Inform

Is research too important for the marketing mix?

Authored by Peter Hunt

Most finance companies and industry suppliers do little or no research. Tucked away in an already-squeezed marketing budget, research spend becomes an irrelevance and has little impact on the business. Why should it be any different.

1. More sales, more profitability

Customers don’t always tell sales people the whole truth or all the reasons for their decisions. Fairly common organisational responses are to latch onto false headlines (often pushing margins down) or believe that it’s too hard to compete in a particular market segment. Before reducing profitability for the whole business based on poor information or the response of a limited proportion of the prospect base, research lets you get the facts from an unbiased perspective. Payback can be rapid and ROI high.

In all markets, it’s true that for some customers price is everything. But think of corporates like people and you’ll appreciate that we don’t always want the cheapest at any price. Research helps you segment and focus your proposition on customers who truly value a broader range of service, relationship or extended product features, driving increased product profitability, a more stable customer base and higher conversion ratios. Let the price-chasers self-select a different supplier.

2. Increased performance of existing business operations

Once a deal is on the books, a natural drive towards process efficiency and cost containment sometimes fails to pick up what’s important in terms of maximising profit for the business. Linked to a quantified understanding of the flow of deals running through your business and the cost and revenue impacts of in-life events, research lets you understand commercial situations to apply costs where they’re valued, and avoid loss situations.

Bizarrely it’s often great service that is the most damaging. As an example I go back to my days running the CRM programme for a FTSE 100 life assurer. The relevant customer services manager was very proud of the speed with which early terminations were dealt with and paid out – but didn’t appreciate that this had a negative impact on profitability. Research allowed me to show that in many cases, early termination was not the best course of action for the customer and could be avoided by providing advice to incoming callers, allowing us to retain and enhance valuable income streams.

3. Improved profile for customers and staff

Put simply and as long as you act upon its findings, research shows you care. Customers and staff want to feel that their opinions matter and that you will do something about their concerns. As a result, they increase their bond with you. If a research project aimed at understanding how to improve staff performance and morale saves two sets of recruitment fees in a year, it probably pays for itself – before you even consider its findings!

Companies are in the market for the best employees as well as the best customers. Thoughtful publication of research findings can create the impression of a progressive, dynamic organisation – exactly where the best talent want to work.

4. Payback on research

Research is generally viewed as a budget cost. Yet it can drive increased performance in every part of your business, including as an income generator. Used wisely, it can achieve a rapid payback and strong ROI, with a host an ancillary benefits.

To discuss these issues and understand how research can be used to improve the profitability of your business contact Peter Hunt on +44 (0)845 003 1000 or e-mail peter.hunt@invigors.com.

Who will fill the SME financing gap?

Authored by Peter Hunt

As economic activity recovers and investment increases, there is a significant risk that supply-side weaknesses will restrict the asset finance market for SMEs in the UK.

This should be a material concern for policy makers – notably, March’s budget included a requirement on RBS and Lloyds to provide £41bn of business loans (gross lending) over the next year for SMEs. At the same time, it creates commercial opportunity for a major new player to enter the market.

5 questions a new entrant may ask are:-

1. Is there a competitive space?

Yes – large funders came to rely heavily on broker introductions for the SME market. The exit of a number of those funders has resulted in huge capacity taken out of the market that cannot be filled by the smaller, entrepreneurial funders now dipping their toes back into the market.

With capital rationing, a strategic focus on existing bank customers and a material distrust of the broker market, potential for expansion of the big UK banks in this space seems limited. The capacity gap looks set to remain.

2. Are the returns acceptable?

Yes – spreads have increased and are much more attractive than a couple of years ago. Limited funding supply has and will continue to offer strong margin performance. Bad debt will continue to improve, potentially creating a very positive scenario for portfolio profits in 2011/12.

3. Can competitive advantage be achieved?

Yes - the industry model involving funders and brokers became fairly dysfunctional with poor co-ordination and realisation of sustainable value for all parties. A funder seeking to enter the broker market should develop a new business model (for more detail, I’m happy to provide a copy of a presentation I gave at a recent Executive Briefing). The good news is a growing recognition amongst the broker community that change is essential.

Targeting SMEs via the broker market is not the only route to market, and currently there is no brand-led “people’s champion” providing the implicit guarantee of simplified, fair, good value products to SMEs. The potential for such an organisation to operate by phone and internet (assuming risks can be managed) could be a game-changer.

