Even a modest market research effort will pay dividends in sales planning. At the very least, it should surface key market drivers and their magnitude. It also surfaces differences among sales managers and execs as to the future and how difficult it will be to achieve sales goals.

Then, using this basic research will set the stage for the sales planning process that follows.

Here are key areas to review and some industry references:

For C&I energy and energy software, one might organize the research into seven areas:

Market size and direction. Determine where demand is growing or declining by geography, industry and customer type. For energy this means looking at electricity demand, prices, capacity constraints, regulatory developments, electrification, renewables, storage and distributed energy. Deloitte's 2026 outlook, for example, identifies rising power demand, grid constraints, volatility, resilience and increased adoption of digital technologies as important forces reshaping the market.

Deloitte-us-energy-industry-trends

Customer segmentation. Break the broad C&I market into meaningful groups—manufacturing, healthcare, data centers, retail, commercial real estate, universities, hospitality, municipalities, etc.—and then by size, geography, energy intensity and number of locations. This prevents the plan from becoming simply "sell to large C&I customers." Salesforce specifically recommends segmentation by factors such as location, industry and other relevant attributes as part of sales planning.

SalesForce-On-Sales-Segmentation

Customer problems and priorities. Research why a customer might buy, not merely who could buy. In C&I energy, that could be price volatility, contract management, high demand charges, sustainability requirements, resilience, load growth or difficulty managing multiple facilities. In energy software, it might be poor data visibility, manual processes, reporting requirements, forecasting, asset optimization or integrating information from multiple systems.

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). For your company examine successful customers. Which industries, company sizes and situations have produced the largest wins, highest margins, easiest implementations, best retention and most cross-selling? Salesforce recommends combining firmographic, behavioral, technographic and environmental characteristics and specifically suggests studying current best customers, common pain points, buying triggers and industry trends.

SalesForce-On-Ideal-Customer-Profile(ICP)

Competitive research. Identify who already serves the target customers, what they sell, how they position themselves, where they appear strong and where there may be gaps. For C&I energy this isn't limited to competing suppliers. The alternatives could include brokers, consultants, utilities, ESCOs, DER providers. For software, research competing platforms and the customer's existing internal solution, including Excel and legacy applications.

Buying process and decision makers. Research who actually participates in the decision. Depending upon the solution, that might include energy procurement, facilities, operations, sustainability, finance and senior management. Software introduces additional stakeholders such as IT, cybersecurity and data teams. This becomes especially important when determining which accounts warrant intensive pursuit. Gartner recommends evaluating customer goals, pain points, procurement structure, willingness to partner, relationship depth and long-term revenue potential rather than selecting important accounts on company size alone.

Gartner-on-Account-Mgt-and-Growth

Buying triggers and timing. Ask "What has to happen for this company to become a prospect now?" Examples include an expiring supply contract, a new facility, acquisition, rapidly increasing energy costs, a new sustainability target, installation of storage/solar, new regulation, a new energy executive, a software replacement project, or a corporate initiative to consolidate energy data.

:Market research determines where you should sell. Sales planning determines what you are going to do about it.

Gartner's research supports this distinction. It notes that segmentation, ICP development, territory planning and account research are frequently conducted as separate exercises, creating gaps between market analysis and actual buyer engagement.

Gartner-Research