Langues appliquées - Anglais : Economie, gestion, droit, AES - 4e - 148

manaGement

Instructions For Study
1. Turn to the definitions following the text Opportunity Management. They refer to the
specialist terms printed in bold type in the list of Useful words and concepts. Study
them closely and pinpoint them in the text.
2. Use an English language dictionary to check the meanings (in context) of the other words
in the list.
3. Do the exercises to improve your language skills.

Opportunity Management
Many companies pursue growth opportunities without adequately defining who their ideal
customers are. That lack of clarity can hamper profitable growth. Customer selection impacts not
only operating costs and margins; in an entrepreneurial company, initial sales also influence the
venture's trajectory of organizational skills, because businesses develop capabilities and routines in the
process of interactions with customers. The choice to do business with a customer also represents an
opportunity cost: The money, time and people allocated to customer A are resources not available for
customers B, C and D. The fact is that no matter how large or fast growing a market may seem to the
entrepreneur, the venture can add and extract more or less value from different opportunities in its
portfolio of market possibilities. In a competitive market, moreover, ineffective opportunity management
eventually leads to loss of money, time and positioning with customers who are (or should be) core
customers. The company runs the risk of becoming better and better at activities that core customers
value less and less.
Most markets present businesses with an array of customer opportunities. At one end of the
spectrum are transaction buyers in what is essentially a "spot market". At the other end are relationship
buyers. Transaction buyers have short time horizons when purchasing in the venture's product category.
In such markets, the lack of switching costs means that buy/sell adjustments are easy to make. Because
transaction buyers invest little in specialized procedures or assets when purchasing in that category,
they are less interested in the wider system benefits (or total life cycle costs) that the venture may
offer. These buyers purchase a product for its price and performance at a point in time. This does
not mean that these buyers are uninterested in quality or value. Rather, they define value as meeting
specifications and do not want to pay for a product or service whose quality, applications or scope
exceed what they want at that point.
In contrast, relationship buyers have a longer time horizon. There is something about the product,
seller or buyer that motivates them to make larger investments in specialized procedures or assets. Once
made, the investments are not easily fungible. Enterprise software offers a good example. Historically,
the choice of an enterprise software vendor has been a multiyear choice of support, upgrade and other
processes - a choice not easily altered after the fact. Because of these investments and switching costs,
buyers are interested in the wider system benefits and in choosing a longer-term business partner.
Hence, they are legitimately interested in knowing more about the seller's organization, commitment
to the category, future plans, etc.
Many executives prefer relationship buyers in the belief that these customers will pay higher prices
and be more loyal. But the selling cycle with the relationship buyer is also likely to be longer and more
complicated. In general, transaction buyers want products and services that are consistent, standardized
and easy to purchase at a given point in time. This means sellers need to provide appropriate selection
and threshold levels of quality at an acceptable price. Relationship buyers, on the other hand, want
to understand the quality and applicability of the particular solution and its feasibility over time.

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