In previous posts on target sales analysis and target price/volume analysis we developed internal targets. In this post, we will focus on starting to translate this internal target data into external target data.
So, who will buy your product?
This is such a cold and difficult question without guidelines. How about starting with whom you will sell to – will it be consumers, businesses, the government or a combination?
To better focus in on consumers, I like to start with geography… where will you be capable of selling? Keep in mind that this is a different question then “where do you want to sell?” Even on the internet, we are restricted.
Following that line of thought, we are also restricted by the reason someone purchases (called psychographics). Why would a consumer buy your solution to their problem? Is there one over-arching reason, or multiple?
For each buying reason, we need to determine the demographics that might consistently define that market – such as age, income, education, sex, race, etc. A fantastic free tool can be found at http://demo.analygis.com/google/.
Businesses are not much different, as we will start with geography. However, instead of psychographics and demographics, we tend to use industries and firm sizes as indicators for our target leads.
From this forethought, we can now start narrowing a list of leads or lead sources from which to begin either our brand or market planning.