Market Research for Opening a New Location

If you're considering expanding your company to open branch offices in other cities or locations, you'll need to do some market research in that area before making the plunge.

The best way to do this is to obtain answers to the following questions:

• What products or services are most needed by customers in that area?
• What customer needs and expectations are other companies not meeting in that area?
• Who will be your biggest competitors in the area? To whom do you lose sales most often, and why do you lose these sales?
• Approximately how much product can each sales representative sell each year for next three years?

From this information you can forecast the sales of your new branch, identify the best product lines for that area, determine what new products you should be carrying, and develop strategies to deal with your competitors.

You should also identify new potential customers that you may have missed.