Know your product and know your market
Read this Know your product and your market Info Guide to learn how to identify the key features of your product or service, to find out who you are trying to sell to and to learn more about the types of people typical of any market place.
Before you can achieve more sales you must be able to answer this simple but often confusing question, 'What do you have to sell?'.
Imagine that you are in an adventure centre. A customer asks a staff member, 'Why would you recommend that I choose this adventure centre?'. The staff member gives lots of great reasons - 'our sailing, windsurfing, powerboat and mountain navigation skills courses for adults and children, our challenging and fun team development workshops for companies and organisations, our highly qualified and motivated instructors and our location in the vilage centre just a short stroll from the sea and the mountains.' The sale is made.
Knowing what you have that people want
A business is dependent on the market place. Base your business on fact rather than fiction, on evidence rather than ‘a feeling’. The more you research, the less you risk. The more you know, the more confident you will be. The more you understand, the easier to sell.
The more you know about your product and business, the more confidence and pride you will have. Buyers respond positively to passion, knowledge and confidence which together create trust.
Focus on selling your strengths and offer testimonials of previously satisfied customers. As well as an in-depth knowledge of your product or service, make sure you know what is around you too from your competitors to the local area. This will give you that extra edge.
Product features and benefits
Successful sales people know the difference between product features and benefits. They always highlight the benefits rather than the features. A feature is simply describing something. For example, in the case of an adventure centre by the sea, a feature would be ‘by the sea’ which means the following benefit for customers: being able to enjoy water-based activities.
The benefit describes how the feature will make things better for the customer. The feature (‘by the sea’) is converted into a benefit (‘being able to enjoy water-based activities'). The activity centre is located by the sea which means that customers can enjoy a range of water-based activities, eg sailing, kayaking and windsurfing.
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Remember!
Is there a gap in the market?
Is there a market in the gap?
Unknown
Once you are clear on what you have to sell you must answer the question, 'Who will want what I have to offer?'. The answer to this question is NOT ‘everyone’, because your business, like every business, is simply not for everyone. When you are selling you have limited time and cannot afford to spend time talking to, or trying to appeal to, the wrong audience. You need to choose your sales targets carefully.
Elephants, Mice and Ghosts
Doyle Slayton, an internationally recognized Sales and Leadership Strategist, Speaker, and Blogger, has identified three types of possible sales targets - Elephants, Mice and Ghosts.
Elephants
Elephants are big targets - they are easy to see, easy to hit and could feed you for quite a long time. For example, an ‘elephant’ could be a very powerful tour operator who potentially would be able to give you significant bookings.
Mice
Mice, on the other hand, are difficult to spot, move fast and are highly elusive. If you do manage to catch one, they won’t feed you for very long. A ‘mouse’ could be a very small customer who consumes a lot of your time discussing their needs. They ask lots of questions and might even ask for a written proposal. When you realise they were only going to book one night for one person you see why they are called ‘mice’.
Ghosts
Ghosts look attractive but are simply a mirage and will never feed you. For example, potential customers or guests who only ever call to gather price information and have no intention of booking with you.
Target market
If your target market is beyond your reach (or you, theirs) there is no point in sailing into a storm. No matter how good the product, proposition or service, many people will automatically exclude themselves from being within your target market. They may not want to travel. They may not like to engage in water-based activities, eg canoeing or kayaking, or land-based activities, eg rock climbing or orienteering. You may be out of their price range.
You can often find the answer to 'Who will want what I have to offer?' by looking at your customer history and asking:
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Once you are clear about whom you are trying to sell to, the next question to answer is. 'Where are they and how many of them are there?'. This is key to deciding how and where you focus your sales efforts. This means carrying out research. Contact your local tourist information offices and call particular groups that you wish to attract. For example, if you want to attract people who are likely to be interested in activities such as trekking, abseiling, rock climbing or orienteering, research and contact hill walking organisers. Liaise with tour operators or create a focus group to find out what specific customers are looking for. Your questions need to be directed at the groups that might want to use you.
Personas
A persona is a fictional character created to put a face on a target market. A persona represents the different types of customer that might buy a product or a service. Personas help you to understand how your customers think, what their priorities are and how and where you need to engage with them.
Persona Template
Use this Persona Template to create personas to clearly identify the key characteristics of the groups of potential customers which you want to target.
Before you complete your Persona Template, have a look at this Persona Example.
Once you know who your target customer groups are, all your effort should focus on these target markets and not on ‘everybody’. Consider how you want to be perceived by your customers in these market segments.
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Every business must understand its market place. This includes knowing your competitors, their strengths and what you can provide that they cannot.
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