• a range of disposable orthopedic power tools
• disposable pulsed lavage system
• a range of high quality CE marked orthoapedic implants and traumatology products
• arthroscopy instruments
• dental instruments
• single-use orthopedic brushes

Contact iain@acumenuk.com or call +44 (0)1453 873330 for more information.

Entrepreneurs are always cited as the ultimate takers of opportunity – I once saw entrepreneurship described as “the process of recognizing, seizing, pursuing and exploiting opportunities without regard of the resources you currently control”.  But being an opportunity expert is not the preserve of entrepreneurs, even if opportunity is not always obvious and is often hidden by other problems or issues.

One of the challenges of recognising opportunities is that often they exist only for a short time. You need to be able to identify the chance and react quickly. It is also often the case that the bigger the opportunity, the shorter the window, and the greater the risk. But the potential reward can also be bigger too.

When we work with new clients, we are often surprised at the opportunities which already exist within a business. Sometimes it is simply that fact that nobody has recognised the opportunity. ‘Blue sky thinking’ is a horrendous marketing cliché, but brainstorming ideas for developing a business without any limits or preconceptions often helps identify new opportunities. People habitually say that they don’t have time for this kind of esoteric activity, but trust me, it really is worth doing once in a while.

On other occasions, a company has identified a possible opportunity for growth, but claims that they do not have the time/energy/support/money/resource/courage to do anything about it. As any successful entrepreneur will tell you, those are simply excuses all of which can be overcome if you have the desire to embrace opportunity.

One of the most exciting things about working with new clients is seeing business opportunities which have previously been unrecognised, or simply not developed for various reasons. We can bring focus and form to those opportunities and put strategies in place which allow the business to grow profitably simply by developing their true potential.

Assuming you recognize when a business opportunity next comes knocking at your door, will you put out the ‘Welcome Mat’ and greet the opportunity with enthusiasm. Or will you hang up the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign because you simply do not have the mindset to do anything about it?

Either way, Acumen is ready to help you develop that opportunity for the benefit of your business.

Acumen ‘Opinion’

© Acumen Strategic Marketing Ltd 2010

Actually it’s pretty straightforward. We simply help clients develop growth strategies which will result in profitable business development by targeting new products or services to existing customers, existing products or services to new customers, or new products or services to new customers.

In some cases the market development process is very simple. Clients with an established product line are looking to extend their distribution channels outside their current markets. For example one client of ours had good sales growth and an established distributor network in over 40 countries, but had struggled to find an appropriate distributor in a handful of specific geographic markets. The brief was straightforward – find us a good distributor in each of those missing markets.

In other cases, for example with start-ups or small businesses who have perhaps not previously sold outside their domestic market, the development of a coherent market development strategy is the first important step. So we examine the business and its plans in detail and help the management team put together a strategic process for developing sales in the targeted segments and markets.

That process will include:

1. Establishing strategic business development goals
2. Identifying target markets, sectors and niches
3. Assessing existing sales and marketing resources
4. Agreeing key value propositions – unique sales propositions (USP’s), unique perceived benefits (UPB’s), competitors, positioning, product mix, etc.
5. Developing appropriate product support and sales material
6. Agreeing preferred distributor profiles

However, what we can offer clients often extends well beyond simply helping to establish or grow conventional distribution channels. It’s surprising how often we discover untapped potential within a clients existing product portfolio. Maybe that is something to do with clients being so immersed in the day-to-day business of running their companies that they don’t take time to look outside current strategic pathways. Perhaps it’s just the good old ‘wood for the trees’ scenario. But we often identify opportunities for licensing products, or setting up OEM deals, that had not previously been considered. Equally there may be ways of adding complimentary products to the client’s existing product portfolio which will quickly create additional revenue streams from existing sales channels without significantly increasing costs.

Market development covers a multitude of sins, but at the end of the day it is basically any activity which creates additional profitable sales revenue for the business.

Acumen ‘Opinion’

© Acumen Strategic Marketing Ltd 2010