Stop fishing with minnows if you want to catch whales; that's just not going to work. You need to spend significantly more money to close your sales and guarantee a greater income, not just in terms of absolute numbers but in terms of percentages as well.First of all, you have to pitch only to super-qualified prospects. It's all about doing everything you can to pre-qualify your prospects. You have to get people to go through a process that proves, by the actions they're taking, that they really do want what you're offering. Second, you have to sell products and services with good profit margins; the bigger the profit margin, the better. The offer still has to be competitively priced, but if the margins aren't there, forget it.Thirdly, follow up relentlessly and aggressively. As long as you've done a great job of pre-qualifying the prospect, "no" doesn't always mean "no." It may mean, "I don't know enough" or "I don't know why I must buy right now." You can't just take no for an answer with pre-qualified prospects. If they're not taking the steps you want them to take, don't assume they're not interested until you do a whole lot of very aggressive marketing. You have to follow up like crazy. You have to be relentless. You can't let go of them.Here's an example of an effective campaign. You can run a short classified ad in hundreds of newspapers across the country. If it works, you can roll out in thousands of newspapers. In the campaign, let's say you include two calls to action. The first one is in the ad that says, "Call our recorded hotline." That leads to a fairly long recorded message. If you're not a serious prospect, there's no way you'll sit there and listen to it, no matter how exciting it is.During the recorded message, can try to tell them everything they need to know to take advantage of your opportunity. You can assure them that what you have for them is legitimate in every way, and explain the basics so you can ease their doubts, fears, and concerns. Then get them to take the next step, which is to go to your website and fill out a 15-20 minute application.They don't have to listen to the recording, and they don't have to fill out that application. But if they do, their actions tell you how serious they are. You're doing everything you can to filter out the insincere, uninterested, and lazy, so you end up with hardcore pre-qualified prospects. Anyone else is useless to you; you should be happy you filtered them out. Those willing to jump through these hoops are serious.From this point forward, they can be worth a lot of money to you, so now you'd better follow up in the most aggressive way possible. Send them daily e-mails. Reach them on social media (you collected their social media URLs and other avenues of communication in the application, right?). You'll have all kinds of ways to contact them, and of course you'll put stuff in the mail to them.Do everything you can to build a solid relationship with them, because when you get right down to it, no matter what we sell, all of us are really in the relationship business. It's all about getting people to trust you and feel they can count on you, because you're distinct from and better than all the other companies they're looking at. Nowadays people have many options available to them. As long as you're pre-qualifying them enough, though, you can follow up in the most aggressive way possible, and it's all money well spent.In this scenario, make your daily e-mails as exciting and stimulating as possible. People are bombarded with e-mails; the first thing most do is look at the headers and start deleting as fast as they can. So make yours compelling. In a campaign like this you can create and send emails to prospects for the first few hundred days, and then it take it to an auto-responder sequence to all the new prospects who answer your future ads, assuming you're able to roll out this campaign. You might have written those e-mails 6-8 months before, but they'll be brand-new to the new prospects. They'll follow a sequence designed to slowly but surely win their hearts, to get them to the point where you can do a large amount of business with them by showing them that you can benefit them in the greatest possible way.If it's not focused on them, then it's not going to work. It's not what you want that matters; forget what you want. These people can be worth a huge amount of money to you, but all they care about is themselves. So all your messages should reek of altruism, because it's all about giving them more of what you know they want the most, because you pre-qualified them thoroughly.
