Introduction. Step One. Step Two Step Three Step Four Step Five Step Six Step Seven Step Eight Step Nine Step Ten Step Eleven Step Twelve

Step one

Identify your market

It has always amazed me how many people get into business or get a sales job with an amazing fire and passion, to do whatever it is they are focused on achieving, and they never think about how they will let the people who can buy know that are there to serve. They are so excited. They put all their money, time, and effort into the dream and they fail at huge percentages. Why? The answer is simple. They overwhelmingly do not formulate an active ongoing plan for attracting new business. Very few companies shut their doors because they have too much business. So in step one we will determine your target market.

Identifying the correct defined markets is the heart and the foundation of the process. If you choose the marketing list correctly you will maximize on all of your get the word out efforts. If however you try to sell to people who, for whatever reason, are not completely qualified to purchase your product or service then you are wasting valuable time, money, and effort not to mention the lowering of your attitude due to frustration. You need to maximize every step so you can get the best return for your marketing efforts.

So how do you choose your markets? Quite simply who creates income for the product or service and who can afford the investment. Investigate who your company or companies similar to your company have sold to. Many times you have the general demographics correct but they are not defined for your specific target. This causes you to expend energies toward prospects with which you will rarely be able to do business. Let me give you two simple examples. Imagine that you are selling an expensive piece of machinery that needs a lot of people using it, for the prospect to justify the per user investment. Now you know the only way that they will be able to justify your per user investment is if the company has 100 employees or more. Would you want to prospect for qualified leads from a list that has companies that have any less then 100 employees? Or let's say are selling investments and you find that people that live in homes valued at $500,000 or more can generally benefit from your offering, would you want to work a list of homeowners that live in $250,000 homes?

So you must pick your demographic by being as defined as possible. For business to consumer (one call closing) sales, pick demographics by, but not limited to, geography, age, income, home ownership, estimated house value, presents of a telephone number and address. In business to business sales we pick demographics by geography, type of company or industry, size by employees and sales, and credit rating. With your experience and after your investigation of the industry you will probably find even more defining characteristic for your perfect prospect, be detailed.

Now if you work for an established company, talk to the top closers about whom they prospect in their territory. Always learn from the successful earners. This is not a beauty contest this is serious business that will make you a considerable living. Top earners work refined demographic lists. They take the average of the company's current clients and they work prospects that meet those commonalities. Time truly is money during business hours. You want to work less not more to accomplish your goals. The saying goes work smarter not harder, so model professionals.

If you are starting a new business you will investigate whom your competition sells to. This is a great way to find out information. People love to talk about themselves and what they are doing. You can glean so much information from just several competitor calls. From these calls you will be able to hone in on whom you need to sell to. Pick your demographics carefully they are of the utmost importance as the foundation of your marketing campaigns.

Very often sales are made to an uncommon buyer who saw benefits of your offering, pay very close attention to the potential of that emerging new sales market. You also probably have ideas of markets that might be very fertile. Work markets that you believe will be or that you have seen worked successfully. When the market proves to be productive add it to your primary marketing efforts.

Niche and segmented marketing are extremely important because to maximize on your marketing energy you must be able to adjust. At different times certain markets are up and certain times markets are down. You need to concentrate on markets that are currently benefiting from your products and services. So work your most successful markets and build yourself a larger qualified prospect pool.

Summary: With anything you build, the foundation is of the utmost importance. Pick carefully and prosper. Also be creative to expand your markets.