1. Identify strengths and weaknesses of the new venture – using detailed Swot analysis), financial assessments ?
2. Provide persuasive, justified, and well-presented go/no-go recommendations for entrepreneurial start-ups – Swot analysis ?
3. Assess the proposals merits and make a recommendation as to whether or not the venture should be funded.?
4. Offer of suggestions for areas of improvement.?
Segment one is a Customer Relationship Consulting Company which moves at a fast pace. Backed by an excellent support team with high experience level and know how, Segment one is one of the most popular names which has influential worth in the market today. The company basically aids businesses to acquire customers and retain them. The company works towards the provision of consulting services for organizations that have been struggling to keep up with the rapid changes in the business models of organizations today. Segment One is known for assisting businesses with strategies and operational practices that are competitive enough to generate a higher amount if business. A recent advancement has been the introduction of a Graft ecommerce solution that has served profitable in business operations in the current times (Anonymous, 2015).
Starting from fetching clients, improving the operational process within an organization and successful retention of customers all are done by this team of expert minds. Segment One is an organization which is completely centralized to the needs of the customers. Highly flexible in their approach, the firm has never hesitated to update itself with latest technological innovations like e-commerce and implement it in their favors. It has become a platform where customers and clients meet, do business and get bonded into long term interpersonal relationships.
The case study analyses Segment One strategic marketing plan. It is a self explanatory piece of work and uses a qualitative factor in the approach and analysis. The research or the case study has been conducted through data and literature collection of secondary nature. In-depth examination of case study of Segment One published in various scholarly articles, books, journals and web sources has also been taken into account.
For understanding the strategic management of the company, Segment One a deep understanding of the environmental factors is required which have an influence over the operations and success of the organization. This is done using a static analytical tool known as the SWOT (Pickton and Wright 1998) . The strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Segment One covering its internal and external environments, one can ascertain an ideal strategic management and marketing action for a new startup.
Segment One poses a number of strengths in its nature of work. The company faces limited competition for the services it offers to customers worldwide. With the increasing number of changes in the nature of businesses today and the inability of businesses to cope with the challenges posed by rapid change, Segment One has been able to accumulate a considerable amount of customers who require consultancy with respect to innovative business models that provide a competitive advantage in varied industries. Certain other strengths include provision of operational consulting, call center operation consulting, consulting with internet ecommerce genre and the provision of a well devised communication plan that assist organizations in polishing their skills and bringing about innovative change in the overall business model.
While Segment One has a number of strengths, it also has a number of weaknesses that cannot be ignored. Some of these include the absence of enough budget with startups and businesses to adopt a consulting firm to help then innovate their existing business models. Furthermore, the mental block of owners and employees restrict them from changing the business model drastically. Furthermore, an increasing amount of focus of the company on the ecommerce genre may prohibit the company to focus on all industries. Apart from this, the company has not been able to generate the amount of sales that it was expected to. The company is still under the process of acquiring customers in the sphere of improvement in the CRM practices etc.
Some of the opportunities Segment One has are environmental, demographic, political and socioeconomic considerations. For most consulting firms these are great opportunities to leverage on. The professional network of the firm is strong and huge. As a result it quickly taps into a client base which is growing in characteristics. Advantages achieved due to new markets, evolution of new technologies and small operational background supports less funding needed to run and this is also one of the many opportunities for the firm.
The factors which contributes to be the opportunities for Segment One somewhere poses threats for the company as well. An example can be given here that, in a situation where there is a pending legislation this helps enhancing the potentiality of the firm. It also makes the world perceive the firm a symbol of professionalism. However, the associated costs can be high as certification and special licensing needs extra price factor. So, the same opportunity becomes a threat (Cross, 2014).
The following are the key strategies taken by the firm to offer its customer relationship consultancy to firms.
Diagram showing Segment One entrepreneurial strategies
Any consulting firm has a lot of focus to be given on its presentations as it helps generating recommendations. For big companies specialized staff works on these areas but for small business one has to have a deep understanding of all the factors.
Contract Roles – Tune up the workforce as per the changing circumstances and environmental changes. Previously people use to hire employees for long term. Shift to freelance work contracts for better control and flexible approach to work.
Title transformation- Transform the title from a consultant to a specialist or a professional. It helps people perceive a company as an expert rather than just an advisor.
Project base revenue approach – Instead of hourly rate hire people on the basis of number of projects to be completed. So compare the time used and the output received from completed projects to ascertain value of the workforce.