There's no question that this formula works well; my company has proven it hundreds of times, and plenty of our friends and competitors have done the same. Sure, we want their money, but we don't just come out and say it. They know it anyway. What they want to hear is what we have to offer, and that's completely fair. So that's what we stress. There have been times when we haven't followed up enough, and we've suffered the costs.I don't won't you to have to deal with that, so I urge you to beat this into your head: you have to follow-up as long as it's profitable to do so. When you do follow-up, you may use very similar versions in the first and second mailings, but you should make changes once you get into the third and fourth follow-ups. What you originally thought was the best approach may not be as far as the prospect is concerned. So mix it up a little.For example, my mentor was recently working with a wonderful lady who's offering health and wealth benefits to her customers. Although they originally thought people would be most interested in making more money, they're finding that many customers value health over wealth. They're glad they learned that, because it shows them what people really care about. And while people are interested in making money, there are also many people who are more interested in preserving the money they already have. It's good to know such things, so you can vary your follow-ups accordingly.There's no reason not to keep following up aggressively if you have a live prospect who got in touch with you, raised his hand, and showed that he was interested in what you had. You didn't force him to respond; in fact, you encouraged him not to by making it difficult to do so. When that's the case, you can follow-up many, many times -- as long as it's still profitable. Just change the approach occasionally. Change the headlines or a few of the benefits, or add new benefits, and you'll see great results.Again, where most marketers go wrong is that they don't spend enough money. When you can afford to, you must consistently remind pre-qualified people that they still need to do business with you. If you don't, you're missing out on sales. If you have a super-qualified prospect and your profit margins are good enough, you're only hurting yourself by not continuing to follow up. The premise here, of course, is based on the assumption that you're really delivering on the benefits you've promised them. If that's true, then it's in your best interest, and theirs, that you don't give up on them.How do you know if you've followed up too much? Well, usually the answer is that you're never going to reach that point -- but if you do, it's when it's no longer profitable to follow up. In other words, you're not making enough money to cover your costs and leave you with some leftover earnings. If you're still making a profit every time, then don't stop! Keep reminding them they haven't done business with you. Sometimes people put it off. Sometimes they forget. If you need to, remind them that your offer is still valid but time has almost run out, or sweeten the pot with a bonus.At some point, response rates may drop so low they no longer pay for the cost of the follow-up and earn you a profit. Stop following up then. But let me reemphasize: Most marketers never make it that far. They give up far too early, and simply miss out on money that could be theirs. You have to continuously remind people that they still need to do business with you, which usually means spending more money to keep your message in front of them, not less. As long as the profits are good, and you're keeping an eye on your numbers, you can keep doing it indefinitely and still make a profit.Think very carefully about all of this. Pre-qualify heavily, sell products and services with high profit margins, and then follow-up in the most relentless way possible -- and you'll be light years ahead of all your competitors.
Friday, December 12, 2014
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Federal Fuel Tax and Infrastructure Spending
Our infrastructure is aging. Politicians are realizing that revenues from fuel taxes are stagnating or decreasing and the cost to repair the Nations Roadways are going up. Countless studies have shown that more people are spending longer times on the road in their daily commute. This has a direct impact on our economy and will hamper the future of the United States if we are not able to correct our infrastructure. While the average motorists feels the frustration of congestion on their daily commute, our professional drivers that move freight around the United States are also impacted. So the debate that has transpired, "Do we need to raise the Federal and State fuel taxes to fix our infrastructure?"An easy yes or no decision would be a decision that was not well thought out. We should also understand more about the history of Fuel Taxes, where those taxes go, and influences on why Fuel Taxes are coming into question now.Most of us reading this have seen Federal and State Fuel Taxes on the pump as we fuel (As a point of reference I want to say for simplicity, when using the term "Fuel" we are talking about both gasoline and diesel fuel unless otherwise indicated). Federal fuel taxes have been in existence since 1932 and State fuel taxes since 1919 (Oregon being first) and by the end of the 1930's all 48 States and the District of Columbia had a State Fuel Tax system.Currently, the Federal tax on diesel fuel is $0.244 per gallon and for gasoline it is $0.184 per gallon. The American Petroleum Institute in July of 2013 reported that on average it was costing the American people $0.495 per gallon for gasoline and $0.548 per gallon for diesel fuel. These are Federal and State taxes combined.Looking at the revenue aspect of this, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says that in 2012, the United States on average consumed 172 billion gallons of fuel. Of that, 137 billion gallons was gasoline and about 35 billion was diesel fuel. That would equate out to $25.2 billion in revenue generated by gasoline taxes and $8.5 billion in revenue generated by diesel fuel taxes on the Federal level. Potential revenue generated from the Federal Fuel taxes would be $33.7 billion.Using the weighted average from above, overall gasoline revenue generated from taxes would be $67.82 billion. Overall diesel fuel revenue generated from taxes would be $19.2 billion. Overall, Federal and State fuel taxes generated could be $87 billion.So where does that money go? Those tax revenues on the Federal scale go into the Highway Trust Fund. This fund was established in the 1956 for the purpose of taking care of our roadways and interstates. In simplest terms, this fund was created to collect all taxes and fees that were associated with vehicles using our roadways.Revenue generated from fuel taxation is not the only revenue put into the Highway Trust Fund. For owners of commercial motor vehicles, The Heavy Vehicle Use Tax (HVUT) is also included. For a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of 26,001 pounds or greater, you pay annually an additional $550. The Highway Motor Carrier Branch of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reported that in 2007, there were 9 million commercial motor vehicles that fell into that class. Potentially another $5 billion in revenue generated through the HVUT. In addition to the HVUT, if you have ever bought tires or other items for your vehicle, you will notice a Federal tax that will also go to the Highway Trust Fund.Politicians at some point had the forethought to create the Highway Trust Fund; thus the revenue was supposed to go there and not into the "General Fund". Revenue generated for infrastructure was supposed to be earmarked for infrastructure. Now, in the need to satisfy some contingent, the Highway Trust Fund is broken down into three parts; The Highway Trust Fund, the Mass Transit Fund, and The Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund.
