Consulting Services

Competitive Strengths Identification and Leveraging

We focus on maximizing our clients’ business potential within their competitive environment. We first determine their competitive position and how profit varies with each position. We then build a value proposition designed to clearly differentiate them from competition and to give their customers compelling reasons why they should do business with our clients. Our business consulting services can help companies achieve the following:

businessman increasing stats, arrows pointing towards competitive strengths
Discover how they are faring against competition through Competitive Benchmark Scoring created through a blind survey of key customers in their target market.
Achieve the best positioning within the ever-changing opportunities and threats in the competitive market.
Achieve more operational and financial flexibility through strengthening competitiveness and agility to effectively counter competitive moves.
Create a well-articulated value proposition and examine the strategic approaches of key competitors for each line of business.
Translate business strategy into competitive differentiation and superior strategic execution performance.
Recognize and address their customers’ demand for products and services customized to their specific needs and their high expectation of quality customer service.
Achieve differentiated performance in growth and margins through products and services offerings tailored to the needs of their target customer segments.

Strategic Transformation Business Planning

Strategic planning is imperative to enhance brand relevance, improve competitive positioning, manage costs effectively and deliver attractive profitability. A Cohesive strategy defines a company’s mission, vision and values. It provides clear assumptions of the company’s view of the future; what it will achieve and when and where the focus will be in terms of customer segments and products and how it will win market share and manage the business. It provides discipline and a roadmap to management in making choices on what to do and what not to do while helping to mitigate risks along the way. CEC can guide clients in the following areas:

strategic business planning objectives
Set strategic goals and methods to achieve the goals using the SMARTER tool: Specific, Measurable, Acceptable to those working to achieve the goals, Realistic, Timely, Extend the capabilities of those working to achieve the goals, and Reward goal attainment.
Focus on growth initiatives and opportunities and improving enterprise and competitive value by considering various driving forces like increasing competition, changing demographics, regulations and other major issues facing the organization.

Set Budget Control Systems to measure the results of actions, diagnose compliance with the objectives set using measurement dashboards and, if needed, take corrective action.

  • CEC employs expense management to effectively address costs that support revenue while aggressively attacking costs with low or no value added to maximize revenues and ROI. Cost/Benefit analysis and feasibility studies are also employed.
Chart where organization is going over the next year or more, how it’s going to get there and how to measure if the strategy was accomplished.

Determine where investment should occur and tactically determine true drivers of profit (products, services and customers) within a business to effectively manage economic capital allocation, pricing models, cost allocation, incentives and communications.

Build and unify sales and marketing operations and activities and anticipate and proactively minimize the transition costs linked with sales force and marketing change.

  • Create successful value-based selling through customer insight, segmentation, value proposition, sales processes, go-to-market strategies, sales coaching and sales tools.

Process Development and Improvement

A key to reviving weakened areas of an organization is developing and improving a company’s vital business processes. A good design connects organizational goals to business processes and bridges functional gaps to keep the company in sync with its market. CEC can help achieve the following results:

process development and Improvement

Improved quality of services and products in less time and at less cost.

Improved responsiveness to changing needs and expectations of customers.

Reduced costs and improved operating margin.

Optimize resources and knowledge in the organization to solve problems and improve company value.

Create a high-performance organization to maximize sales channels to reach their fullest potential to boost revenue and market share.

Identify and focus on the highest priority customer segments with products and solutions bundled and priced for maximum revenue, retention and renewals.

Solidify go-to-market functions such as sales, marketing and product management to be in touch with the marketplace and reflective of a company’s strategic priorities.

Marketing Planning and Implementation

Successful marketing strategy plans can help a company anticipate industry trends and optimize opportunities while offering resilience and flexibility to deliver the best strategic outcomes. CEC guided marketing plans can accomplish the following:

Marketing strategy plan word bubble
Improve sales and marketing functions by empowering marketing and sales leaders in making strategic, insight driven and prudent decisions.
Maximize revenues and profits for product lines by innovative product management.
Build the most effective customer segmentation capabilities to allocate scare resources to deliver the highest payoff in the shortest period.
Align organization around voice of customer and their experiences which translate into customer opportunities.

Improve market intelligence through market analysis and research to gain insight and to improve consumer perceptions and customer satisfaction.

  • Uncover customer insights and determine segmentation and value proposition and build a strong analytics capacity to turn data in a key strategic asset.

Find the right marketing mix and promotions including the addition of digital channels to support higher sales goals, ROI and ROAS.

Create pricing strategies and processes that align business, marketing, customer segmentation and channel strategies to profit objectives.

