Tapping into growth opportunities: Market sizing for B2B manufacturers

It’s not unusual for B2B contract manufacturers to prioritise a few existing “good fit” clients to keep the taps running, but when your largest clients account for 25% or more of your revenue, this can be a risky approach. Lose that important client, and you risk the taps running dry.

To mitigate this risk and foster a sustainable business pipeline, expanding or diversifying your client base makes sense. But it's easier said than done, especially when contract manufacturers lack the means or confidence to generate new leads.

Without the insights and tools needed to build this pipeline of growth opportunities, growth can look more like dangerous play than the key to long-term success. This is where market sizing can help safeguard your growth strategy. With market sizing, contract manufacturers can shape a bullet-proof growth strategy framework for achieving sustainable growth.

What is market sizing, and why is it important?

Research shows that the contract manufacturing market is expected to grow to $587.8 billion by 2032, demonstrating the immense growth opportunities in this sector that are just waiting to be tapped.

However, expanding your client base isn't just about finding more clients; it's about finding the right clients. This involves understanding the market landscape in detail. By identifying market trends, key players, and emerging opportunities, you can make strategic decisions that align with your business goals. Enter market sizing.

Market sizing involves identifying new markets to enter, establishing the market size, and defining the overall revenue opportunities available for a product or service like yours. This process can help you understand the available segments where your business has the potential to sell products or services more profitably and sustainably over the long term. For a contract manufacturer, this might mean exploring new verticals like healthcare or aerospace, where the demand for specialised manufacturing is growing.

If revenue growth is your oasis, market sizing is the river that leads you there. Get market sizing right, and you could tap into a reservoir of opportunities that can deliver a steady stream of profit for your business.

Why do you need market sizing to identify growth opportunities?

Breaking into a new market is a mammoth undertaking that requires careful planning and substantial resource investment. Getting off to a good start requires market sizing. Here’s why it’s an essential first step to your growth endeavours:

1. Identifies growth opportunities: It helps identify the verticals where your business can grow sustainably, ensuring you focus your resources on the most lucrative market segments.
2. Informs strategic decisions: Market sizing provides the data insights needed to decide where to invest in product development, marketing, and sales efforts.
3. Guides capacity planning: Accurate market sizing can help you plan your production capacity and make informed decisions about capital expenditures, such as investing in new machinery for electronic component assembly or expanding your facilities.
4. Enhances competitive advantage: By accurately understanding and sizing the market, you can differentiate your offerings and position yourself effectively against competitors.
5. Drives revenue projections: Accurate market sizing allows for confident revenue projections in new and existing areas, which is essential for strategic planning and attracting investment.
6. Supports branding and marketing: Insights from market sizing can direct branding and marketing efforts to target segments that need your services, improving the effectiveness of these initiatives.
7. Facilitates customer orientation: A thorough understanding of the market enables you to become more customer-oriented, aligning your services with the needs and preferences of your target customers.

Techniques for effective market sizing

So, how do B2B contract manufacturers actually go about market sizing? Some techniques include:

• Top-down approach: This involves using existing data from market reports and industry analyses to estimate the market size. For example, if the global electronics market is valued at $1 trillion, and the segment for electronic manufacturing services (EMS) accounts for 10%, the EMS market size would be $100 billion.
• Bottom-up approach: This method starts with the data you do have, such as sales figures, and extrapolates to estimate the total market size. Suppose your company sells 10,000 units of a product annually, representing 1% of the market; the total market size would be 1,000,000 units.
• Competitor analysis: Understanding your competitors' market share can give you insights into the overall market size. Say three major competitors each hold a 20% market share with annual revenues of $100 million, $150 million, and $200 million; the total market size can be estimated by extrapolating these figures.
• Customer surveys: Direct feedback from current and potential customers can provide valuable data about market demand. For example, if a survey set to gauge interest in a new product you’re looking to offer is sent to 1,000 potential customers and reveals that 30% are interested in a new product, and there are 1 million potential customers in the market, the potential market size is 300,000 customers.

Actionable steps for tapping into growth opportunities

Now that you know the techniques for accurate market sizing, it’s time to formulate an action plan.

Step 1: Define your objectives 

Understand what you want to achieve with market sizing. Perhaps you’re an electronics contract manufacturer looking to expand into the healthcare sector, in which case, your objective might be to identify the market potential for producing medical devices and understand the competitive landscape. The goal is determining if the healthcare sector can provide a sustainable and profitable new revenue stream.

Step 2: Gather data

Collect relevant data using the techniques suggested above and a mix of primary and secondary research methods. This could include surveying potential healthcare clients about their needs and purchasing habits (primary source) and gathering secondary data from industry reports, market research studies, and publicly available financial reports of leading healthcare companies to estimate the total market size and growth rates.

Step 3: Analyse the data

Employ statistical tools and software like SPSS or Excel to analyse the data and derive meaningful insights. Look at trends, calculate potential market shares, and estimate revenue projections based on different market penetration scenarios. For instance, regression analysis can be used to predict future market growth based on historical data.

Step 4: Validate your findings

Cross-check your findings with industry experts and real-world data to validate your market size estimates and assumptions. Keeping with the healthcare example, compare your findings with case studies of other companies that have successfully entered the healthcare market to ensure your projections are realistic and achievable.

Step 5: Implement your strategy

Based on the validated market size data, develop a strategic plan to enter the market you've identified as having the most lucrative growth opportunities. This plan should include targeted marketing campaigns, investment in new equipment for any new production required, and staff training on the specific industry's standards. Set measurable goals and continuously monitor your progress using KPIs.

Benefits of accurate market sizing for contract manufacturers

Accurate market sizing offers several pivotal benefits that can significantly enhance your growth strategy. Firstly, it serves as a crucial tool for risk mitigation. By understanding the market potential, you can avoid overcommitting to unviable segments, reducing the likelihood of costly missteps.

This precise understanding allows you to allocate resources more efficiently, focusing investments in areas with the highest ROI potential. Such strategic resource allocation ensures that efforts are concentrated on the most lucrative opportunities, maximising overall business performance.

Moreover, accurate market sizing is indispensable to strategic planning. With reliable market data, you can develop robust long-term strategies that align with market demands and trends. This forward-looking approach positions your contract manufacturing business to stay ahead of competitors, allowing you to identify and capitalise on emerging opportunities. By staying informed about market dynamics and differentiating your offering and positioning in the market accordingly, you can gain an unbeatable competitive edge.

Market sizing challenges to be aware of

While market sizing is crucial, it’s not without its challenges. Data availability is critical because market sizing heavily depends on data, but access to reliable data can be limited, particularly in niche market verticals.

Market dynamics can also be challenging, as rapid changes in market conditions can affect the accuracy of your estimates and render them obsolete quickly. Therefore, staying on top of market changes–and adjusting estimates accordingly—is key to ensuring your market sizing stays relevant.

Finally, costs can also be a limitation. Conducting thorough market research can be costly and time-consuming. While the result is worth the investment, budgets need to be prepared early on in the process if your research is to be conclusive in any useful way.

Conclusion

By systematically defining objectives, gathering and analysing data, validating findings, and implementing informed strategies, contract manufacturers can harness the power of accurate market sizing to drive sustainable growth.

This structured approach mitigates the risks of relying on existing key clients for revenue and equips businesses with the insights needed to unearth and capitalise on emerging growth opportunities. Ultimately, thorough market sizing enables contract manufacturers to make strategic decisions confidently, paving the way for long-term success and profitability across relevant market segments.