With the Highway Trust Fund broken into 3 parts, the revenues originally established to go into highway infrastructure is now broken up over various projects. While the majority of the tax revenues created are supposed to go into the Highway Trust fund. All of us know that if you have three entities looking at the same pie, no one entity gets the entire pie. So those struggles are part of the budgeting process. While we see that the Highway Trust Fund is broken into three parts, States on their own make it difficult when they don't even have a fund established for infrastructure. At this point in time, 30 states take revenues generated from fuel taxes into their General Fund. For many states that are "cash strapped", this has been a recipe for disaster. Is the legislator going to take care of infrastructure or pet projects that their constituents want? Unfortunately infrastructure spending is not "sexy" and few see a need till it is beyond too late.All that being stated, is there a clear cut answer to what has to happen? Not really. The current level of Federal Fuel taxation was set back in 1997 and has not been adjusted since. We realize that costs for materials and labor have not stayed at that same rate. More importantly, revenue from fuel taxes has stagnated or started to decline.Couple of reasons for this, one is that our average length of drive has diminished over the last 15 years or so. Modern conveniences are closer to us than before. We don't have to drive into town to get the groceries or see a movie. They most likely are now just down the street from us. Telecommuting and working from home are taking hold in the work place so the need to travel on business has been reduced. Secondly is government mandates. In the last couple of years, the Federal government has mandated that fuel economy improve on all vehicles. The benefit is that we burn less fuel and reduce pollution because of it. The flip side is there is less revenue coming in now because we are not buying fuel as frequently. So that double edge sword is swinging back.What can be done? As stated before, there really is no clear cut right answer here. If we just arbitrarily raise the fuel taxes to another level, then there is that political hot potato of raising taxes. The Bookings Institute has proposed a mathematical formula for adjusting the price of fuel taxation to meet current construction cost and inflation. While this formula is the closest to reality, it is again a raise of the current level of taxation and we are relying on our political leaders to make the right decision. Grover Norquist, founder of the Americans for Tax Reform has made a solid case that the Federal government should not be in the business of infrastructure repair. His thoughts are that these issues should be handled at the State level where the people are.All of these are a potential answer. While my belief is that we need to allocate revenues correctly; revenue brought in for infrastructure goes only to infrastructure, we may have let the system go too long to let that be an effective answer. My answer only highlights the issues currently at hand with our infrastructure, and those in the near future. If we want our economy to continue growing, we need to figure out a solution to this infrastructure mess. The motoring public and our professional drivers need an answer soon.