Product Development Innovation & Management

As markets rapidly commoditize, new products and services must be introduced at an accelerating pace. Companies must find new ways to differentiate from competition by integrating product development & design, product lifecycle management, strategic souring and supplier collaboration and manufacturing. Research shows that performance of a new product line’s first year is a strong predictor of long-term results. Therefore, maximizing the success of new product development and launches is critical. CEC can assist an organization with the following:

New-Product Strategy Development

Idea Generation

Screening and Evaluation

Business Analysis

Development

Market Testing

Commercialzation

Increase new product development and drive innovation to create or capture new markets or increase current market penetration.
Prioritize product development areas that best fit strategic goals and capabilities.
Add value during strategy and tactics formulation to increase product success potential.
Improve the quality of the due diligence process to ensure potential is accurately assessed which includes accessing project scope, costs and risk.
Grow brands and increase profitability by delivering products with improved innovation, speed to market, quality, value and improved margins.
Utilize project management to keep products on track, on time and within budget by increasing communications, collaboration and orchestrating resources.

Customer Relations Advancement

The rewards of orchestrating a strong customer experience are immense: increased customer loyalty, greater market share and sustained organic growth. It starts internally by developing organizational structures with a customer centric focus. The business marketing consultants at CEC can help advance customer relations with the following:

customer relations consulting
Achieve a clear understanding of targeted customer needs, buying processes and key decision criteria, buying preferences, priorities, value perceptions and potential.
Increase responsiveness to customer needs and rapid market changes using a digital strategy that creates seamless customer experience using influential touch points.

Engage and influence the full range of employees and business partners who are responsible for delivering the customer experience.

Discover how decision influencers perceive suppliers’ value proposition versus alternatives:

  • Quantify and qualify customer insights using customer interviews, focus groups, conjoint analysis or choice modeling.
  • Measure how responsive customers have been to marketing campaigns and determine how performance can be increased.
  • Determine how likely customer will buy a new product offering.

Brand Building Marketing, Promotion & Communication Programs

A strong brand can effectively position products and companies against competition with current and prospective markets, leading to greater revenue, margins and market share. Loyal customers spend more with companies that address their needs and will refer more customers at the expense of competition. Competitive Edge Consultants can assist your brand building efforts with the following:

New york times square, brand building, marketing strategy
Build a base of customer promoters using a customer-focused approach to brand management, channel strategy and marketing mix.
Learn the critical facts that will drive effective brand strategy and value proposition and leverage analytics and the customer data available to connect with customers.
Drive customer loyalty by developing, communicating and proving a superior value proposition and tailoring offerings to meet their specific needs and buying preferences.
Develop a brand, a positioning and a superior value proposition strategy that is differentiated, quantified and motivational to a clients’ customer base.
Build and strengthen a brand through using the right marketing mix and resource allocation including new digital, social and mobile channels to impact sales and profits.
Develop brand building websites, graphic designs, ecommerce programs, digital and traditional advertising and PR campaigns and promotional programs.

Sales Force Optimization

The importance of the sales force consultant grows as competition intensifies, products commoditize, and companies focus more on organic growth. Sales forces that stay aligned with customers unlock additional growth, increase sales productivity and create greater competitive advantage. CEC can help turn sales forces into a competitive advantage that increases value to customers with the following:

salesforce consulting services
Create sales force strategy that includes sales plans with objectives, sales processes, go-to-market policies, budgets and controls to diagnose compliance with objectives.
Determine the optimal sale force size, channels, territories and channel management that will capture key growth opportunities and effectively cover the most valuable accounts.
Identify profitable channels of distribution for new and existing products and deliver on growth opportunities in mature markets.
Increase new customers through understanding of customer segments, purchasing process and decision influences and securing the best terms during customer negotiations.
Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through implementing a customer-centric plan based on value creation, differentiation and superior customer experience.

Create a highly motivated, performance-focused and accountable sales force by engaging in recruiting, training, coaching, creating incentives and building reporting structures.

  • Design and evaluate competencies to get the right personnel in the right roles.
  • Boost sales force motivation, retention, sales and market share while reducing the cost of administration with an effective sales compensation plan.
Develop highly efficient sales support/operations capabilities, providing the sales force with expertise, speed-to-market and efficiencies needed to achieve superior performance.

Executive Search Strategies and Solutions

Hiring the right executive search firm is paramount for a company to create a competitive edge and meet its objectives. The right leader is the key to shaping, developing and maintaining a winning culture. CEC’s thorough approach minimizes risk in hiring the right executive by offering the following for clients:

Executive Search Strategies and Solutions firm
Talent assessing and acquisition for key level positions within an organization that are a cultural, leadership, team and performance fit.
Organizational design including defining key roles and responsibilities of positions.
Corporate development and performance audits.
Analyze current corporate staffing and make recommendations which include assessing current employees for advancement or termination.
Determine market-based compensations levels, including benefits and bonuses.
Executive coaching and leadership development to improve employee job performance.