4. Are the risks acceptable and can they be mitigated?

Yes – many of the risks currently associated with the SME market are wrapped up in the broker sector where through-life risks were managed poorly and in an unco-ordinated manner. These can be mitigated by good business design and effective process management. Going direct materially simplifies the risk picture further.

5. Is it achievable?

Yes – assuming the new entrant has access to funding to grow a significant portfolio, combined with the foresight, business design and commercial skills to make it happen. We’d be delighted to help!

If you would like to discuss this subject further,please contact Peter Hunt on +44 (0)845 003 1000 or e-mail peter.hunt@invigors.com.

Marketing in a recession – your best investment?

Over the years I’ve read many articles – usually backed by some form of statistical analysis – that concluded that those companies who maintain or grow marketing spend in the right way during a recession come out of it in a stronger market position, ahead of competitors who took the more traditional view that marketing as a soft cost could be cut without materially damaging the business.

For example, the PIMS (“Profit Impact of Market Strategy”) statistical body of work studied nearly 1000 businesses across a wide range of sectors and found that as the economic recovery phase began, companies that increased marketing spend during a recession gained market share three times faster than those who had cut budgets.

In its analysis, PIMS distinguished between “good costs” and “bad costs” during a recession. “Good costs” were found to be those associated with marketing, R&D / product innovation and product quality (for asset finance the term product includes some elements of the service offering).

Unfortunately for lessors, “bad costs” included fixed assets acquired to improve competitiveness and productivity (since the benefits are usually competed away to gain volume and fill capacity).

Below are a few thoughts on how the marketing budget should be spent, and why it’s so important.

Spend smarter – focus on the right customers

Focus on the right customers. You really can’t afford to be using scarce marketing or sales resources on customers that have no value to the organisation. With the appropriate analysis, within a couple of weeks you could have real understanding and focus on your profitable customers.

This will drive difficult decisions but should lead to a switch in sales, marketing and organisational effort. Customers offering marginal return may be retained for scale economy reasons or as they offer good future prospects, but a significant proportion of your customer base should not necessarily be the focus of future sales or marketing effort.

This is true whether your customer base is end users, vendors, brokers or dealers.

Customer behaviours are changing (and fast!) – you can’t stay the same

It’s time to really know your customers. As their business come under pressure, so their buying behaviour will change. Asset buying processes are likely to lengthen. Replacement cycles will extend, not necessarily bad news for the incumbent lessor. Price pressures on the asset and any related financing are likely to grow. Manufacturers will be desperate to achieve equipment volumes, pushing for high vendor finance acceptance rates. Focus is likely to shift from “acquire for growth” to a survival mentality, with emphasis on risk minimization, maintaining cashflow, reducing ownership costs, and so on.

This offers plenty of great messages for the asset finance sector, but unless you understand this shifting dynamic, how it relates to your specific customer base and the key elements of product and communication that customers will value, it’ll be hard to provide a value proposition that differentiates from desperate, margin-cutting competitors chasing an ever-reducing volume of new business.

If anything, now is the time to increase rather than cut research costs, as your need to learn about customers increases. Attitudes and behaviours can change fast so make sure ongoing customer feedback gets to key decision-makers - for example encourage the CEO to attend a monthly focus group of customers to stay on top of “live” market demands.

Trust + cross-sell = lifetime profit

Even in the good times, trust is a key requirement of any financial institution. Right now, with high levels of customer pain and uncertainty there’s a real need for you to stay true to brand values, ensuring customers feel comfortable doing business with you and that you’ll always support them. Cutting account administration or driving shortened customer service call times may be counter-productive.

The approach should inform the way you sell and the people you employ (or if you’re cutting back, who you retain). It should drive marketing messages, including sales copywriting and imagery.

Importantly, linked with appropriate customer contact strategies it should reduce customer defections and increase the likelihood of successful cross-sales of other financial products.

Mine your existing customer base

Your primary focus needs to be on retaining and expanding existing customer relationships not acquiring new ones. New customers have no track record with you so can’t trust you in the way a satisfied customer can. Existing customers should be cheaper to sell to. Customer insight metrics can help you focus targeted communications that drive cross-sell, upsell and referrals.