With the Highway Trust Fund broken into 3 parts, the revenues originally established to go into highway infrastructure is now broken up over various projects. While the majority of the tax revenues created are supposed to go into the Highway Trust fund. All of us know that if you have three entities looking at the same pie, no one entity gets the entire pie. So those struggles are part of the budgeting process. While we see that the Highway Trust Fund is broken into three parts, States on their own make it difficult when they don't even have a fund established for infrastructure. At this point in time, 30 states take revenues generated from fuel taxes into their General Fund. For many states that are "cash strapped", this has been a recipe for disaster. Is the legislator going to take care of infrastructure or pet projects that their constituents want? Unfortunately infrastructure spending is not "sexy" and few see a need till it is beyond too late.All that being stated, is there a clear cut answer to what has to happen? Not really. The current level of Federal Fuel taxation was set back in 1997 and has not been adjusted since. We realize that costs for materials and labor have not stayed at that same rate. More importantly, revenue from fuel taxes has stagnated or started to decline.Couple of reasons for this, one is that our average length of drive has diminished over the last 15 years or so. Modern conveniences are closer to us than before. We don't have to drive into town to get the groceries or see a movie. They most likely are now just down the street from us. Telecommuting and working from home are taking hold in the work place so the need to travel on business has been reduced. Secondly is government mandates. In the last couple of years, the Federal government has mandated that fuel economy improve on all vehicles. The benefit is that we burn less fuel and reduce pollution because of it. The flip side is there is less revenue coming in now because we are not buying fuel as frequently. So that double edge sword is swinging back.What can be done? As stated before, there really is no clear cut right answer here. If we just arbitrarily raise the fuel taxes to another level, then there is that political hot potato of raising taxes. The Bookings Institute has proposed a mathematical formula for adjusting the price of fuel taxation to meet current construction cost and inflation. While this formula is the closest to reality, it is again a raise of the current level of taxation and we are relying on our political leaders to make the right decision. Grover Norquist, founder of the Americans for Tax Reform has made a solid case that the Federal government should not be in the business of infrastructure repair. His thoughts are that these issues should be handled at the State level where the people are.All of these are a potential answer. While my belief is that we need to allocate revenues correctly; revenue brought in for infrastructure goes only to infrastructure, we may have let the system go too long to let that be an effective answer. My answer only highlights the issues currently at hand with our infrastructure, and those in the near future. If we want our economy to continue growing, we need to figure out a solution to this infrastructure mess. The motoring public and our professional drivers need an answer soon.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Understanding Organic Growth Strategies
If the "Merger and Acquisition" route is not in your plans, then YOUR Company needs to be positioned for Organic Growth. As this path to incremental sales can be longer than the relative instant infusion that accompanies inorganic growth (externally generated), it is critical to understand how your capabilities meet the various needs of the market when selecting the right strategy for you.Obviously, organic growth is especially prevalent during the early stages of a company's commercial establishment, but opportunities continuously present themselves if you listen to the market. That is, if YOUR Company is truly committed to meeting customers' needs, the implementation of new strategies will result in significant revenue generation - IF YOU ARE PREPARED.Each of the (4) strategies in the Ansoff Matrix (right) carries a certain amount of risk, but the potential for long-term sustainable success is strong. The organic growth strategies within it are:Market Penetration (Same to Same) Also known as the "Protect and Build" strategy, this conservative approach is when a company consolidates and stabilizes its position in the market by selling more existing products to existing customers (Same to Same). Through the leveraging of existing resources and capabilities, the company strengthens its foothold by capturing more share in familiar markets. There is minimal risk associated with this strategy, as there are no "new" elements involved.Product Development (New to Same)In this strategy, new products are introduced to existing customers (New to Same). Companies that are adept at engineering new product innovations are well positioned to grow with this strategy. A salesforce that is in tune with their customer base is usually not shy about reporting back to the factory on what their customers are asking for. It is critical to filter through the myriad requests to identify those that offer true sales opportunities. There is more risk associated with this strategy than the Market Penetration approach, because there is an investment associated with the "new" product element.
Market Development (Same to New)When a company chooses this approach, they have decided to promote their existing products into new markets (Same to New). "Markets" are either defined as industry segments or geographical territories. Focused market research is necessary, not only to uncover the potential markets, but to ensure that any necessary regional considerations are accounted for. For new market segments, it is often necessary to utilize a new channel to reach the target customer base. As with the Product Development strategy, there is moderate risk here because of the "new" market element.Diversification (New to New)The riskiest of the growth strategies, Diversification is when a company pursues new markets with new products (New to New). As both Product Development and Market Development initially lie outside of the company's core competencies, there is often a significant investment associated with this strategy. Companies rely on the strength of their brand loyalty when implementing a Diversification strategy, and correctly executed, it can reduce the overall business portfolio risk.In summary, organic growth is often safer than inorganic (externally generated) growth because it can be more difficult and riskier to acquire and integrate another existing business into an existing company. If YOUR Company possesses the necessary resources and capabilities, there are great opportunities for you to enjoy highly profitable organic growth indefinitely.Contact Brand Performance today to learn more about the individual strategies and how to design one or more for a long run of profitable growth for YOUR Company.
