One of the first steps in selling a new product or service is finding your target market and one of the best ways of finding your target market is by defining your ideal customer. Ask yourself – out of all the people in the world who would be the most likely to buy this thing? If you can clearly answer this question you have your ideal customer and you can start a marketing campaign targetting exactly the demographic you are trying to sell to.
Let’s go through an exercise that can help to find that ideal customer by asking three simple questions.
1. What are you selling?
You need to clearly define what you are selling. This should get very specific and include any different versions or service levels of your product? Are you selling support? Are yo selling security? Think of the pain points of your customer and how what you are selling can alleviate this pain.
2. Who are you selling to?
Are you selling to consumers or enterprise? Be specific. Is your offering for teachers or principals? Administrators? Try to define the most specific audience you can and then focus your marketing and sales efforts on exactly this audience.
3. What is the price point?
The ideal answer to this question should come from your ideal customer. Find and reach out to the person or people you have identified in your first two questions and ask them – What would you pay for a service like this? If you are marketing online try and include a survey and gather as much data as you can about possible price points.
Remember your goal
Throughout this exercise always remember to focus on your goal. The biggest marketing questions you need to ask are “Who would buy this?” followed by “How do I find them?”. If you can answer these two questions with marketing your sales channel and product will help close the deal.