By the time we’re finished, you have the factual knowledge you need to build a highly-successful, effective sales & marketing program.

You are never marketing in a vacuum. All marketing is contextual in that your marketing vehicles, messages, communications, ads, brochures and so on, are simply another voice in a million-man choir. Your customers are bombarded daily with loads of messages from radio, newspapers, tv, movie trailers, internet ads, emails, direct snail mail, ads on buses, billboards, store signage, on and on. You have direct or indirect competitors who are competing for your customers’ attention and wallets.

In an environment like this, you need to know, first and foremost, what’s going on with your target market. You need to KNOW what these people need, want, expect, will respond to, and demand. Otherwise, what you are offering them could be miles off target. Or an inch, and you’d still miss the target. And, let’s face it, sometimes clients or customers don’t even know what they want. But what if your competitor reaches them first and gets your potential customers to see what they should be wanting, and makes the sale? Ouch!

Look, imagine you were a prospector trying to strike gold in “them thar hills.” You could poke around for a l-o-n-g time without finding any gold. Or you could find a small vein, but miss a much larger one.

You could even be inches from the mother lode and miss it completely. And end up dead broke!

When you are marketing and promoting your goods or services, you ARE a prospector… except that you are trying to find prospects you can turn in to clients or customers or repeat customers.

But just like a prospector looking for gold, you could miss the mother lode if you don’t base your marketing and promotional activities on solid research.

Here’s what we mean…

You could be promoting a message to your prospects that is close to what they want to hear, but not right on the mark. Result? Fewer responses, leads or customers.

Or maybe your message IS what prospects want to hear, but they don’t believe it’s actually possible to have or get what you are offering. In other words, they’d like to believe you, but they don’t. So they don’t respond.

Or you think your customers are looking for ABC merchandise so you stock up on it, when, really, they want XYZ merchandise. Result? Marked down goods, sold for much less than you thought they would bring.

Happens all the time!

The benefits of knowing your market’s needs & wants…

Before you can establish what your market needs and wants, you have to establish WHO your target market is. Surprisingly, many businesses never do this and simply go on “coping and hoping.” They try to promote to anyone and everyone instead of finding out what identifiable market segment would give them the best bang for their buck.

Again, this is very costly. And it results in less profit because much of their marketing and promotional efforts are aimed at the wrong people! How silly. How wasteful.

You need to know who your target market is, how to identify them, where they are located, how to reach them, and what message they need to hear in order to give you the most response.

Then, once you’ve identified who and where they are, you have to fully establish their needs and wants, likes and dislikes, what they will agree to, accept, and believe… with respect to what you have to offer.

In other words, you need to know how to push their GO buttons.

This IS the key to finding the mother lode and striking it rich.

Click here for an interesting case studies from clients

There are many reasons for doing market research…

Before launching any new product or service you should survey your target market. At a minimum, you need to know what they would find appealing, unappealing, and so on, concerning your new addition. Then you can tailor the service or product exactly to their needs and wants and generate far more sales than you would by omitting this basic research.

Market research can also tell you…

• What additional market segments you should be going after
• What other uses there may be for your products or services, leading to even more sales
• How to add value to your services or products in the eyes of your prospects and customers
• What your competition is up to so you can use this knowledge to your advantage
• What “position” you hold in the minds of your customers compared to other companies in the marketplace… owning the correct position is VITAL… because when you are properly positioned, prospects start seeking you out
• What your customers, vendors, agents, wholesalers, prospects – and others – think of your company and its products or services…. seeing yourself as others see you is often a real eye-opener… and you can use this information to improve your image or your service and generate more sales and profits

The list could go on and on. But the morale of the story is: If you TRULY KNOW your market’s needs, wants, likes, dislikes, and so on, you can make a lot of money. Fact.

Your marketing and promotional pieces, activities, events, ads, commercials, mailings, prices, sales approaches, and so on, should be based on solid market research not on a whim.