Market Development (Same to New)When a company chooses this approach, they have decided to promote their existing products into new markets (Same to New). "Markets" are either defined as industry segments or geographical territories. Focused market research is necessary, not only to uncover the potential markets, but to ensure that any necessary regional considerations are accounted for. For new market segments, it is often necessary to utilize a new channel to reach the target customer base. As with the Product Development strategy, there is moderate risk here because of the "new" market element.Diversification (New to New)The riskiest of the growth strategies, Diversification is when a company pursues new markets with new products (New to New). As both Product Development and Market Development initially lie outside of the company's core competencies, there is often a significant investment associated with this strategy. Companies rely on the strength of their brand loyalty when implementing a Diversification strategy, and correctly executed, it can reduce the overall business portfolio risk.In summary, organic growth is often safer than inorganic (externally generated) growth because it can be more difficult and riskier to acquire and integrate another existing business into an existing company. If YOUR Company possesses the necessary resources and capabilities, there are great opportunities for you to enjoy highly profitable organic growth indefinitely.Contact Brand Performance today to learn more about the individual strategies and how to design one or more for a long run of profitable growth for YOUR Company.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Project Failures: The False Economy of Not Implementing Systems Engineering on Your Projects
What is Systems Engineering (SE)? The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) defines systems engineering as"an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of successful systems. It focuses on defining customer needs and required functionality early in the development cycle, documenting requirements, then proceeding with design synthesis and system validation while considering the complete problem:
Operations
Cost & Schedule
Performance
Training & Support
Test
Disposal
Manufacturing
SE integrates all the disciplines and specialty groups into a team effort forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept to production to operation. SE considers both the business and the technical needs of all customers with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the user needs."This is a very general definition; in future articles, I will more fully develop the systems engineering process and the different components of a successful SE effort.Recently, CIO Magazine published an article that said that at least 50% of IT projects fail. The failures can minimally be categorized as follows:
Failure to deliver a product at all
Dramatic cost and schedule overruns
Inability to provide cost effective and technical maintenance and upgrades to a system
Poor acceptance by users
Major organizational disruptions (Google the story of Foxmeyer Drugs ERP disaster).
The author of the article attributed these project failures to poor or non-existent project management. I would add to this the lack of effective SE as an even more fundament problem in today's development environment. Without effective systems engineering, there can be no project management, because there is nothing to manage: projects are akin to building an airplane in flight, with no requirements, metrics, architecture, testing, modeling, feasibility studies, or modeling of alternatives. SE provides all of that, which feeds the project management plan, which governs the development, execution, and delivery of a system.Unfortunately, SE is not inexpensive. Organizations need to budget approximately 20% of a project or program budget for effective SE. Because of the expense, companies and government agencies are foregoing systems engineering as a necessary aspect of complex, high, visibility efforts, with expensive and often disastrous results.
As a CIO/CTO, you need to ask yourself why so many projects are outright failures, or fail to deliver functionality as promised, or become so expensive that any cost benefits from new efficiencies the system provides are never realized, and why the people who have to use the system become frustrated and leave. Often it's because SE is seen as an unnecessary extravagance, that the coders, database developers, and infrastructure team can handle themselves.Here's a question: If you were building your dream home, would you just let the carpenters, electricians, plumbers, masons, HVAC technicians, and roofers design your home as they were building it? Or would you hire an architect to design the home-in essence, the systems engineer--with support form a civil engineer to design the support structure and foundation, an HVAC engineer to design the ductwork and scale the heating and air conditioning units appropriately, and so on? The architect and his or her team will add about-you guessed it-20% to your overall costs.If it was your money on the line, would you roll the dice and not have an expert put together the engineering plan for your home and just let the tradesmen design the home while they were constructing it? Probably not. But the current trend is to do precisely that with complex software projects, as well as complex hardware systems such as cars (think Toyota's and GM's recent stories about systems failures), aircraft (think about Boeing and Airbus' design and delivery problems with the 787 and Airbus 380), and spacecraft (think Space Shuttle). In some of these cases, there was lip service paid to SE, or sound advice given and ignored by management, and all sorts of problems followed: cost overruns, failed systems, and for the end users in more than a few cases, death.ConclusionsThe lack of effective SE is almost a certain recipe for project failure: the increasing number of failed projects, defective systems, cost overruns, and lost business is increasing as businesses and government departments continue to cut back on this vital aspect of technology programs. Without the information and processes provided by the SE process, it will be almost impossible to successfully manage a project from concept through delivery, remain within budget, on schedule, and deliver what is expected by the customer.