Make sure you know your customer demographics and buying patterns and find ways to market to them effectively, including an event-based marketing approach (events being everything from end of lease, end of financial year, seasonal buying programmes etc). Also look at how you can extend repayment periods (protecting customers’ cashflow while increasing interest income, possibly with a small restructuring fee) or offer sale and leaseback on long life assets.

Products and promotions

Price emphasis is likely to be strong with more emphasis on must-have than nice-to-have product features. Bundled products can be expected to come under scrutiny - contract hire and other asset management organisations should consider that some segments would welcome an unbundled, menu-driven offering with separated pricing (this may also help trade people up from straight finance).

Asset stocks are likely to grow. This provides a great opportunity to offer stocking finance, either as a stand-alone item for creditworthy dealers and/or to lock out competitors financing retail assets. In the same way, vendor finance programmes and captives can lock out competitor brands by with a strong stocking finance offer.

Customers may also be more open to a working capital cross-sell on products like invoice discounting.

Customer buying cycles will lengthen, which will increase the period in which customers may compare alternative financing offers. Inevitably this can impact sales efficiencies and conversion rates, with increased switching risk. Finance providers developing promotional offers with vendors may wish to put a clear timescale on their offer. Another tactic may be to reduce the valid length of the financing proposal, especially when cost of funds uncertainty exists.

Marketing suppliers tend to get hit hard during recessions. As a result, you should be able to negotiate good deals across your supply base, including advertising space, design and print.

Don’t forget the future – invest in growth

Invest in growing markets. Not all customer or asset segments will be affected equally and some will continue to grow, for example renewable energy assets. National markets will be affected in different ways – while recent events have slowed emerging market growth, many continue to expand and create financing opportunities at an attractive rate.

It’s marketing’s role to identify these segments and a market entry strategy (or penetration strategy if you’re already in place) that will quickly drive volume and payback.

Be smarter than your competitors

Competitors will be under pressure just like you. By understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and make sure that market feedback is rapid and well structured, you’ll be able to increase new business volumes through the customers of poorly performing competitors or those exiting the market. You may also be able to attract their best staff.

Have a powerful business case

At a time when others in the organisation may be losing their jobs, no-one is going to volunteer to offer the marketing department an increased budget without a very good reason. Make sure you’ve made the business rationale clear, can access the right blend of strategic marketing skills and can justify to the CEO and CFO why each item of spend is important. Link marketing to key business imperatives. Maintain strong financial and marketing performance metrics. Focus on projects with identifiable paybacks.

High marketing spend in the current economic climate represents a bold move for a CEO or CFO to sanction and all the money in the world won’t matter if you don’t have a sound customer proposition. But as the driver of future profitable growth and judiciously spent, it could be the best investment you make.

To discuss how the effectiveness of your marketing spend can be maximised contact Peter Hunt on +44 (0)845 003 1000 or e-mail peter.hunt@invigors.com

Marketing Outsourcing - a flexible alternative

In our current climate, marketing departments are being challenged to deliver greater impact and productivity with reduced budgets and significant pressure on resources.

Yet a dynamic marketing function is a vital element in the delivery of sustainable business growth and profitability. As a result businesses both large and small are looking for smarter and more cost effective ways to manage their resources. A more flexible solution may be the answer.

The outsourcing of marketing activities can take a number of forms, from a partnership with an agency for a specific project or contracting out a speciality such as communications or research, through to a full outsourced function, developing and supporting the delivery of business strategy.

When considering an outsourced solution it is vital that you deal with an organization and individuals that you trust, who have high degrees of expertise and experience and that robust processes are in place to ensure that activity is controlled and measured appropriately.

A first step involves a comprehensive audit of current marketing practices, activities and effectiveness, providing a foundation for building the marketing structure to best deliver for the business.

At Invigors we have extensive experience in supporting a wide range of marketing activities,

• The development of the marketing plan,
• Market research, insight and analysis
• The management of new market and product development
• Value proposition development
• Marketing communications planning and execution
• Marketing services provision

We take a very flexible approach to the way we work, aligning our involvement to the precise needs and situation of our customers, whether the requirement is for a small specific project with very clearly defined deliverables, or  fully dedicated resources on an ongoing basis. Our team has extensive experience in both the management of marketing functions and in the asset finance industry, so we are ideally paced to understand the business needs and deliver a real vale add solution.

