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PROSPECTS !
It's your Number One Rule For Doing Business...!
For example, until you've targeted a specific market of prospects, how do you know what to sell? And You most definitely have to sell.
Something has to go out with a positive cash flow attached to
its behind... Or you're not really in business, are you?
You could truthfully say: "If you're not spending your time selling, You've got
yourself a hobby... Not a
Business!"
Of course, your business location is of prime importance... especially if
you're selling consumer goods/services in the brick & mortar, offline world.
After all, you wouldn't expect working Moms to feel good about
dropping their kids off at your daycare center, if it was located next
door to "Smokey Joe's Topless & Bottomless Exotic Tattoo Massage Emporium"
would you?
On the other hand, huge businesses have been built starting out
of the trunk of a car. . . Or, from an email address.
Although difficult, expensive and time consuming,
profitable businesses have been built on the strength of a good, but
un-tested product without an established market to sell the product to. It's been done.
But, more times than not, the owner/developer of the new product, or service, runs
out of money before they can get enough customers for them to stay in
business.
Naturally, I'm not talking about a new brand of toothpaste here. I'm
talking more on the lines of the problems the first manufacturers of hot
tubs/spas had to deal with in their early days.
The early hot tub front runners almost all went bankrupt trying to educate the public on
the benefits of sitting in a tub with hot water blowing on your body.
The lack of marketing success wasn't due to the product itself, but
because the spas were marketed to a niche without enough prospects willing to
carry the market... the 'swinger' - 'hip' market.
Before all was lost and hot tubs fell by the wayside, along
came a marketer with a better plan...target spas toward the niche market
of baby boomers who wanted to feel better after their weekend 'warrior'
jaunts and their evening exercise sessions.
Sitting in containers with hot water pulsating around your
sore muscles was sold as the perfect ending of the good feeling you got
from taking care of yourself. A savvy marketer realized these
'health-enthusiasts' were doing activities chosen to make them feel like
they were still 'cool' & 'with-it'. So what better way of finishing the
visual picture than helping prospects see themselves rewarding themselves
in their personal hot tub with a couple of their green-eyed friends?
In essence, these smart hot tub marketers targeted people who were already
buying products & services giving similar results as those the marketers
had identified as benefits of spa use.
This niche marketing strategy & message resulted in a thriving business
for spa manufacturers.
So the first rule of your business
is finding prospects to sell to, right?
Finding prospects to sell to:
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Locate a group of proven buyers (prospects).
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Identify what they're already buying.
-
Research whom they're now buying from.
-
What are the media & mediums they're now buying through.
Discover any problems your target market is experiencing from dealing with
their current suppliers.
-
Fix those problems. Or, add value to existing & similar products/services.
-
Take the message of your unique selling benefits to your target market.
-
Market your message through the same mediums they're already used to
buying through.
-
Once you've gained a customer, make customer service your # 1 unique
selling advantage.
-
Identify more products & services your new customers are already buying,
or find products/services they're likely to want...
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And let your happy, satisfied customers know they can get those from you...
Ideally, you'd like to sell using your own unique
marketing methods and personality. On the Internet,
this concept is often called "branding" yourself. Branding
yourself, or your business, is
usually a good idea.
But, don't brand yourself to only the products and services you sell.
Instead, brand yourself so you can keep re-selling
new items to
existing customers and to your new customers as you find and develop new niche target markets
of buyers.
How to 'Brand' yourself:
Long time ago, I did a piece on branding
yourself. Get it at:
Brand Yourself
As An Authority
A long, long, long, a really long time ago, Rick Beneteau wrote the ebook
for Internet branding: "Branding YOU and Breaking the Bank".
Rick's included tips you can use to set
yourself apart, and possibly make more money online.
Also, here's three offline, mainstream, and well-written, traditional books about branding:
My personal pick is "The Obvious Expert" written by my
friend Elsom Eldridge,
Jr. and his son, Mark L. Eldridge. You can get a copy at his web site:
http://www.Obvious-Expert
"The Personal Branding Phenomenon" by Peter Montoya,
Tim Vandehey and Paul Viti.
"The Brand Called You" also by Peter
Montoya and Tim Vandehey.
You can get #'s 2 & 3, at:
http://www.half.ebay.com or at:
http://www.amazon.com
'Branding'
aside,
Until you've identified a reachable, segmented market of proven buyers, you
shouldn't officially start your business.
After all, you're not in business until you're selling something at a
profit. But, you
can't make a reasonable decision on what to sell, until you know who's
buying what, right? Bottom line: to sell, you need prospects to talk to...
It IS your First Rule Of
Doing Business! |
