Where Are You Now?

Strategic analysis is the first step which guides all others.

There's a rule in golf that applies to strategy as well: You have to hit the ball from where it lies. You don't get to move the ball anywhere you want in order to set up your next shot.

Similarly, you need to know where your company "lies" in relation to competitor's market shares. You also need to know how customers view your performance vs competitors. Those are the most "strategic" analyses you can perform. They tell you where you have opportunities to take share from competitors, and what you need to do to realize those opportunities.

CMG Strategic Analysis components include the orange elements of the CMG process below. The green elements are operational in nature and our investigation needs to flow from an analysis of your strategic position first before we proceed with operational elements.

CMG strategic analysis illuminates where you stand on the following dimensions:

• Sales and Share by Market Segment and territory

• Competitor Sales and Share by Market Segment

• Customer Perception of Your Performance vs Competitors

• Customer Profitability

The strategic analysis answers questions like:

• Where do I have strong and weak segment positions?

• Who am I up against and how far ahead or behind am I?

• Why do customers buy from me or from competition?

• What are my product and service strengths and weaknesses?

• Is my account penetration usually good or bad?

• Who are my most profitable and least profitable customers?

• What is my competitor doing better than I that is really important to customers?

See these other pages for more explanation.

• Customer Perception

• Competitive Analysis