’s the true payoff of well-designed and professionally executed business-to-business research. What’s your technique to know your consumers?
How Hinge Can Assist
Even with all of its advantages, customized or main analysis can come throughout as intimidating. The Hinge Analysis Institute can put you comfy by answering all your questions round survey design, information assortment, evaluation, information visualization, report design, timelines, prices, greatest practices, and extra. The Hinge Analysis Institute may also help you reply the highest 10 enterprise analysis questions that will help you drive your agency’s progress and profitability. The solutions can even assist drive your branding, pricing, providers, enterprise growth, and gross sales methods. Contact us right now.
Lee Frederiksen