Willingness to work – The role of a leader is manifold, especially in a start up scenario. So, flexibility to work in every organizational level is a must.
Startup is a customer not a client – Considering a start up a client makes one feel that the consulting company is in control or charge. Shift the approach to a customer based theory. This way one will make sure that the customer is in charge.
Responsive communication – Consultants are sometimes difficult to be contacted. Make yourself accessible to the customer at all times. Be responsive in all the matters related to the customer.
Style adaptation – Adapt the style of the operations as per the style of the customers. That one you will be a part of the client’s world and understand their needs better.
Provide results rather than just recommendations – Presenting customer recommendations in beautiful design does not signify that the business is a success. Whatever support services are needed make those deliverables available to the customer in real terms. Simple recommendations will not work out for long. (Zwilling, 2015).
CRM or Customer Relationship Management is the stream of industry where methods, process, skills, software and internet facilities help organisations manage their customer base in an organized manner. For an instance, an organization can build up a huge database of customers in complete details. Sales team, management, service providers and customers can access such information. These can also help plan up on the products and make offers as per customer requirements. It can remind users about the latest offers. It can track, monitor and analyse behavioral patterns in customers. This in turn can help make the products better (Bery, 2014).
With an effective business proposal or model one can define how companies create values and capture values from products or survives(Osterwalder et al. 2005; Chesbrough & Rosenbloom 2002). In the customer relationship industry many business models are proposed targeting customer segments and defining roles and responsibilities to create a value network. An ideal business proposal must cover the following sections:
Customer relation marketing is a concept introduced by Berry and it has led to the development of a big transformation of how people perceived the subject marketing to be. In the past few years and decades, enormous research ,experiments and studies has been undertaken where customer relationship managerial programs has been analysed. Programs has been developed catering to develop customer loyalty and satisfaction. There are infact very less customer relationship programs or techniques which has not impacted on satisfying customers or retain them for long. There are a lot of web sources, publications and prints where these are discussed. If a company has its customer relationship proper in its place then it gives it the power to adapt and improve upon its operational and marketing strategies. An ideal start up catering to the field of customer relationship must first review the organization’s mission, culture and values first. As per these information the consultant firm must design an ideal CRM policy. They must develop activities for building relationships efficiently. They also take part in policies to make human resource quality better and effectivity (Renart, 2007). Here are some ways of suggested improvements for a start up customer relationship consulting company :
Conclusion
Success of a consulting organisation in customer relationship is dependent on skill and expertise. It also depends on providing convincing reports to the management. The primary reason is there are a lot of people in every organisations. Hence analytical techniques are needed for developing a strong strategy. Some of the best consultation providing firms do not just recommend solutions but also take active part in helping organisations give real shape to their organisational goals and objectives. Such a trend is witnessed in every significant consulting organisation. It requires great skills which requires much more than just consultation.
References
“Building Customer Relationships (6 tactics)”. Client Heartbeat, Last modified 2013, https://blog.clientheartbeat.com/building-customer-relationships/
“8 Keys to Providing Consulting Services to Startups”. Entrepreneur. Last modified July 10, 2015. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248033
“Customer Relationship Management (CRM)”. BPlans. Last modified in 2014, https://articles.bplans.com/customer-relationship-management
“Competing And Co – Existing Business Models For EV: Lessons From International CaseStudies”. Innovation. Last modified 2014, https://www.innovation-portal.info/wp-content/uploads/2015-January-Business-Models-for-EV.pdf.
“Customer Relationship Management”. Cbg-intl. Last modified 2016, https://www.cbg-intl.com/customer-relationship-management.html
“Clarifying business models: Origins, present, and future of the concept. Communications of the association for information systems,”. Last modified on 2005.
“How To Improve a CRM Strategy”. IESE. Last modified 2007. https://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/DI-0690-E.pdf
“The 20 Minute Business Plan: Business Model Canvas Made Easy”. AlexanderCrowan. Last modified 2014.https://www.alexandercowan.com/business-model-canvas-templates/
“Segment One: Your Industry Partner in Success.”. SegmentOne.uk. Last modified 2015. https://segmentone.co.uk/about
“SWOT Analysis for a Consulting Firm”. Smallbuisness.Chron. Last modified 2014. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/swot-analysis-consulting-firm-23282.html
“What&Apos;S Swot In Strategic Analysis?”.Onlinelibrary. Last modified 1998
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1697(199803/04)7:2%3C101::AID-JSC332%3E3.0.CO;2-6/abstract
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