Advantages a company directory can bring to consulting services industry today
The beauty of an open market it’s voraciousness and unforgiving nature. A utopia of self-regulation and correcting just like the animal kingdom. Businesses come and go, some stay and some wither away, due to different approaches and employment of a wide set of tools to survive this never-ending abyss of supply-demand.
A notable example of B2B is the consulting services industry. Targeting company executives and providing them with professional feedback of industry-specific specialists, trained in management or business schools, is the short gist of this gig. As such, these types of firms opened up a new market to themselves, by providing companies with necessary third-party resources.
And the imperfectness of the market can be seen in the ongoing events. Covid-19 has dealt quite the extensive blow to consulting firms world-wide leaning more onto restricting movement and project cancellations. As we are all aware, more often than not consultants are travellers, which affects their ability to generate revenue during the lockdown. At the same time, consulting companies’ employees are very much used to working remotely. Sadly, customers are all anxious about the uncertainty of the situation, especially those who still keep in mind the steep drop of the 2008 financial crisis, leading to postponement or removal of consulting inquiries. However, all doesn’t seem lost and the events aren’t that bleak.
The consulting business may now be holding onto two threads: one, Coronavirus recedes swiftly without causing a dangerous second wave; two, the situation must be at least somewhat comparable to other crises which displayed a recognisable V-shaped economic rally. Nevertheless, things could resume to the normal state if clients result only in delaying projects instead of outright cancelling them.
Opportunistic impact
Why demand for consulting services? That is most likely due to businesses not having a clear solution on dealing with the outbreak and its economic consequences. Here is where the opportunity lies.
Covid-19 has forced companies to have another look at restructuring, cost-cutting programmes and most notably human capital. It wouldn’t be strange for HR consultants to be enjoying work calls as the virus puts an insurmountable amount of strain on HR departments, while also opening them to legal liabilities depending on how they choose to react.
Businesses related to home-delivery have seen a particular boost to their activity, as most people still purchase items even if walled off from the world. However, vulnerable suppliers can stall your pipeline in a matter of seconds so consultants are tasked with identifying and reorganising the supply chain for their clients while keeping costs under control.
M&A landscape is also in the heat of the action. As prices fluctuate and owners are getting desperate, they might jump to short-handed conclusions and decide on selling their assets even when stock prices hit their lows. May come of no surprise for companies to employ consultants for their on-matter experience for quick deals.
As for the travel ban that has somewhat restricted the ability of consultants to do their work, well it has been offset by the results of ever-developing technology. Equipped with personal computers from the relative comfort of their home, consultants connect with customers through video conferences and virtual meetings.
Company directories and consulting business resonance
Recent years have been host to ever-changing and modernizing technologies making their way into the market. Customer experience, analytics agility and business processes accompanied by higher speeds and in-depth results have goaded the consulting service industry to shift its view to appealing towards their needs.
All of these trends can, for the most part, be covered by a reliable business directory. Here is a simple example, before we move on to other benefits, of how quick BI can help you fix your resource pool.
Let us assume the example of a financial consulting company that needs to help a client review their approach to the supply chain as well as find potential business partners that would replace the ones that are now out of business, all while keeping the costs under control. In current conditions, there is no time to waste on research, data collection, due diligence and other relevant analyses, yet they all need to be performed to make sure that the best possible choices are made. Well, a high-quality company intelligence platform can cover all these tasks. The research may be reduced to selecting the relevant filters among provided segmentation tools, singling out businesses by their status, location, type of activity, vertical and a plethora of other relevant data points, and then performing a due diligence check of each entry on the resulting list.
Retrieve relevant results of chosen resources
Taxonomy is a basic ability and skill that we have perfected throughout the years. It applies to everything we encounter from the real to the digital world. Classification is not only important in creating solid structures but assures easy and fast access to data. Outsourcing an exhausting process with the intent to concentrate your available resources based on the results, is a win-win situation, for both the B2B company database and your business.
Yet again, a well-developed business directory, Global Database being one of them, can help you achieve new depths of company insights, that are otherwise hard and labour-intensive if performed on your own. If you consider a list of just 10 companies, then the number of websites and webpages you would need to explore to cover a part of the financial data - which is just one of the types of data sets at your disposal with a BI platform - might strike the hundred mark. Coupled with practical knowledge on client’s digital insights, a consultant can better adjust to his customer’s needs and hone his proposal before coming in for a meeting.
Improving visibility
Searching for customers is a basic need for every business, no matter if they’re upcoming or in the market for a long time. Tides shift, what you think it’s appealing today for your clients, a rival competitor might improve tomorrow. This search is not one-sided, as clients always want the best bang for their buck. However, if you’re invisible in the market other than a few select clients knowing about you, chances are high that your growth will be hindered, unless your aim is just a select clientele. Moreover, your visibility affects not only your revenue but also the market competitiveness itself. As fewer businesses rival for a top spot in any sphere of activity, monopolies may get to stagnate the dynamic nature of bartering.
