Some companies just do what they have always done and don’t really spend much time thinking about their product range, let alone the market sectors within which they operate. They just do what they do and are quite successful at it. I recall within the insurance sector, years before internet personal lines products were available, that there were certainly a good few insurance brokers who probably were successful in their local marketplace purely based on their brokerage being the only one in a particular town (i.e. no matter who set up in the town, business would have come their way, provided of course the business had the key foundations in place). In today’s faster moving world of the ‘instantaneous alternative’ available via the internet that is always winking at a dissatisfied customer, insurance brokers, like many other businesses, have to be far more strategically aware and customer responsive than ever before.

Other businesses were set up initially with a sales strategy focusing on a specific service or product to sell, and over the years they have evolved, often strategically planned, but sometimes more as a result of an accidental opportunity passing their doorway, into other products or services, or into different customer sectors. The point I am seeking to make is that every decision you make with regards to your product or service range should involve full and proper consideration, allowing for aspects such as: who are the customers that might buy the product?; where are these customers based?; how much are you going to charge?; do your people have the skills to sell the product or answer technical queries? – the list goes on and on…

It is therefore a dangerous strategy just to jump into something new without it being fully and properly thought out. So while you are considering this, now take time to consider what is your current product strategy? There are numerous ways in doing this, but a useful place to start is by asking yourself: Are we specialists in a marketplace within which some of our competitors are more diverse (e.g. they are offering a wider range of other services or products), or are we offering a more diverse product range and our competition is more focused on a smaller number of our offerings or a specific market sector, as against our ‘everything to all people’ approach? There is nothing wrong with either strategy, but having identified what you are in this respect allows you to then look at your own and your competitors respective strengths and weaknesses. As an example, you would expect a specialist to know considerably more about their product (e.g. a camera sales person in a camera shop), than a generalist selling the same product (e.g. a sales person in a large superstore selling a camera). In the former, the same product may very well be priced higher than in the latter, and rightfully so – most customers would happily pay a premium for the expertise, provided the expertise is truely there and adds value. I once went into a specialist running shop to buy a new pair of running shoes, only to be served by someone who didn’t know anything about running! – I wasn’t impressed, I didn’t buy – as I didn’t have confidence that they were guiding me in the right direction. Tied in with all of the conclusions you arrive at, you can then consider the current and required expertise within your own business, how to price your product or service, how to differentiate yourself within your marketplace etc. You can also explore whether you should consider a change in strategy and if so, what are the benefits and the risks associated with that, and what plans do you need to have in place in order to ensure a successful change in direction.