Ready, Aim, Fire…Oops…Whereกs The Target?

Ready, Aim, Fire…Oops…Whereกs The Target?

by: Patty Baldwin

Everywhere you go on the Internet you find the words, "target market." What do they mean? What does it have to do with you? Well it has everything to do with your success in sales.
Let me give you an example. A few weeks ago an online entrepreneur asked me to review a direct sales presentation for him. Letกs call him "Joe". His product and service is excellent. Top quality and performance, excellent customer service and support. The product will produce desired results for any business advertising online.
In this particular case, Joeกs potential customer is in the furniture manufacturing business. The company owns a small chain of outlet stores and advertises on the Internet. Basically, an excellent candidate for Joeกs offer.
Well, Joe sent me his package. In the offline world, it would have required UPS to deliver it with a hand truck! Now, that is an overstatement, but it consisted of a threepage cover letter, with four separate attachments and a CD presentation that he was going to mail as a followup.
Hereกs my response to Joe:

"What a tremendous amount of work you have put into this presentation.
Having been on the receiving end of proposals such as this, I must tell you that it would be the recipient of the "delete" key. Why? Too much to wade through. Too much for me to absorb. Too much for me to do. Nothing to compel me to read on.
Having said that, letกs pretend for a moment that I am Mr. Jones.

Where are the needs development questions?
What tells me that you have done your homework and know about my industry?
What are my problems and how will you solve them?
How much does the average household spend on furnishings annually? (In the US itกs about $1,000)
How are you going to help me capture a share of those dollars?
How has the economy affected my business?
What qualities separate my business from my competition?
How extensive and how important are brand names to my customers?
What are my specialty areas?
What market do I target and why?
Why do my customers keep coming back to my stores?
What are some of the hot buttons or copy points that you might use to target Mr. Jones?
What is his business terminology?

Joe, here are two sites that can help you develop a more "targeted" approach to Mr. Jones:
http://www.furnitureinfo.com/1061.htm
http://www.furniturestatistics.com/statisticalreviewsales.html
I hope this helps, Joe. Decision makers are bombarded daily and we must be ever diligent that we are focusing in on "WIIFM" (Whatกs In It For Me)".

Now, what was the message to Joe? Do Your Homework. Mr. Jones doesn’t give a rip about your product unless it can fulfill his needs, but first you have to know what those needs are.
Joeกs presentation, which probably took him hours if not days to prepare, was a classic case of overkill. The two sites referred to would have given Joe all the ammunition he needed to prepare an effective presentation and in just a few short minutes.
By the way, the research tools that I use to study markets, trends, and individual sites are listed below. Both are free to download and are priceless.
http://www.copernic.com
http://www.alexa.com
Ready, Aim … Get Ready To Fire!

About The Author

Patty Baldwin is a former Better Business Bureau executive and the owner of several online businesses. A successful net marketer, she invites you to visit any one of her sites at:

http://www.allbizservices.com

http://www.4bstrading.com

http://www.allbizwealth.com

This article was posted on January 20, 2002

by Patty Baldwin

Is A Market Ever Oversaturated?

Is A Market Ever Oversaturated?

by: Richard N Adams

I got asked an interesting question last week.

A guy new to the Internet emailed me wanting to know if there was such a thing as too much competition within a market.

It took me a little while to think about such an excellent question before I replied.

Hereกs what I told him…

The dotcom bubble (and subsequent burst) fuelled stories of กfirst mover advantageก. The myth went that companies like Yahoo that got in early, established themselves within the marketplace and built strong brand awareness were untouchable. The ก800pound gorillasก in nerdspeak.

But didn’t Google launch well after Yahoo, in an already crowded market?

Infact, according to some search engine industry experts, Google now serves up around a third of all searches online. Not only have Google outcompeted Yahoo, they even let Yahoo use their search results.

How did they manage this?

They took a model that was already working, then improved on it.

I don’t think there can ever be too much competition in a market for a new face. My experience is that no matter how busy the field or how hot the competition thereกs always space for someone else in the niche.

But thereกs one proviso.

Whatever anyone else is doing you need to do it better. Do it faster, cheaper, more honestly, with a wider range. Or, of course, more relevant search results.

If you do it *really* well, your competition may even end up like failed search engines Excite or Infoseek extinct.

Remember that being small can be distinct advantage for you. It enables you to move กunder the radarก of larger competitors, using better marketing and customer service.

Thereกs always an angle someone hasn’t thought about. Using search engine optimization for less popular keywords has allowed me to take my merchant account site from strength to strength.

Consider another example the hotly contested Internet marketing sector.

Time after time, those who have made it big will tell you that if they were starting again now theyกd avoid the market like a plague.

Too much competition they say.

The industry is saturated they tell you. Competition is enormous, and many of these entrepreneurs are search engine experts to boot.

So youกd have to be mad to try and enter this industry from a standing start, right?

In December 2002 a brand new Internet marketing book was launched entitled กUnder Oath The Whole Truthก. I personally own a copy and can attest to what an excellent book it is.

What is so interesting is that itกs full of brand new information. It stands out from the crowd because it is so free from the constantly rehashed themes so common in these circles.

Itกs so good infact that according to his press releases and newsletter, the previously unknown author, Shephen Pierce, sold 1,500 copies within the first two weeks of launching it.

His website, http://www.thewholetruth.com, went from nowhere to within the most popular 2000 sites on the Internet as ranked by Alexa.

And all because his book is new, exciting and more original than most of his competitorกs.

So Iกll ask you again.

Is there ever too much competition?

About The Author

Richard Adams, a former zoologist, spends most of his time rating and reviewing online payment processors for his website at http://www.MerchantAccountForum.com. He also runs a monthly newsletter called ‘the Ecommerce Journalsก subscribe free at mailto:[email protected]

[email protected]

Note to editors

The website mentioned in the article also has an affiliate scheme and a high converting website. Should you wish to substitute your affiliate code for the base URL given you are more than welcome.

Should you decide to publish this article, Iกd love to know where it will appear. Please let me know at mailto:radams@merchantaccountforum.

This article was posted on February 10, 2003

by Richard N Adams