Government Market Share: Broadening vs. Deepening your Market

Posted by Administrator on June 8th, 2007

Growing your business in a new direction usually means that you need to either expand your current client base or explore new products and territories. It can be a tough decision if you’re trying to decide on the best approach …should you try to expand your products / services into larger geographic markets or should you try to sell more to your current clients and work on referrals? There are pros and cons, either way you choose to market. Here’s what you need to know before you take action and set a new marketing plan into action.

Deepening Your Current Market

Pros: If you’re only selling to a handful of agencies, a benefit is that you’ll quickly get to know the procedures, culture, politics and policies pretty quickly. And, if you’re in close connection with a client and things are running smoothly, they’re more likely to refer your company. The experience you gain in working with smaller organizations will be marketable to other small agencies you’re targeting since you’ll have more to offer than a company with less government market experience.

Cons: Because you’ll quickly get to know the agencies’ procedures, culture and politics pretty quickly, it may be tempting to tell prospects about your experiences, etc. Nevertheless, be very careful about your client’s privacy, as some information may not be intended for the ears of your current clients or sales prospects. If you have any doubts about the information you can share, don’t hesitate to ask. Not asking takes the risk of being officially or unofficially blacklisted if you share proprietary information.

Broadening Your Current Market

Pros: The greatest benefit to growing your geographical reach or expanding your product offering is that you will decrease your risk. If you’re relying heavily on a few agencies or a particular industry and their need for your services drops, so will your revenue.

By expanding your service offerings or branching into new territories, you may find opportunities that didn’t exist before. If you want to look into broadening your market, you’ll want to start by examining the needs that you’re solving for your clients and identify what other needs they have.

Cons: If you’re broadening your market, you’ll most likely have to invest money into the resources needed to help your business grow. The saying, “you need to spend money to make money” holds true. You may need to find some government market reports or invest in services to help you identify government leads in your new territory or industry (Click here to receive five free leads). But the flip side to this investment is once you’ve identified more market opportunities, you’re in a great position for that investment to pay dividends.

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