Whichever form it takes, marketing outsourcing can provide a very powerful and cost effective alternative to the use of in-house resources. It can give access to complementary expertise, a new perspective on issues and opportunities, flexibility in the management of headcount and a real focus on delivering impact and value.

If you are interested in discussing more about outsourcing marketing activities please contact Mike Roberts on +44 845 003 1000 or e-mail mike.roberts@invigors.com

Authored by Mike Roberts

Know your customer – better

Most companies undertake some form of market segmentation, even if it's at an informal level.  In the asset finance industry the traditional means of customer segmentation are well established, whether these are based on standard demographic attributes – industry sector, business turnover, etc, or related to customer behaviour.  While these represent a tried and tested approach, the opportunities for a lessor to develop a differentiated value proposition are limited and measuring behavioural attributes using quantitative data is more difficult outside the immediate customer base.

Over the past year Invigors has worked with a number of clients on a different approach to developing the customer value proposition through market segmentation.  The aim has been to take a customer-centric perspective and determine what it is that the customer values from the finance offer and identify the trade-offs they're willing to make in order to achieve that value.  These can then be mapped against the capabilities of the funder to assess the most attractive segments, and identify gaps in the market as well as those in the funder's proposition.

The key to this approach is not to assume that “one size fits all.” We use qualitative research to understand which value propositions appeal to different parts of the market.  Taking the vendor finance sector as an example, we evaluate a range of factors including programme value and decision making process.  By understanding what the vendor actually does (as opposed to asking what they would like) we can determine the elements of the finance proposition which they value and how this benefits their business.  It also provides the vendor's viewpoint on how the funder is positioned relative to its competitors.

Typically several value proposition segments are identified from the research. One example revealed vendors with distinctly different characteristics – one segment viewed finance as an impediment to the sales process while another saw it as an integral means of closing the sale. Some needed high acceptances even with poor credits while, for another group, consistent, high-touch service levels across a wide geographic scope were the critical factors.

For each of these segments we develop specific offer characteristics such as service levels, product portfolio and geographic scope.  These propositions are then mapped onto the funder's capabilities taking into account factors like operational fit and ease of entry.  Finally we add in quantitative measures to give us a holistic view of the attractiveness of the segment.

This approach not only offers a unique, customer-centric perspective on the market, but allows a funder to focus on those parts which provide the desired balance between growth, profitability and risk.  It also enables funders to develop a sustainable competitive differentiation and to reduce the risk of becoming trapped in a price-driven commodity business.

To find out more about how Invigor's approach to knowing your customer can benefit your business contact Richard Ryan on +44 845 003 1000 or e-mail richard.ryan@invigors.com

Planning for Growth

Most businesses would claim to have some sort of strategic marketing plan, setting out the company direction and initiatives to support the achievement of financial growth targets, but too often the process is disconnected and the output of little or no value. The plan can turn out to be little more than a list of projects and tactics to justify the numbers and sits in a file from one year to the next.

At the core of a real strategic marketing plan should be competitive differentiation, or put another way, how to create and maintain superior customer value propositions (CVPs) to enable you to win and retain profitable business. But this can only happen if you start with a deep understanding of your market, your competitors and most importantly your customers.

All too often we assume that we have insight into the needs and behaviour drivers of our customers and prospects, however investment in this area is rarely wasted and provides the solid foundation on which you can confidently build the strategy.

This will usually involve external research in the form of interviews, surveys or focus groups, but don’t forget to look within, there is a vast amount of insight in the customer facing functions of an organisation. Gathering customer insight is a valuable exercise but there needs to be a process to take this market feedback and use it to define the customer value proposition.  Invigors, though its strategic alliance with Challenge Consulting, has a unique framework for the development of CVPs based on both internal and external feedback. 

A profound understanding of markets, competitors and customers means that you can begin to identify discrete customer segments, building CVPs to differentiate you in the market, attracting and retaining the right customers and deploying your resources in the most effective way.  Moreover, this process of CVP development should go beyond the formulation of marketing strategy into business process design and organisational change. By driving the CVP focus throughout the business, organisations can not only realise the benefits of a more profitable customer focus but also reduce costs in their business operations. Now there is the basis of a strategic marketing plan that really can support the achievement of financial growth targets!

