Business consulting Australia

Australia provides business opportunities for consulting in many key sectors.

If you are looking at Australia as a market for your product or service, your business consulting needs might be in important areas of market research, strategy, planning and sales support. As a new entrant, ideally you need a strong Australian business consulting partnership that will help develop the strategic big picture and leverage expertise in each of these key areas according to a strategic master plan. There are competent Australian business consulting firms that provide the entire package of support under the one umbrella.

Marketentry strategy should always be developed with business consulting experts who have a deep, first-hand knowledge of the target market. You have to know where you stand; Are you entering early or late? What is your competition, what are your risks and where are your potential profits? It is not enough to have a great product alone, when it comes to breaking into the scene; timing is a big influencing factor.

You should target a business consulting team in Australia that will collate all relevant data and work on reducing risk for your venture in the long run. You need to conduct in-depth profiling of your competition and consumer base so you know all there is to know about them. You should be able to arrive at a precise pricing position for your products by including all market variables discovered by your business consulting agency.

The most important part of market entry business consulting is to determine the best market entry strategy for your business objectives. Business consulting engagements are most effective when they evolve to strategic planning partnerships.

A good business consultant will identify the most efficient distribution partners, joint ventures and acquisitions and help bring these relationships to you. They will devise strategies and plans for the operations of the sales teams. They will plan appropriate brand positioning, communications strategy and stakeholder management in order to sell your product and services in the Australian market.

When you partner with a business consulting partnership in Australia, they will also help you navigate through legislative, legal and international trade regulation, help you secure necessary clearances and navigate entry level barriers. The scope of your business in Australia depends on the kind of entry level contracts that you secure as well as your larger game plan. In both instances, you need dedicated business consulting that will secure and manage favorable contracts on your behalf, advise you on legal, compliance and tax matters and provide you with strategic support for your entry into the Australian market. A good business consulting partnership will find the best pathway for you, join all the dots and move your product through an efficient supply chain.

Australia is a vast and complex country and a good road map and business consulting partner can help to expedite your success.

Market Research Australia

There are so many differences between B2B and consumer markets and this is certainly the case when contemplating market research in Australia. The differences do not necessarily reside in the products or services within these markets themselves, but instead, in the manner in which these products are transacted, and in the relationships which naturally exist between parties.

“Market Research Australia” firstly needs to appreciate and understand that B2B marketplaces are characterized in the following ways:

• Complexity of the purchase decision - Typically much more complex when it comes to purchase decisions (as the financial and non-financial value of business purchases is often high). There are often several stakeholders involved. For example, there are research and development staff, procurement staff, accounting staff, suppliers, external consultants, etc…. It is seldom that decisions are taken exclusively by individuals.
• Derived Demand – as all demand in B2B markets is ultimately derived from some manner of demand in a consumer market. As an example, a company might manufacture chemical products, which when added into cement, cause the cement to set more quickly. This chemically dosed cement will then be on-sold to cement companies, who then sell their product to building companies, who in-turn build homes for families.
• Ability to switch supplier – Another challenge for “Market research Australia” is understanding the important switching costs and triggers. When operating in a business to business marketplace, if the supply of a product becomes interrupted, it might prove difficult to switch or substitute suppliers. There can actually be many varied reasons for this. For example, the company may be operating in a market where there are very few alternatives available. But even if there are alternatives available, the act of switching may have significant cost and time implications for the production of those goods.
• Smaller customer bases - B2B markets are regularly characterized by smaller numbers of transacting customers and often a smaller customer base creates many more opportunities for relationship building with business contacts.
• Personal customer relationships – Yes another challenge for “Market research Australia” is understanding the importance of personal relationships. In order to sell products, many companies representatives personally call on key customers, providing a chance for personal relationships to develop. In many markets this is the key selling mechanism
• High value spend – Some transactions can be very significant in value and where the Pareto rule applies, 80% of the financial value will be driven by 20% of customers.
• Technical products - Products can be technical in nature. Customers usually want very precise information about what the products are capable of.
• Differences in the explicit ways in which product benefits are marketed - Industrial companies typically do not have the marketing nor communications budgets that might be a fact of life within larger companies. Because of this, advertising campaigns are usually smaller, and targeted around opportunities to see, touch and feel the product itself. In these markets, trade shows and good old “word of mouth” and referrals still play a vital role.

For the market researcher, these differences in B2B markets can present many challenges. Market research Australia is faced with the demanding task of designing research in order to extract and capture this intelligence.

Business Sales Agency / Agent

There are a multitude of reasons why you might outsource part or all of your sales function to a Business Sales Agency / Agent.

