Have You Identified Your Target Market?

Many businesses begin by asking the wrong question.

That question is, “What’s in it for me?” Of course your interests are important. Otherwise you wouldn’t start a business.

Your clients needs and interests are important to. You are relying on them to give you money in exchange for you helping them to meet their needs.

Your services and offering have value. The trick all too often is defining who exactly will value your services.

Even within a prospect company there may be several different people who will value your services. Each of them may have a different reason.

The White Hot Center

The white center is the point where the temperatures burn hottest. In marketing terms you could say it is where the market truly understands the value of your offer and is willing to buy.

These are the prospects and clients who “Get It”. They are easy to sell and the bullseye at the center of the target. These are the people already looking for a solution to their problem and are at the point of maximum awareness.

Like a bullseye however, they are the smallest part of the target. Unless you have a truly high priced offer you will have to expand your scope.

Similar to the rings on a bullseye, you should look for secondary and tertiary (third level) targets. Although you will continue to make sales as you move away from the center (and in some cases more due to volume), your message may not resonate as strongly. We don’t want to lose sight of our primary target as we expand the market, at the same time we don’t want to get tunnel vision.

One thing to keep in mind, the target image you are projecting and your target customer are not necessarily the same.

Harley Davidson provides an example. Harley Davidson has an image of providing bikes for rebels, outlaws and tough guys. The proverbial “Bad Boy Biker”. That is their image target.

The truth is however, most of their bikes are purchased by affluent executives. This is their white hot center.  The white hot center aspires to the image of the outlaw, but is not necessarily part of the group.

1. What does Harley Davidson want?  More affluent customers?
2. What do the target customers want? An image of themselves as a rebel and outlaw.
3. Is there a match? A very profitable, YES!

What problem are you solving for them?

In the Harley Davidson case although there most likely is a true “Rebel Biker” segment that buys Harley’s, it is probably not big enough to support a global enterprise.

In this case their image target, “Rebel Biker” and their sales target “Affluent biker” although not aligned are in synergy. They can appeal to both segments profitably.

The process of determining your target market is called “market segmentation”. You determine prospects of similar attributes, and then group them according to these attributes.  You can then determine the size, profitability and likelihood to buy of this target group.

What are some common segments?

Here are some sample attributes you can segment on:

• Age, gender or ethnicity of the prospect.
• Size, revenue or profitability of the client.
• City, state, region or location of the prospect.
• Industry, products or clients of the prospect.

You get the picture. Although you may want to sell your products to “everyone” the likelihood of you doing so is small.

Even commodity products such as toothpaste can be segmented. If you go to the store you will not find just toothpaste anymore.  You will find gel, with baking soda, with tartar control, with whitener, with mouthwash, with sparkles, with natural ingredients, with organic ingredients,…, you get the picture. It is like “Segmentation Gone Wild”.

Birds of a feather, network together

One way to find good target prospects is to look at your current list of clients. Review them and see what is common about them. Is it their size? Is it the number of employees? Is it their industry?

Take the time to schedule an appointment to interview and ask them,

• “Why do you do business with us?”
• “What is it you most enjoy about our products and services?”
• “Do you belong to any specific industry trade groups or business networking groups with similar members as yourself?’
• “Do you know of other businesses similar to yourself that would be interested in learning about our products and services?”
• “Would you be willing to make a referral for me to others that might be interested in our services?”

You will most likely notice that there are sevral similarities amongst your current clients. You can then begin to look for where you can find other similar companies.

You can look at:

• Chambers of commerce.
• Industry trade associations.
• Industry networking events.
• Professional networking events.

All of these events and other provide ready-made groups of prospects that you can segment. However, just because you have defined a group by a segment, does not mean it that everyone in the segment will by your product or service.

What it does allow you to do is be more focused and targeting in your marketing messaging. It helps you to leverage the dollars you are spending to get the biggest bang for the buck.

Key Takeways

1. Identify the target prospects who will really value the products or services you are offering.
2. Investigate likely markets that would have an interest in your products are services.
3. Interview your current clients to find out what attributes they like about your products and services.
4. Investigate industry trade and networking groups where you may find prospects similar to current clients.
5. Ask your current clients if they would be willing to refer you to other businesses that might find your products or services appealing.

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