To learn more about how Invigors' unique approach to building superior customer value propositions can drive business change and improved profitability in your organisation, contact Mike Roberts on +44 845 003 1000 or e-mail mike.roberts@invigors.com.

Don't be a Stranger

Should you be making more use of e-mail as a way of targeting customer sales, maintaining ongoing brand awareness, keeping customer data clean and managing customer events? With the help of other data you already hold, here are a few ideas:-

Keep customers happy

Collect customer e-mail details as part of the sales process. Send out a standard e-mail post-sale with a web to a link survey. It’s a cheap and effective way to gather and track feedback on your selling proposition, processes and areas for improvement. You’ll quickly become honed to the key buying criteria of customers. You can also run this type of survey to cover in-life customer service or end of lease activities

Develop products and services customers want

Imagine you’re developing a new finance product or service standard for a high priority customer segment. Using an e-mail link to a web survey you can quickly generate customer feedback to help you design or quantify the opportunity for your new initiative. Alternatively, if you’re looking to run focus groups or in-depth interview, e-mail can be used to recruit suitable candidates

Generate lower cost, on-time campaigns

With no printing or posting required, campaigns can be turned around quicker, with less marketing resource and at lower cost. E-mail campaigns can be ideal when speed is of the essence, especially in highly competitive or deadline-driven situations.

With a lower break-even point, campaign volumes can be smaller and as a result, your offering can be more targeted. This can be ideal for regional branches or if you have a specialised customer base. Your marketing reach can also be extended as marginal costs are low.

Campaigns can be centred around a whole range of events, including in-life processes and reminders, upsell and repeat purchase, asset-related opportunities, customer-related demographics, customer referrals, and so on.

Stay important

Finance companies targeting the SME market will be familiar with the vagaries of irregular and unplanned customer investment cycles, and the challenges it brings in terms of cost-effective selling.

Regular, on-brand communications, covering useful advice, technical information, event and reminders can legitimately keep you in front of customers so that when they do look for asset finance, you’re already front of mind.

To discuss how these practices can be tailored to add value to your business, call Richard Ryan richard.ryan@invigors.com or Peter Hunt peter.hunt@invigors.com on 0845 0031000.

Event-based marketing isn’t golf days

A survey published in July’s Harvard Business Review (1) highlighted that the biggest challenge facing sales managers in 2006 is improving sales efficiencies through more productive lead generation.

Fortunately for asset finance companies, there are many ways to achieve this, not least in generating repeat sales or added profit from existing customers. After all, if:-

• A customer has used your core service and has been happy with it
• You’ve provided additional services that are attractive
• You know their credit quality
• You know their buying preferences
• You know when they’re going to acquire other assets
• You know about their cashflows

Shouldn’t you have a better chance than your competitors of selling successfully to that customer?

There are a number of ways that event-based marketing can work for you. If we consider “events” as those triggers that create an increased likelihood of sale or active sales dialogue, we can see many types of event that asset finance companies can exploit:-

• Transactional: backsell / upgrade / churn / refresh / restructure / renew
• Asset-related: line extensions / accessories / upgrades / new models / end-of-line / complementary assets
• Creditworthiness: credit lines / sale & leaseback / payment structures / risk-based pricing
• Demographics & lifestyle: financial year end / current & changing circumstances
• Potential asset acquisitions / timing: product-specific promotions
• Propensity to repurchase: link to other initiatives / referrals

Success in this area requires the ability to store, slice and dice customer and prospect information, dedicated marketing processes and a robust measurement framework to maximise the value of lead generation and the return on marketing investment.

That’s why we’re investing in CRM and campaign management resources, to allow clients to focus on maximising their strategic asset (customer and prospect information) without having to worry about systems investment or the mechanics of delivery.

(1) Trailer, B, and Dickie, J, “Understanding What Your Sales Manager Is Up Against” Harvard Business Review Jul-August 2006, pp48-55

Market and competitive intelligence - an underused asset?

Conventional wisdom and common sense suggest that market and competitive intelligence (MI & CI) is a “good thing” but how many organisations in our sector really make the best use of it?  Market intelligence too often remains in reports either sitting on shelves or tucked away on some remote fileserver which only the marketing department have knowledge of or access to.  And competitive intelligence is so often at best patchy, collected and analysed on an ad-hoc basis so that by the time it’s eventually disseminated to the people that need to act on it, it’s already well out of date.

