Who is buying what you have to sell?

It can be hard to determine where your future revenue will come from. You know there’s a market out there, you just need to find it.

Don’t despair – even the big mining companies have similar issues to address. They may not be prospecting for likely people to buy their product or service but they still prospect and they can spend zillions trying to find it and then they have to mine it before they get a return.

So how do we find our market when we don’t have unlimited funds to do it?

We can reduce the time to market and the associated costs by doing some internal research and asking the following questions;

• – Who buys your product or service now?
• – Break your information down to see if any patterns arise i.e. Is there a gender bias, do they come from similar industry groups, how about locality, is geography an issue?
• – How did they find you?
• – By what method did they order from you i.e. via your website, over the phone, through media advertising?

This will form the basis for a customer profile. Knowing who your customer is, where they come from and how they wish to interact with you will give you a very good understanding of how to market to your potential audience, making your business development dollars work harder.

One further element you need to keep in mind is the even though you might be ready to sell, your prospect may not be ready to buy. That doesn’t mean they will not buy its just that they’re not ready yet. Be aware that you need to stay top of mind so that when they are ready, its you, that is the first port of call.

Its not an art to remind your audience by communicating your message regularly but it does require you to develop a program that over time will turn them into customers. Think about how you can stay top of mind with your customers.