Increase Sales by Identifying Your Target Market and Stop Spraying and Praying Your Sales Activities
Increase Sales by Identifying Your Target Market and Stop Spraying and Praying Your Sales Activities
From my experience within my business coaching training practice, I have discovered that many small business owners from under $100,000 to even $20 million do not take the time to accurately identify their target market or markets. These fine folks are so busy spraying and praying their marketing and selling activities that they are truly working harder not smarter.
One gentleman who I greatly admired by the name of Michael Sleppin shared this unique definition of a target market. Your target market must be like Sherwood Forest, large enough to hunt in and small enough to defend. This is a great visual image for those who have yet to identify their target market.
Michael’s definition leads to this obvious question: Where or what is your Sherwood Forest? Think of yourself as Robin Hood and your sales staff as Robin’s key men or women.
Robin Hood was not a generalist in that he robbed from everyone. His specialty was robbing only from the rich and specifically the rich who were aligned with King Richard’s brother.
Now look at your products and services. Are there any specific niche demographics or psycho graphics that can use your products or services? If so, where are they located and what actions do you need to take to keep them in your Sherwood Forest.
The more specific that you can make your target market, the greater likelihood of realizing the goal to increase sales. Small Business Sales Coaching Tip: You cannot be everything to everyone.
Of course, to clearly identify your own Sherwood Forest requires that you invest some time and potentially some other resources. Market research must be conducted even it is somewhat general. As you begin to gain greater clarity, your market research will begin to narrow.
With the plethora of resources available from small business administration service centers to the Internet to mentors and even sales coaches, you should be able to quickly identify your target market. Then as you put forth your sales skills to those who could really benefit from your products and service, you can watch your sales take off and secure that desired prize to increase sales.
Increase Sales by Identifying Your Target Market and Stop Spraying and Praying Your Sales Activities - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website.
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Do you feel that you are not getting your fair share of the market place? If so, then can you answer exactly how big of a piece of the pie is that fair share? Now is the time to rethink and refocus so that you accurately know your target market.
From my experience within my business coaching training practice, I have discovered that many small business owners from under $100,000 to even $20 million do not take the time to accurately identify their target market or markets. These fine folks are so busy spraying and praying their marketing and selling activities that they are truly working harder not smarter.
One gentleman who I greatly admired by the name of Michael Sleppin shared this unique definition of a target market. Your target market must be like Sherwood Forest, large enough to hunt in and small enough to defend. This is a great visual image for those who have yet to identify their target market.
Michael’s definition leads to this obvious question: Where or what is your Sherwood Forest? Think of yourself as Robin Hood and your sales staff as Robin’s key men or women.
Robin Hood was not a generalist in that he robbed from everyone. His specialty was robbing only from the rich and specifically the rich who were aligned with King Richard’s brother.
Now look at your products and services. Are there any specific niche demographics or psycho graphics that can use your products or services? If so, where are they located and what actions do you need to take to keep them in your Sherwood Forest.
The more specific that you can make your target market, the greater likelihood of realizing the goal to increase sales. Small Business Sales Coaching Tip: You cannot be everything to everyone.
Of course, to clearly identify your own Sherwood Forest requires that you invest some time and potentially some other resources. Market research must be conducted even it is somewhat general. As you begin to gain greater clarity, your market research will begin to narrow.
With the plethora of resources available from small business administration service centers to the Internet to mentors and even sales coaches, you should be able to quickly identify your target market. Then as you put forth your sales skills to those who could really benefit from your products and service, you can watch your sales take off and secure that desired prize to increase sales.
Increase Sales by Identifying Your Target Market and Stop Spraying and Praying Your Sales Activities - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website.
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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