Common Mistakes in BDS Market Assessment: What Can We Do Better?

Publication Date: 2004
Published by: SEEP Guide to Business Development Services and Resources
Document Type: Presentation

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BDS market assessment: Mistakes and solutions

This presentation discusses the mistakes made in the BDS market assessments (MA) and provides sample solutions to avoid repeating these in the future. Following is the list of mistakes and their respective sample solutions:

• Facilitators embark on a market assessment without determining clear hypotheses:
  • Conceptualize and refine an idea for market change;
  • Conduct a market scan prior to a full fledged market assessment.
• Facilitators do not link market assessment goals to overall project strategy:
  • Determine the project goal;
  • Choose the approach that will provide the information to reach this goal.
• The MA team is not properly oriented in research methodology, or local context:
  • Assess existing skills and gaps;
  • Provide training in research techniques;
  • Use a research company for specific tasks.
• The MA process is not monitored closely enough:
  • Select a flexible research company and meet with them regularly to make amendments to the MA process as necessary.
• The MA does not present a holistic picture of the market:
  • Create a market map showing the actors, their relationships and the gaps that have to be researched to have a complete picture of the market.
• MA tools are selected too late and are applied too rigidly in the MA process:
  • Integrate qualitative and quantitative tools for innovative solutions that lead to best results.
• Surveys and interviews are not effective:
  • Link questions to the local market context for best results.