A reliable business directory can help you in regard to segmenting potential clients by using cutting-edge filtering systems and then working on the possible needs of the client further. Due to the vast amount of insight found in the directory it is more likely that you will succeed since your offer’s personalisation level will very much impress your client. Of course, you might fear that your proposal would collect dust on the secretary’s desk, but when you have the contact information of key-persons, the only thing stopping you is their email check.
Search Optimization
Just as a rope strength is expressed by the number of strands that make it up, so does the process of searching the network. The more “knots” you have integrated into a web, the greater its area of coverage. A knot is not the “end-thing”, it’s simply a bridge connecting to other unexplored areas. Integrating your business into a directory benefits you the most.
Small companies and freelance experts have the edge on the large players of the consulting market due to different pricing policies and domain-focused consulting. The high specialization of the independent consultants’ network coupled with flexibility and modularity of the work process leaves companies wanting. They are looking for a good deal for them so they will resort to searching you up in a business directory. According to their pain points, companies will segment by the number of employees, field of activity and then get in touch thanks to the contact information brought on the plate.
A means to extrapolate
Data-analysts, shareholders, investors all have a common goal of assessing the market and strategizing possible ways to increase revenue either for a company or themselves. Limiting oneself to foreseeing the stock curve, from previous and current buy/sell numbers is akin to fighting a losing battle. Analysts intersect multiple pathways of information at a certain point, wagering on the highest percentage success plan. And all the required data is in one place. Having access to the entire stakeholder portfolio of a company, it becomes smooth sailing when performing needed due diligence. You enable yourself to provide a careful forecast about your client’s business and use past actions as regression material to identify pain points.
Walking the path of getting the most out of your BI
By definition, a B2B platform is a product that aims to bring solutions to other businesses, through employing a set of specialists to complete the task or allowing the outsourcing of the task. An intelligence platform provider like any other company is not perfect. It faces issues of its own specific to this market. Most of the matters can be tracked down on how other businesses view such products.
Consumers acquire appliances that have an exact description and that will fit their needs. For example, to check where there is electric current flowing through an outlet you could take a specialized tool like a multimeter or you could use a less expensive way like a Neon screwdriver. Both methods will give you the same knowledge. However, things get finicky when talking about solutions and consulting. It’s not entirely an exact science and surely not instant.
Aligning your methods to the current development of shifting technological landscape is a responsibility. However, what about the time frame of adopting such new means? Is it wise to rush head in or a slower approach is required by letting the competition and improving by learning from their mistakes? Nevertheless, confronting common challenges will put you ahead of the competition.
Data Integrity
The market and the data you collect are all dynamic. Basic data on prospects, partners, customers constantly change. Small alterations like modifying a contact email, surname, phone number, etc. lead to questionable data cohesion. A powerful segmentation tool is useless in the face of outdated information, which will prove difficult to keep your customers in check. Global Database uses a patented, self-developed crawling algorithm which maintains a high update rate and low error margin accuracy.
Adhering to GDPR
Information is one of many things being sought after. Nobody is frowning upon viewing publicly available data. However, while processing data, intelligence platforms need to take into account regulations that are set in the region. One such example is collecting data in one of the 27 countries which are members of the European Union and the UK. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) came into effect on May 25th, 2018. Allowing prohibited leads into your system might earn you a lawsuit. Due to such enforcements, different approaches must be made through alternative channels so as to contact prospects. Conforming to such changes is not an option and must be adopted to preserve business integrity.
Approaching personalization from new perspectives
As we’ve mentioned above, data is never stagnant, just like how buyers are of different shapes and forms. Giving a child and a handyman an electric tool will usually bring different results. Yet, the clients are always looking to get the best deal for their money, while leaving a small opportunity door for those seeking them. This limited opening is only fit enough for business persons employing personalized approaches.
When you are calling a key-person thanks to the information from the company database, he/she expects you to already know what quality-of-life improvements should be on the table before even appointing a second meeting. Going in unprepared might result in a swift call off and depending on your targeted potential client, rumours about your failure might circulate the network.
The several vectors of information - digital insights, financial history, credit risk, stakeholder structure and many more, - that you can export as extensions or import to other software of your choosing, can be the difference between a successful deal and a quick send off to never seeing you again.
Even if your personalized offer does not cut it in the first round, powerful business directories come with custom notification systems that will inform you when changes occur. Due to being ever-in-touch with the market, a cold trail might be easily recoverable as you might strike them surprised just as soon as the turn of events happens.
Acquiring clients and retaining them with the initial display of professionalism must be accompanied by continuous high expertise to maintain your client’s loyalty.
To sum up…
Trustworthy company intelligence is what’s driving the terraforming process of the modern business, including the consulting services industry. As part of the package, business directories contribute to endowing industry representatives with winning opportunities, as long as their research is properly managed. However, not every business directory is the same and the sources of their information, as well as the technologies involved in maintaining them, might be out of line. Therefore, before grabbing the lead in providing your services, perform thorough research on which BI can benefit you the most in the least amount of time.