Hi Everyone,
Its great to see so many great posts and replies within the forum!
I thought I'd add a post that helps people choose a product... I usually get asked most "what should I sell"
Ok here goes...
The first thing you need to consider is Market NOT product...
I would suggest that you either choose markets where the products are a must have ie selling printer consumables or paper to businesess - business need them in order to trade ... or if going after the consumer choose markets that meet the following criteria...
MARKET
1) Passionate - Passionate people are less sensitive to price, think of football fans -ticket prices are often huge yet they pay it!!
They also talk to other fans (alot) so there will be a viral component to your marketing... youll sell more by word of mouth..
They also buy more often - if you go back to them with a related offer - youll get a high percentage of repeat sales vs mundane markets...
2) Make sure your market is big enough - a passionate market with just 3 people wont do you much good...
Get an idea of the size of the market via magazine statistics - number of subscribers etc - so for example if your Market is mountain bikers - call mountain bike monthly and ask - how many subscribers they have - not readership - they'll inflate the numbers by approx x4 (not mountain bike monthly specifically -Ive never called them - but advertisng reps in general) bear in mind that if they have a subscriber base of 30,000 this doesnt mean that the market is only 30,000 as not everyone will subscribe...
But if you can find a handful of mags related to your market place - its a pretty good bet that the markets big enough... Otherwise they wouldnt print the mags... also checkout forums.. how many people posting in there and ebay completed listings...
3) Are they reachable - "this product is great because its for everyone" BIG MISTAKE your target market should be easy to identify and reach... are there mags, governing bodies, other websites with lists of your target market, are they searching on google, using ebay... the clearer your picture of your perfect customer the more cost effectively you can reach them.... How old are they, male female, where are they located, do they have their own language... - all this info is great it will help you with your marketing... the more specific your message the better your conversion rate = more profit!!
4) Do they have money to spend? Huge, passionate, reachable target market - but they're all skint! Dont work! How do you find out if they have money to spend - follow a google add for a few weeks - are they still advertising? If so theyre making sales... ebay completed listings is another way...
4) Finally upsell/cross-sell opportunities - if your only selling them 1 product - your leaving I would say -50% of the money on the table... are you crazy???
Look at what products they can buy and in what order...
Eg - Mountain bike gloves / then armour / then a bike... the great thing is the repeat sales have low marketing costs because you already have the customer...
KEY POINT - The point of the first sale is not to make a profit (although its nice too) - its to get a customer - personally I would be willing to break even on the first sale, possibly lose money - if I can make BIG money backend... ie from repeat sales... Its worth making a little on the first sale - if you can make a lot on subsequent sales... BIg companies do this a lot which often makes them difficult to compete against..
Look at the bigger picture...
Phew - Ok once you have identified a market that meets these requirements - then you start to choose products to go into them... Before that you need to consider competition - again a whole other story...
Let me know if this was interesting and ill go through the next step... Looking at the competition and Deciding on the products that fit into the market...
Hope this helps or at least makes sense...
Last edited by Dave Berriman; 20-08-2008 at 09:26 PM.
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March 2010