Operations
Cost & Schedule
Performance
Training & Support
Test
Disposal
Manufacturing
SE integrates all the disciplines and specialty groups into a team effort forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept to production to operation. SE considers both the business and the technical needs of all customers with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the user needs."This is a very general definition; in future articles, I will more fully develop the systems engineering process and the different components of a successful SE effort.Recently, CIO Magazine published an article that said that at least 50% of IT projects fail. The failures can minimally be categorized as follows:
Failure to deliver a product at all
Dramatic cost and schedule overruns
Inability to provide cost effective and technical maintenance and upgrades to a system
Poor acceptance by users
Major organizational disruptions (Google the story of Foxmeyer Drugs ERP disaster).
The author of the article attributed these project failures to poor or non-existent project management. I would add to this the lack of effective SE as an even more fundament problem in today's development environment. Without effective systems engineering, there can be no project management, because there is nothing to manage: projects are akin to building an airplane in flight, with no requirements, metrics, architecture, testing, modeling, feasibility studies, or modeling of alternatives. SE provides all of that, which feeds the project management plan, which governs the development, execution, and delivery of a system.Unfortunately, SE is not inexpensive. Organizations need to budget approximately 20% of a project or program budget for effective SE. Because of the expense, companies and government agencies are foregoing systems engineering as a necessary aspect of complex, high, visibility efforts, with expensive and often disastrous results.
As a CIO/CTO, you need to ask yourself why so many projects are outright failures, or fail to deliver functionality as promised, or become so expensive that any cost benefits from new efficiencies the system provides are never realized, and why the people who have to use the system become frustrated and leave. Often it's because SE is seen as an unnecessary extravagance, that the coders, database developers, and infrastructure team can handle themselves.Here's a question: If you were building your dream home, would you just let the carpenters, electricians, plumbers, masons, HVAC technicians, and roofers design your home as they were building it? Or would you hire an architect to design the home-in essence, the systems engineer--with support form a civil engineer to design the support structure and foundation, an HVAC engineer to design the ductwork and scale the heating and air conditioning units appropriately, and so on? The architect and his or her team will add about-you guessed it-20% to your overall costs.If it was your money on the line, would you roll the dice and not have an expert put together the engineering plan for your home and just let the tradesmen design the home while they were constructing it? Probably not. But the current trend is to do precisely that with complex software projects, as well as complex hardware systems such as cars (think Toyota's and GM's recent stories about systems failures), aircraft (think about Boeing and Airbus' design and delivery problems with the 787 and Airbus 380), and spacecraft (think Space Shuttle). In some of these cases, there was lip service paid to SE, or sound advice given and ignored by management, and all sorts of problems followed: cost overruns, failed systems, and for the end users in more than a few cases, death.ConclusionsThe lack of effective SE is almost a certain recipe for project failure: the increasing number of failed projects, defective systems, cost overruns, and lost business is increasing as businesses and government departments continue to cut back on this vital aspect of technology programs. Without the information and processes provided by the SE process, it will be almost impossible to successfully manage a project from concept through delivery, remain within budget, on schedule, and deliver what is expected by the customer.
Monday, December 1, 2014
Business Success Through Strategic Planning and Market Research
Market research - BasicsThe business startup process, especially drawing up the business plan correctly, are vitally important, part of which is the correct and accurate market research Whether it is a trading business, a retail business, a service providing business, or whatever, knowing the market and economic conditions, including the direct competition in your area, are crucial. Without this information you will be taking a shot in the dark, hoping to hit, but the chances are pretty big that you will miss, and you may lose a lot of money this way.I'm sure that this is not what you want at all. Take this word of advice - don't skip this step, but rather do it well and comprehensively from day one. You see, you will be basing most of your business and strategic decision on the facts that you will establish once you have completed the market research. These decisions will include:
Is there place for me in the market in my area or is there already too much competition?
Will my prices suite the economy of the area?
Can I afford to pay the rental in the area, and will I be able to keep my prices reasonable for the earning capacity of the people in the area?
What do I expect my monthly income to be? Or will I need to enlarge the area I cover in order to fully recover my costs and make a profit?
How many people live in, or do business in, my area?
What percentage of them may want my products or services?
How regularly will they want or need my products or services?
Is there due to be any economic expansion in my area, or is there an economic meltdown about to happen?
Over what period would I be able to sustain a business in the area in the present economic circumstances?
How long will it take to recover my initial capital outlay?
