10 Essential Criteria For Choosing Your Target Market
by Tessa Stowe
Published on this site: June 13th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
A specific group of people you will focus on selling your services
to is your target market. This is not to be confused with the problem
you will be solving for this group.
Why choose a target market? You need to decide exactly who your
audience is before you sell your services. Deciding on your target
market lays a critical foundation for your business. When you get
clear about who your target market is, you will:
- know where to focus your selling and marketing efforts.
- know where to focus your research efforts. You want to intimately
understand your market: the problems they have and the language
they speak. The greater your level of understanding the more magnetic
you will become.
Your target market will determine your income and success. Choose
the wrong one and you will waste a lot of time and money with very
little results.
Whatever target market -TM- you choose, check to see that it meets
the following 10 essential criteria:
- Your TM has a big problem. They think about it all the time,
it keeps them awake at night.
- Your TM wants the problem solved. The impact and cost of the
problem is big enough that they will act to solve it (some people
have problems they are quite happy to live with!)
- You can easily find your TM. Do they belong to associations?
Are there conferences for this target market? Are there publications?
Where do they hangout? If it's not easy to find your target market,
it will cost you a lot of money to find them.
- Your TM has money to spend. No point having a terrific service
if your target market hasn't the money to pay for it. I know this
sounds basic but it's often overlooked.
- Your TM has a history of paying to have this problem solved.
You want to focus on a target market where there is a proven track
record of problems and people paying to solve them. A good sign
is if your competitors are selling similar services to the target
market.
- There's enough of your TM out there to sustain a business.
How many people or businesses are in your target market? Realistically
how many will become your clients and what will that be worth
to you? Is that enough?
- You enjoy working with your TM. Think about what types of people
are in your target market and visualize being with them day in
and day out. How does that feel? Will you feel energized or drained
at the end of the day? Remember, you are also in business to enjoy
yourself so make sure you will enjoy working with this target
market.
- You have a passion for helping and serving this TM. Passion
is an essential ingredient for selling your services.
- You have valuable expertise and experience you can offer. Your
target market will want to buy from people who are experts in
their field. Think about what specific expertise and experience
you can offer your target market.
- Your TM fits with your ultimate lifestyle package. What hours
do you want to work? Where do you want to work? How do you want
to work? Does this fit in with your target market? Ensure that
working with your target market will enable you to live the kind
of life you want to live.
Once you have found your target market, the next step is to refine
it even further. Decide on the profile of your ideal client. What
sort of person are they? Decide on their demographics and psychographics.
Demographics are the basic facts like age, gender, income, location,
etc. Psychographics are their characteristics, values etc. This
will enable you to focus even more.
The clearer you are about who you want to do business with, the
more you will attract exactly the clientele you're looking for.
You will then need your Sales Conversation skills to convert them
to clients.
Tessa Stowe works with self employed professionals who
are struggling to sell their Services. To learn more about this
and to sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at
http://www.salesconversation.com
|
