A Classic Mistake

The latest news out of Ford is a perfect example of how important it is to audit market strategies.

Freestyle sales have been much softer than Ford had anticipated. Since it went on sale, Ford has sold 44,066 Freestyles in the United States. Company officials at one time forecast annual sales of more than 100,000.

Did these company officials take a hard look at industry performance before they made this projection? Ford didn't take any cars off the showroom floor, so the question that begs to be asked is whose market share did they intend to capture to reach these goals. This is a common mistake businesses of all sizes make. The neglect to take market performance into account when coming up with annual growth projections.