I see too many entrepreneurs struggling to sell their products or services even though they offer great solutions just because they can’t find the right target market.
There are 5 specific strategies that I use to find the right target market and you can too:
1. 💬 Talk To Current & Potential Customers
Keep asking them questions, observe, listen, and take notes. Eventually, you’ll start seeing patterns and you’ll be able to identify the gap in the market.
Because if you don’t listen to your customers, and only ask focus groups or your friends instead. They may not be your actual customers, you may not get accurate information and you’ll miss out on opportunities.
I believe that the market already exists, we just need to find it by talking to current and prospective customers.
This is what we did during the lockdown. We called over 4,000 prospects, got the market feedback, and crafted a great solution for the market that would actually sell.
2. 🤔 Look What Your Competitors Are Selling
Then ask yourself questions like, “Are they selling the product that I or the market want?”
Observe their product movement, and take note of the categories of those that move in high volumes.
These high volume categories could be a good target market for you to join in as well.
You may be thinking, “Hey, if my competitors are already selling the product, what’s the point of me selling it?”
Well, wouldn’t it be great if you sold a product that’s already in demand? Where you know the market already has customers lining up to buy the product.
This is exactly what you’re doing by entering a competitor’s market!
Sometimes being the first is not necessarily a good thing. Being the second or third gives you an advantage where you can see whether the things are sellable and whether the market is ready or not.
So it’s crucial that you see what your competitors are doing and then fill in the gap by closing the sales and being the number two or number three, at least you have a product that is sellable.
3. 🌍 See What’s Selling in Other Countries
Sometimes you may notice certain products or services selling really well in other countries.
And if you see there’s a huge market over the other side, you can consider bringing the same thing back to your country, customize it, and localize it.
You could actually have your own local market that buys those products or services as well.
4. 🚀Just Launch The Product
and see if it actually sells!
A lot of times companies will wait around to create a perfect product before marketing it.
Sometimes you can just go to the customer and try selling it first, you will know whether you need to build it or not because the customers will give you immediate feedback through their actions and what they say.
This sort of customer feedback is very different compared to people like your friends, focus groups, or even surveys from the internet because you’re actually selling to them rather than just asking.
With the feedback you receive, adapt and build your final product or service accordingly.
5. 🕵️♀️ Always Look For Pain Points
How do you find pain points?
You could be having a casual conversation with a friend or even a stranger, and they say “How nice would it be if I had this solution?” or “If only I could solve this problem.”
That itself can be a good conversation for you to explore the market and find the right solution for it.
So observe in life, all the conversations that go on around you, especially those from your customers, I’m sure you’ll be able to find the right target market.