Once the above decisions have been made, based on data discovered through the research and decision-making process, you can tackle the following tasks.Primary Market ResearchPrimary research involves gathering your own data. For example, you could do your own traffic count at a proposed location, use the yellow pages to identify competitors, and do surveys or focus-group interviews to learn about consumer preferences. Secondary or professional market research can be very costly, but there are many books that explain to small business owners how to do effective research themselves.The Marketing PlanIn your marketing plan, be as specific as possible; use reliable statistics, numbers, and sources. The marketing plan will be the basis, later on, of the very important sales projection. This is very important as it will also determine purchases of raw materials and retail products, the storage of them, and their production and distribution plans.
Products and servicesYou need to clearly describe and define your products and services, in your terms. Be as descriptive and specific as possible, especially where multiple types and models of the same products exist.Now describe the products and/or services from your prospective and your customers' perspective. How do the customers perceive them to be, what would their expectations be, and how could you improve on your competitors' products and services; not only bettering their up-front prices.Features and BenefitsList all of your major products or services.For each product or service:
Describe the most important features. What is special about it?
Describe the benefits. That is, what will the product do for the customer?
What after-sale services will you provide? Some examples are delivery, warranty, service contracts, support, follow-up, and refund policy.
Are there any other benefits or gifts that you can include in the supply of your products and services.
CustomersIdentify your targeted customers, their characteristics, and their geographic locations, otherwise known as their demographics. You may have more than one customer group. Identify the most important groups. Then, for each customer group, construct what is called a demographic profile, which includes:
Age
Gender
Location
Income level
Social class and occupation
Education
NicheNow that you have systematically analyzed your industry, your product, your customers, and the competition, you should have a clear picture of where your company fits into the world and, in a much narrower sense, the society that you intend to serve. In one short paragraph, define your niche, your unique corner of the market and your area of specialty.The SWOT AnalysisSWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as they relate directly to your business, your products and services, your marketing plan, your customer base and area, and other important factors.The SWOT analysis is covered in a separate article and tutorial.
Is there place for me in the market in my area or is there already too much competition?
Will my prices suite the economy of the area?
Can I afford to pay the rental in the area, and will I be able to keep my prices reasonable for the earning capacity of the people in the area?
What do I expect my monthly income to be? Or will I need to enlarge the area I cover in order to fully recover my costs and make a profit?
How many people live in, or do business in, my area?
What percentage of them may want my products or services?
How regularly will they want or need my products or services?
Is there due to be any economic expansion in my area, or is there an economic meltdown about to happen?
Over what period would I be able to sustain a business in the area in the present economic circumstances?
How long will it take to recover my initial capital outlay?
Once the above decisions have been made, based on data discovered through the research and decision-making process, you can tackle the following tasks.Primary Market ResearchPrimary research involves gathering your own data. For example, you could do your own traffic count at a proposed location, use the yellow pages to identify competitors, and do surveys or focus-group interviews to learn about consumer preferences. Secondary or professional market research can be very costly, but there are many books that explain to small business owners how to do effective research themselves.The Marketing PlanIn your marketing plan, be as specific as possible; use reliable statistics, numbers, and sources. The marketing plan will be the basis, later on, of the very important sales projection. This is very important as it will also determine purchases of raw materials and retail products, the storage of them, and their production and distribution plans.
Products and servicesYou need to clearly describe and define your products and services, in your terms. Be as descriptive and specific as possible, especially where multiple types and models of the same products exist.Now describe the products and/or services from your prospective and your customers' perspective. How do the customers perceive them to be, what would their expectations be, and how could you improve on your competitors' products and services; not only bettering their up-front prices.Features and BenefitsList all of your major products or services.For each product or service:
Describe the most important features. What is special about it?
Describe the benefits. That is, what will the product do for the customer?
What after-sale services will you provide? Some examples are delivery, warranty, service contracts, support, follow-up, and refund policy.
Are there any other benefits or gifts that you can include in the supply of your products and services.
CustomersIdentify your targeted customers, their characteristics, and their geographic locations, otherwise known as their demographics. You may have more than one customer group. Identify the most important groups. Then, for each customer group, construct what is called a demographic profile, which includes:
Age
Gender
Location
Income level
Social class and occupation
Education
NicheNow that you have systematically analyzed your industry, your product, your customers, and the competition, you should have a clear picture of where your company fits into the world and, in a much narrower sense, the society that you intend to serve. In one short paragraph, define your niche, your unique corner of the market and your area of specialty.The SWOT AnalysisSWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as they relate directly to your business, your products and services, your marketing plan, your customer base and area, and other important factors.The SWOT analysis is covered in a separate article and tutorial.
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