What is common between the electronic components market and the banana market?

I have read the text on one highly specialized (like mine) website about the metal market, where an interesting thought was expressed.

“You ask, what is common between the lithium-ion battery market and the banana market? We still found that the same person can conduct these studies. We have already seen marketing companies that “work” on all products in a row, not being preoccupied and without going into details. We believe that such works are done “on carbon paper.”

I immediately remembered a similar story that I had witnessed myself.

Six months ago, a manufacturer applied to me with a request to analyze its products in the Russian market over 5 years. I admit, I had previously communicated with more than a dozen representatives of the regulated market and the result was exactly 0. However, according to the manufacturer, the reports they already had at that time “did not satisfy them completely in terms of the content.” As a result, I announced the approximate price level and the readiness period of 2 months. In response, I received a statement of work and a request to give feedback. I immediately felt that something was wrong and found the reason. It was a technical specification for the official tender, which was published by the plant. To my surprise, there were as many as 6 participants. The tender was won by an individual entrepreneur from Nizhny Novgorod, who offered the best price. In my opinion, such a cost for data over five years is completely inadequate. For me, only getting data for this period will cost 2 times more. Plus, I process the data myself, that is, I alone will have to manually process at least 300 manufacturers. This is at least a month of very tedious work, which, however, must be done qualitatively within the statistical error and taking into account the clarifications to the order.

In general, the situation is strange. On the one hand, the customer writes that they are not satisfied with the report of a professional participant in the component market, on the other hand, it orders a report to a person who previously participated in the tender of the bridge crane market.

And now, what do you think the components market and the banana market have in common? Yes, you guessed it, there are also tenders. The problem is that I do not participate in tenders .

I’m not a seller, or, as it’s fashionable to say now, a master of negotiations, but I’m not shy about it. My task is not to sell myself, but to get results, and, if necessary, to put in their place those people who are professionally superior to me. The head of the sales department, the declarant, the technical specialist, any potential and ambitious personal competitor – it does not matter. The result is above all things.

I’m not a seller, I don’t know how to sell myself, but I know how to work for results. The main thing is to set this goal to the customer or to yourself. Of course, this does not always lead to the desired result. For example, the customer asked me to work out one question. Unfortunately, I can’t write what exactly, since the question is very narrow and will show the readers what the customer wanted. Therefore, I apologize for such secrets.

The statement of work was clear, and it seemed to me that I would achieve the desired result without any problems. I have done a lot of work, conducted a market analysis, reviewed about 140 manufacturers’ websites and found that only 8 of them work in the narrow area chosen by the customer. Not a single Chinese manufacturer-supplier agreed to supply us these goods, as they use the achievements of these 7 manufacturers. Only the distributor can receive these goods. Since almost all these manufacturers are American, then in the current situation, and moreover, for a small company, this is simply unrealistic. Here is such a positive-negative result. But I remember about this case, I didn’t give it up. Maybe someday I will be able to finish it. It’s unlikely, but that doesn’t mean you can’t remember and try.

What’s it all about?

Sometimes the customers are bound by their own limitations. I also am. The compromise is a cup of coffee