Some companies leverage an outsourced sales function in order to provide them with speed to market. Others are driven by risk management and the desire to avoid hiring and firing costs. And others simply know that selling is not a core competency. But regardless what the motivation is, the most important decision in outsourcing the sales function is finding the right partner … a Business Sales Agency / Agent that matches your business, its cultural values and financial and marketing goals.

Outsourcing isn't a good fit for every business. However if you have more opportunities to sell your product or service than you can take advantage of, then outsourcing can deliver dramatic growth and it can do so without the cost or risk of building a team internally.

Think about answer the questions below in order to see if a professional outsources sales solution or a Business Sales Agent can add to your business line-up:

• Do you need to focus on your core business and products and services?
• Are you looking to target specific territories that might be underserved?
• Is your industry competitive?
• Is speed to market a differentiating factor for you?
• Are you struggling to lower your cost of new client acquisition?
• Does your existing sales team need a more effective prospecting and lead generation approach?
• Could you manage your sales process more effectively?
• Are you struggling to scale your selling team?
• Are you looking to reduce the risk of hiring and employing
• Do you struggle to create an optimal sales environment for your selling team?
• Do you spend far too much time looking for information about sales opportunities?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above then you are not alone. Outsourcing sales is growing in popularity and continues to be flavour of the month (or decade). And if you are not doing it, your rivals might be!

The reasons for outsourcing are several and numerous. Here are the top 10:

1. Reducing and controlling operating costs

2. Gaining access to best-in-class capabilities

3. Freeing up internal resources for other purposes

4. Resources are not readily available internally

5. Improving your company focus

6. Accelerating re-engineering benefits

7. Selling function is too difficult to manage/out of control

8. Making capital funds available

9. Sharing risks

10. A cash infusion is necessary

If you decide that outsourcing makes sense for you, then now you need to decide what part of your sales process might benefit from engaging a Business Sales Agency Australia.

There are also benefits in benchmarking your internal sales team, to ensure that they are squeezing every dollar from your sales and marketing budget. A Business Sales Agency / Agent can supply and manage field sales individuals freeing up other personnel to support the growth.

Market Analysis in Australia

In recent years, there has been a strong tendency for international manufacturers to expand their traditional business to Australian and other international markets.

There are many reasons for this, starting with the weak economic climate that still affects the financial performance of European based entities in particular. But there are other reasons including more intense local competition, higher operating costs and increasingly stringent legislation on trade. Against this backdrop of a reduced opportunity in traditional markets, the desire to expand and enter foreign markets is a logical and organic reaction.

Whilst expanding business internationally can create new and unlimited opportunities for growth, particularly in emerging and other fast-growth markets like Australia, it also comes with its own unique set of challenges. These include more complex supply chain logistics, understanding of local and often different competition, regulatory compliance and, of course, customer acquisition.

Accordingly, the success of these market entry ventures are substantially reliant on the elements of speed and cost efficiency and for that to be possible, a strong fact base of market analysis is essential.

The best practice firms who set their sights on emerging and fast-growing markets, where economic conditions are rebounding more quickly than in traditional markets, recognise this requirement and appoint local market analysis agencies to help pinpoint the most profitable business opportunities.

But Market Analysis Australia is not an academic desktop research exercise containing assembled facts and figures. Good market research entails finding out what actually drives the market – and how to get the best out of the opportunities within it.

Gathering this information is not always straightforward and because this is the case, many firms “fail to launch” in Australia, despite the attractive opportunities that exist here.

That is to say, firms intent on Australian market entry are frustrated by the inability of traditional market analysis methodology to deliver crisp, sharp intelligence.

Whilst Australian regulations, import duties, distribution channels, market size and growth, competition, demographics and local production are important fact base requirements, they alone are not enough to underwrite a business case for Australian market entry. 

 

What is ‘market pulse’ and how can I get it?

Acquiring “market pulse’ is about gathering first-hand appreciation of how Australian buyers operate, the dynamics of local business, what your competitors are doing and what are the potential obstacles to market entry.

This softer form of market analysis gathers intelligence from Australian industry participants who are streetwise and can convey market knowledge in a practical and therefore actionable fashion.

Market pulse allows the analysis to be narrowed to a specific product or service and here the process is driven by a “laser focus” on potential buyers and distributors, their needs, their choices and their trigger points.

As a market analysis approach, attaining the “market pulse” creates a platform for speed, cost efficiency and ultimately higher rates of growth for businesses.

Expanding your business into a new market like Australia can be challenging and most businesses fail to reach full international potential because of this. It does not have to be the case, especially when there is an opportunity to partner with a local market entry consultancy which is skilled at not only the assembly of a strong fact base, but can also get out from behind the laptop, shake hands with incumbent industry participants as well as potential prospects on your behalf.