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Marketing

10 Essential Criteria For Choosing Your Target Market

By Mary ⋅ September 11, 2008 ⋅ Email This Post ⋅ Print This Post Print This Post ⋅
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A specific group of people you will focus on selling your services to is your . This is not to be confused with the problem you will be solving for this group.
Why choose a ? You need to decide exactly who your audience is before you sell your services. Deciding on your lays a critical foundation for your business. When you get clear about who your is, you will:
* know where to focus your selling and .
* 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 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 -TM- you choose, check to see that it meets the following 10 essential criteria:
1. Your TM has a big problem. They think about it all the time, it keeps them awake at night.
2. 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!).
3. You can easily find your TM. Do they belong to associations? Are there conferences for this ? Are there publications? Where do they hangout? If it’s not easy to find your , it will cost you a lot of money to find them.
4. Your TM has money to spend. No point having a terrific service if your hasn’t the money to pay for it. I know this sounds basic but it’s often overlooked.
5. Your TM has a history of paying to have this problem solved. You want to focus on a where there is a proven of problems and people paying to solve them. A good sign is if your competitors are selling similar services to the .
6. There’s enough of your TM out there to sustain a business. How many people or businesses are in your ? Realistically how many will become your clients and what will that be worth to you? Is that enough?
7. You enjoy working with your TM. Think about what types of people are in your 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 .
8. You have a passion for helping and serving this TM. Passion is an essential ingredient for selling your services.
9. You have valuable expertise and experience you can offer. Your will want to buy from people who are experts in their field. Think about what specific expertise and experience you can offer your .
10. 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 ? Ensure that working with your will enable you to live the kind of life you want to live.
Once you have found your , the next step is to refine it even further. Decide on the profile of your . 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.
(c) Tessa Stowe, Sales Conversation Pty Ltd. 2005
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
NOTE: You are welcome to “reprint” this as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to tessa@salesconversation.com.

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