Client description: Large energy & natural gas provider

Practice area: Market Research and Analysis

Geographic scope: US

Industries involved: Energy, Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Mining

Services applied: Market Opportunity Study, Voice of the Customer, Competitive Intelligence, Market Segmentation, Market sizing, Brand perception & awareness

Business challenge: After a year of acquiring a retail electricity supplier, the energy provider did not experience the level of success it anticipated and therefore needed to understand the barriers in the marketplace. Client needed to know what drives selection decisions (beyond pricing), which value added services are desired and used, obtain feedback on its services and explore unmet needs.

Methodologies: 28 qualitative in-depth interviews with energy buyers/influencers at large organizations.

The result: Delivery of a detailed report with a breakdown of major barriers. The data collected revealed that decision makers were difficult to identify, engage and persuade. Decisions to select an energy provider could be made by company officials of different ranks and at different locations. Companies could have multiple providers of energy depending on location. Also identified in the report were the most important decision drivers when selecting an energy provider. Each decision maker gave insights and impressions of current providers, service offerings, how they make decisions, unmet needs, perception of the client and in some cases, why the client was not selected as a provider. Recommendations were made to deploy only the highest performing salesmen as the quality of the rep can positively or negatively impact a buyer’s perception. The sales approach needed to lean towards a consultative partnership. The client was advised to customize the value proposition for companies by industry, size, location, type of operation, and type of decision makers. The client was advised to focus on the largest and most significant prospects and perform a ROI analysis to determine if the pricing could be more competitive. Research was performed on each company’s business case, as larger buyers are interested in technological products and value-added services. Finally, we advised the client to direct its online dashboard/ monitoring tools towards industrial customer needs and preferences.