Who are the ideal agents? The ideal agents would present where the customers are, so combine your analysis of the consumers and market for this analysis. It would also need to consider the competitiveness of the region, so combine your analysis with the competitor analysis as well.
As described by Penske, When looking for a new Agent location they must have:
They have also identified the ideal agent categories:
Here are some ideas to further your research for the ideal agents:
1. Through the Reference Solution Heatmap and Zipcode Tally analysis for consumer and market, have you identified some locations/zip code areas that have good market potential? We can map these areas with the current Penske locations or agents (provided by Penske) to identify some gaps or potentials.
2. Use Reference Solutions to search for potential agents, for example, Self-storage facilities, generate a list of businesses, and download the details (include the company, ower, phone number, location, etc.). (See the details below).
3. Study the agent locations of competitors and understand how the competitors recruit their agents or dealers. Browsing the competitor's website, for example, Uhaul deals in West Chester and Uhaul locations in PA and how to become a dealer. Are there any dealers type that is not in the agent categories provided by Penske?
4. Use ArcGIS, Google Maps, and Reference Solutions to understand where the competitors are. Justify the approach to enter the competitive market or find somewhere new.
5. Use Google Maps to identify potential agents that operate on Saturdays, their locations, and road conditions nearby. (see example below)
Reference Solutions (Chester County Public Library Database) Contact Grace Liu for a WCU Library Group Card No. or Get A Chester County Library Card for yourself.
Search millions of private and public businesses for information on the competition, business demographics, and target markets. Reference Solutions step-by-step guides, webinars, and training materials are available to help you better understand how to use the search features and produce a strategy at home, on the go, or at the Library.
Choose modules including:
U.S. Business Database (70 million businesses)
Advanced search--> Choose Geography (try different ways and see which one is best for you), for example, search by County, Philadelphia, PA; Business Type (above the geography column box) keyword/SIC/Naics, select Search All Naics, enter the NAICS code, for example, 531130 (self-storage)-> update count -> click view results.
129 Self-storage spaces are identified in Philadelphia, PA.
Check the box in the header to select the results on the first page, navigate to other pagers to select all the results, click the download button on the top of the table, Change Step Two to detail, then click Download Records. Clean up and evaluate the data on the excel file before sharing it.
List of Self-storage Spaces in Philadelphia, PA.
Use a similar approach to identify the competitors in the area. Search the NAICS truck rental 532120
Heatmap for truck rental businesses in Philadelphia, PA.
Compare it with the Google Map for Truck Rental Search in PA.
Search the facility, for example, self-storage, rental apartment, gas station, etc. Choose layers to traffic view, and Change Hours (on the top of the screen) to Saturdays. The example shows the rental apartments that are open on Saturdays in the West Chester Area, and the live traffic conditions.
Google search may not get as many results at Reference Solutions, but the open hour search is a niche and useful tool. Also, you can zoom in to see the real road condition of the business. So, make the best use of different tools for the research and try to get the most out of them.