Market Research to Support the Business

To develop a successful brand, market, and business development strategy, you must talk to your clients and prospects to understand what they are thinking and buying. Organizations that consistently "take the pulse" of their markets have a distinct competitive advantage. Because our client base predominately sells to the C-Suite of major global companies, Broderick has developed significant experience approaching very senior decision makers. Through our market research services, we have conducted thousands of in-depth interviews with senior executives including CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CIOs, and General Counsel, across a spectrum of industries in major public and private organizations around the world. Our clients use this valuable market feedback to test service offerings, evaluate potential markets, assess brand strength, and create effective thought leadership programs. We offer three types of market research services:

• Customized Market Research Engagements Broderick can design an assessment program that gathers the information needed to support a specific initiative. For example, many of our clients want to test service offerings on a focused market; or better understand opportunities and challenges in a specific region or industry segment; or spot trends in target markets to create more effective thought leadership and marketing and sales outreach. Broderick works with clients to profile, develop, schedule and conduct interviews. We then analyze the data and present a comprehensive report with recommendations on translating the data into an actionable plan.
• Thought Leadership Development For professional service firms, thought leadership is perhaps the single most powerful tool to position the business, build reputation, and sell services. In our extensive research with C-Suite executives and senior decision makers, we have found that knowledge sharing is the key that opens doors. Repeatedly senior executives have told us that their number one criterion for selecting professional service firms is demonstrated knowledge of their industry and the issues they face. Broderick works with clients to develop and execute thought leadership programs that build brand awareness, differentiate from competitors, and support and leverage business development activities. We support our clients’ thought leadership activities on many levels – from the strategic development of firmwide programs, to research, writing, production, and market distribution (see Making Strides in Financial Services Risk Management for an example of a thought leadership study and white paper we conducted and produced for Ernst & Young).
• Key Client Research and Account Planning Keeping and growing your best clients has a dramatic impact on your bottom line. Professional service firms understand the importance of client relationships to their business, but many do not have a formal program in place to manage and grow key clients. Based on our extensive experience interviewing senior executives who retain professional service providers, we strongly feel that systematic, regular feedback from clients, together with a formal marketing and business development plan for each strategically important client, is key to successful account management and growth. Broderick has developed a client management program that helps our clients deepen relationships and generate tangible business from key clients. We conduct discussions with clients to pinpoint relationship issues and opportunities to improve service delivery, identify new service opportunities, and spot trends and needs. We take this feedback and develop a comprehensive relationship development plan for each client. In addition to debriefings and plans on each client interview, Broderick tracks trends in buying and perceptions across all clients in the key account program, ranks high risk/high opportunity clients, and makes recommendations on how to more effectively leverage client relationship management activities.