Having gained a good understanding of the inner workings of your organization, it is time to define the external environment of the Sales Ecosystem. Where are the customers and competitors, and how does your company fit?
A simple market analysis gives an idea of market size and customers. However, the External Environment includes much more. At the basic level we want to understand the setting that our team, organization, and customers operate within. This includes looking at the industry, geography, external stakeholders, and of course, those competing with you for your customer base. In this post we’ll have a quick look at the industry and geography. The external stakeholders and competitors will form their own posts in the coming weeks.
Operating Industry
In the context of the Sales Ecosystem your industry comprises the habitat that your target customers operate within. Additionally, this includes their sources of influence. Starting with the broad industry consider the following questions:
- Who are the visible influencers of this industry internationally, nationally and locally?
- Which industry bodies are the most popular and the most active?
- Where do members of this industry go for information and advice?
- Which segments of the industry are most applicable to your company offering?
Lets take the construction industry as an example. There will be well regarded individuals who regularly talk and interact at the industry level. They will be active on blogs, social media, webinars and industry discussion panels.
Here in Australia some of the construction industry bodies to investigate and interact with include the Australian Construction Industry Forum, Engineering Australia, and Institute of Architects, to name a few. If your company focuses on the engineering side of the industry, Engineers Australia would be an ideal place to start.
Answering these questions around your operating industry will begin to give a picture of the key influencers and most influential organizations. This information is essential in developing your External Stakeholder Matrix. That discussion will be saved for a future post.
Geography
Where in the world are you doing business? How does this impact your approach? This is usually straight forward to answer when you are operating within your home country. But, a thick layer of complexity is added if the business is developing overseas.
For each geography in your portfolio develop an overview of the broader environment that your Sales Ecosystem sits within. Determine how business is done there, what the culture is like and how to navigate it. The PESTEL analysis is a simple tool that helps shape our thinking in this regard.
| P | Political |
| E | Economic |
| S | Social |
| T | Technology |
| E | Economical |
| L | Legal |
The PESTEL analysis covers the following:
- Political
What is the political environment like? Is the government stable, are there trade restrictions and is corruption rife?
- Economic
Is the economy of the area growing? Are companies thriving and do customers have disposable income? Are the exchange rates favorable (particularly useful if you are importing/exporting products)?
- Social
Is the population growing, and what are their attitudes to safety, health and career? Are they socially aware?
- Technology
Is new technology and innovation widely accepted and actively encouraged? Are there incentives in the advancement and introduction of new technologies?
- Environmental
What is the environment like? Does it suffer from harsh conditions, and is it protected properly?
- Legal
How robust is the legal system and how strong is the focus on discrimination, consumer laws and health and safety?
If you are operating within multiple geographies the PESTEL can give a good feel for the differences. While coarse in its approach it does get you thinking along the right lines.
For more depth on the PESTEL analysis check out this website.
More on the External Environment
This post focuses on the operating industry and geography and has introduced the PESTEL model as a practical tool. Of course, there is much more to this topic and my next few posts will continue on this theme. We will be exploring, differences in geographical culture, external stakeholders and competitors in more detail over the coming weeks.
In the meantime I’m keen to hear your experiences with understanding the external environment that your company operates within. As usual please get in touch through the normal channels.