by Evashnee Naidu, founder of enablED
How important is it to identify your target market? The old adage of create a product and customers will come has definitely gone out the door. In today’s world we are exposed to products, brands and services with a global reach. No more are we limited to what is within our radius, no more do we have to be brand loyal. Yes there are brands that have established themselves, but how often have we seen a fall from grace by big brands, and how easy was the consumer switch.
In the past, companies that offer products have had a better time identifying their target market. This is especially true on a B2C perspective. You are able to identify the person, their like and dislikes, their disposable income, what are they likely to do on the weekends. This is how companies segmented and identified their market.
Does this strategy still work when you are a small business and your target market is larger companies or other small businesses? As a small business we all look at targeting larger corporate clients, this is the goal. Our services and products are awesome and somebody will buy them, but we need to understand our target market well enough to ensure that we are not wasting resources chasing the right target market for the wrong reasons. We need to understand the pains of our target market, and not from a personal level but from a strategic level. Every business is focused on meeting strategic objectives. We need to show how our products and services fit into those strategic objectives.
At some stage in understanding sales, you would have come across pains and gains. This familiar concept is highly effective, by just understanding the pain of the client from a strategic corporate perspective you are able to highlight the gain of your product and service. It is so important to understand your target market, and research your clients. What are their current strategies, latest financial reports, trends in the industry? Only once we fully understand our market are we better equipped to position our products and services. By being knowledgeable about a client needs we move from being a one-time service provider to a long term business partner and this is how we also ensure our own sustainability as a business.
Evashnee Naidu is a mum, wife and social entrepreneur founder of enablED. She believes that entrepreneurship is the root of ensuring a growing economy and she is passionate about the growth, sustainability and profitability of small business by equipping them with the business acumen and personal coaching and mentorship required to successfully run a business. She established enablED enterprise and supplier development in 2014, with the aim of growing sustainable businesses through enterprise and supplier development funding. In 2016, she founded the enablED incubator. To date enablED has run a number of corporate sponsored boot camps and incubation programmes that have assisted over 150 entrepreneurs grow their businesses. www.enabl-ed.co.za