Market Share is Bunk. Fuggedaboudit!

•  
  Melpo07/10/08 Report as spam
  1

  Marketing Goals Set at C-Level

  I think you're on to something here. I see a lot of market share goals set by someone else higher in the organization. Usually this goal is set by someone who doesn't understand the meaningful numbers like conversion rates. You can't necessarily blame them. After all, C-level execs are paid to think big.
  
  Somehow marketers have to find a way to connect the C-level executives to the metrics that really matter. I think the first step to doing that is to make sure that you have a firm grasp on them yourself.

•  
  Emp Rx07/10/08 Report as spam
  2

  Hitting the nail on its head

  Goeffrey, once again you have identified the lifeblood of business - Sales. However, the goal must be to produce profitable sales. Hopefully, enough to support the future growth of your organization.
  
  Nothing produces a sale better than a qualified lead, not quotas, targets, or even training sessions. The primary focus should be teaching your sales team to identify and qualify a prospect. That is the key to successful sales management.
  
  A wise man once said "If you throw someone a fish, you'll feed them for a day. If you teach them to fish, they can eat forever."

•  
  alankaplan07/10/08 Report as spam
  3

  RE: Market Share is Bunk. Fuggedaboudit!

  The article contains some truth but is too simplistic. Market share by segment is surely an important issue as far as benchmarking is concerned and whilst profit is important, what is really important is the relationship between profit and volumes which is the keystone of mass marketing i.e. smaller profits but enormous volumes. Alan K, Australia

•  
  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine07/10/08 Report as spam
  4

  Meaningless goals

  Why bother to benchmark against a meaningless concept?
  
  What does it matter if Dell sells 20 times as many PCs as Panasonic, if Panasonic is making 20 times the margin on each unit and the ROI on Panasonic's PC business is through the roof.
  
  The main problem with market share it that it encourages marketing folk to think of their offerings as fungible commodities, which leads to price wars and lower margins. The PC business struggles like crazy with tiny margins because their products are undifferentiated -- a natural outcome of measuring themselves in terms of market share.
  
  Rather than trying to compete for an abstract "market share," marketing in B2B should focus on lead generation and conversion rate. And the company should focus on becoming a strategic vendor, not a commodity.