What are the issues here, and how can asset finance companies make better use of these clearly valuable information assets?  At Invigors we’ve extensive experience of developing and implementing information systems to support MI & CI activities.  Our consultants have identified three core reasons why organisations fail to capitalise on these assets:-

• Difficulties in sourcing and managing the right content
• Utilising the right resource to collate, analyse and generally add value to raw intelligence
• Having the right systems and processes in place to support this activity effectively.

Sourcing and managing the right content is clearly organisation-specific, but most MI & CI systems need to be capable of dealing with a wide range of intelligence.  On one hand this may be highly structured data of good quality from a reliable source – for instance from a formally conducted market research exercise. On the other it may be an uncorroborated piece of gossip about a competitor picked up by a salesperson in the field.  Both may be equally important and provide valuable information when placed in context and used appropriately.

Finding the right resource is usually more of a challenge and clearly requires a combination of the right analytical skills and commitment.  Not all organisations have a dedicated MI & CI function and fewer are able to devote specialist staff full-time (or even part-time in many cases).  This is one area where outsourcing is an option as it offers the flexibility of matching resource to workload and can provide the appropriate level of skills – a service which Invigors offers to clients.

Our main focus though has been on MI & CI systems as these are the areas which are in greatest need of attention. A new approach is required, as the passive, reactive systems on which intelligence is typically collated and distributed are too slow and labour-intensive.  Quite simply they don’t work for today’s dynamic markets.

The systems we’re working with automate the collation and distribution of intelligence in real time allowing analysts’ resource to be spent where it can be of greatest value – adding analysis, commentary and context.  Enterprise Weblog based systems, such as Traction TeamPage, enable MI & CI to be disseminated automatically in a controlled and structured fashion, even to remote sales staff.  Equally important, the Weblog format allows recipients to comment on intelligence, sharing their own knowledge with co-workers and adding value across the enterprise.

These leading edge systems can further transform MI & CI from a static to dynamic resource.  Say a salesperson picks up a hot piece of competitive intelligence from talking to a customer.  Traction TeamPage provides a structured environment for this snippet to be easily e-mailed back to the market analysts back at Head Office.   This feedback can then be assessed, edited, indexed, cross-referenced and reposted for wider distribution within minutes of it being received.  The Weblog format means that the system becomes a sales communication tool as well as a two-way channel for MI & CI.  Multiply this functionality by a large number of remote sales people and immediately you have a rich seam of previously untapped market insight.  Why not use it to share the latest wins, best practice, sales tips and news too?

There are several other scenarios to illustrate the value of these new-generation information systems.  What if a salesperson needs information on a competitor prior to submitting a leasing proposal?  No need to contact sales support or marketing and wait for them to respond.  No need to wade through the company Intranet or file servers. A simple Google-like query on the TeamPage Weblog site will provide them with all the relevant entries listed in date order – job done!

Suppose the Business Development Director needs a briefing paper on a specific vendor finance opportunity?  As usual the deadline is yesterday. A similar search can be conducted and the results quickly edited, formatted and e-mailed to him all within the same system.  Less time spent searching and formatting, more available for adding value.

Finally, these systems have an impact beyond that of better use of MI & CI.  Further benefits are evident in terms of:-

• Improved sales communications – a better informed salesforce with more access to market insight and best practice information is a more effective salesforce.
• Closer working relationship between sales and marketing – marketing support is more visible, timely and higher value add. Consequently it is better valued, and the marketing function finds it easier to justify its budget.

For more information on Invigors’ approach to more effective use of market intelligence and improved sales communications contact Richard Ryan at richard.ryan@invigors.com

SMEs - why is no-one "highly effective"?

Interim results from Invigors "Marketing to SMEs" survey show some interesting results. 0% of respondents – leasing companies and brokers – felt their marketing was “highly effective” and over 70% believed that by improving their marketing they would increase new business with SMEs.

Most organisations aimed to differentiate by service quality and quality of sales staff. Other elements of the mix – price, product and promotions were used much less. Perhaps this consistency of approach explains why 100% of respondents felt their marketing was “about the same” as their competitors.

SMEs make up 99% of UK companies. Surely it’s time for a fresh, professional approach to marketing?

To complete the survey, and get a set of personalised copy of the results, positioning your company against your peers, follow the link here. The survey closes Friday 21st October.