Profiling a client

Deliverable (1) Client Company and Industry Profile

Objective: To gain a clear understanding of the client’s business, what they ‘do’ (e.g. products, services), how they are viewed in their industry, who their competitors are, etc. and analyze their position relative to their competition.

Description: You will create a ‘cheat sheet’ on our client company and its industry. This guide prepares you for the project and the client visit so that you are clear on the basics of their company and industry. This enables the first meeting to be focused on the projects and the questions you need to ask in preparation for the project. This profile will include the major facts about the companies including the latest industry prognosis of the company, provide us with the latest numbers (financials, market share, if available, if the numbers are not available, use industry estimates as a proxy, etc.).

Format: Sections should include a prose description and a chart summary or photo (e.g. logo). Spelling and grammar count. Number of pages is less important than the content. Use your best judgment to determine page lengths. Provide sufficient data so that you clearly understand the client’s business but not too much data so that you and/or I are inundated with unnecessary information. Use numbers wherever numbers exist to explain (e.g. size of market). Avoid using superlatives like “great” or “large” or “growing.” Instead use specifics like numbers or expert opinions to support your point.

• Table of contents that provide an overview of what’s in the profile

• Sections per below with a paragraph or two summary analysis of the chart (i.e.

what does the chart say)

• An analysis section outlining your thoughts on what your research suggests

• A list of questions you want to ask the client.

• References. List all your sources. You should have more than just the client’s site

referenced. Cite all references within the text as well as the Bibliography.

Client Details Sections

1) Client question in your own words. What’s your understanding of the client question as of now?

2) Overview of client’s business:

a) What is the company’s primary business What are the benefits of what they sell?

b) What’s their mission? How do they achieve their mission?

c) Where are they located?

d) What’s their market (e.g. is it defined geographically? By industry? Etc.)

e) In a chart, list out their revenue over the last five years.

f) What do external analysts say about this company? You can include facebook, yelp, etc. if applicable.

g) If this company is private, there will be less information for this section. You will need to rely on the subsequent sections to understand the client.

  

3) Industry: Using a market research report from the library, define the industry they are in. Include charts that list the following

a) Historical industry growth rate over the last 5 years

b) Market size overall

c) Segments of the market and their size

d) Projected growth rate in the next 5 years

e) Summarize the Industry analysis from the research report.

f) If the industry is unclear, make a hypothesis and support it.

g) Use numbers wherever possible. Regardless of the size of the company or whether it is

public or private, industry numbers are available for the industry including growth, current volume, and sales revenue.

4) Competitors: List a minimum of 5 large and small competitors? (in a general sense, the market research report will list and you can also identify other competitors.)

5) Customers: who are their target customers and market(s)? How do they target them (if this is available from their website or other websites)? What can you tell about how their customers feel about them based on the website, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networking sites or articles?

6) Summary of product: If the client’s product could speak, what would it say? What needs/wants does this product/service fill?

7) Analysis In this section, I want you to analyze the client information in relation to the question. Determine the implications of what you found for the client as a whole and your specific questions. Answer these questions (in addition to others you think are important).

a) What does the information tell you or not tell you about the client (for example)?

b) How does it change your understanding of the questions?

c) Are there larger, wider issues at play here that are important to consider?

d) What is your overall view about the health and viability of this company?

e) What do you think is their comparative advantage?

f) What do you need to know about the client that you can’t find? How can you find this information?

g) Do a preliminary SWOT, Porter’s 5 forces, or product life cycle analysis on this company based on your research. Explain clearly what you can surmise about this client’s position within the industry. Essentially, based on your research, what would say about this client’s strength in the market? This is your initial analysis. Please do not simply list the SWOT but analyze it as well.

h) Summarize with your opinion (based on your research) of their comparative advantage

8) Questions: List the questions you will ask the client during their presentation to help you better understand the client as well as your question.