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Market Focus – the Proposition
Written by: Phil ShipperleeArticle Overview: Market Focus; the essential foundation to how and where you get your business. Simplistically, you need to look at what you sell (your proposition), who you should be selling it to (your target market) and how you get there (the routes to market). When defining your proposition, you need to strike a workable balance between what you are able to supply and what the prospects and customers need and will be willing to buy.
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Market Focus – the Proposition
Market focus; the essential foundation to how and where you get your business. Simplistically, you need to look at what you sell (your proposition), who you should be selling it to (your target market) and how you get there (the routes to market).
Do you know what you sell? I can hear you say, "Of course we do, this is stupid I am not going to waste time reading any more of this". Not so fast; so you know what you sell, but do you know what your customers really buy? Research shows that there is often a disconnect between what a customer actually buys and what the supplier believes they have sold.
Who wants to buy a drill anymore? They want the means to make holes in any material and in any circumstances. The adverts may briefly show someone using the drill but will focus more on the new shelf for displaying the family photographs, book collection or CDs.
The disconnect between your perception of what you sell and what your prospect wants or needs, will lead to poor targeting, poor proposition presentation, missed opportunities and a higher than necessary failure rate on bids. All of this adds up to wasted time, wasted money, ineffective and inefficient selling activities and worst of all missed targets.
So, it’s all about striking a workable balance between what you are able to supply and what the prospects and customers need and will be willing to buy.
Your Proposition – What is it that you sell?
When defining your proposition, you need to consider what your prospects and customers actually need and want rather than simply focusing on what you can supply.
When presenting your proposition, you must communicate to your prospect the value they can derive from making the purchase from you. They need to know that you understand their business issues and you must demonstrate this by presenting your proposition in a format that says “we know and understand your problems, and this is how we solve them for you”. This not only enables you to present your proposition in an attractive manner, it also enables you to differentiate yourself from the competition without directly saying detrimental things about them (never a good move!).
Whoever does your selling must therefore be able to articulate the value of your proposition to your prospects. To present your proposition in a format that identifies a clear benefit to the customer which will then provide them with the incentive to proceed further with you, you must first uncover their real needs and wants through a process of carefully structured questioning and listening.
Tips:
* Creating a qualification process will provide a framework and structure for the questions that must be asked.
* When defining a benefit, it is the customer’s perspective that matters.
* Understand the job role of the prospect and their specific areas of interest to better understand their perspective of value, e.g. Total Cost of Acquisition, Total Cost of Ownership or Return on Investment.
* Don’t assume that a detailed explanation of the minutia will excite the prospect as much as it does you.
* When submitting to a “technical” evaluation, don’t forget you must also create and present a well structured business case to support your proposal.
* Remember that what you provide may be part of a larger project. Understanding where your solution will fit in the greater scheme of things is very important.
* If you fail to present your proposition in terms of the value to the prospect, they are likely to make a decision based mainly or solely on the price.
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Market Focus – Who will buy ?
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About the Author: Phil Shipperlee RSS for Phil's articles - Visit Phil's website  Click here to visit Phil's website   Creating Customers understanding the buyer Market Focus taking the proposition to market Market Focus Who will buy Opportunity Pursuit part 3 keeping a finger on the pulse Creating Customers plan the relationship |
Related Forum Posts
Re: This is Marketing Warfare!
- Hey GT,
I guess this was from a while back, and it'll test your memory a bit but could you possibly elaborate on Unique Selling Proposition?
Can you give us some examples of good USPs?
Re: How should i promote a new website?
- ignore this message IF it's already been stated. I haven't had a chance to read all the replies and i have to jet from the office...
I suggest marketing where ever your Target Market congregates. If it's a forum of concerned parents - go there. Strike up a deal with the forum owner (JV) and have him promote it to the list of members (Integration Marketing).
If you want to go with Forums then i would partner with a parent who is a frequent poster/moderator on a particular Target Market Forum and have him/her add your link to their signature.
That was just a thought but it's not as intense once you get buy in from the Forum owner or high ranked poster/moderator.
Hope that sparks some new ideas.
Re: Ideas For Business
- Hello Lucy,
you may consider this list for Ideas for Business: (Top 23 list)
Rank Company
1 Google
2 Genentech
3 Wegmans Food Markets
4 Container Store
5 Whole Foods Market
6 Network Appliance
7 S.C. Johnson & Son
8 Boston Consulting Grp.
9 Methodist Hospital Sys.
10 W.L. Gore & Associates
11 Cisco Systems
12 David Weekley Homes
13 Nugget Market
14 Qualcomm
15 American Century Invest.
16 Starbucks Coffee
17 Quicken Loans
18 Station Casinos
19 Alston & Bird
20 QuikTrip
21 Griffin Hospital
22 Valero Energy
23 Vision Service Plan
Re: Do Women Play the Stock Market?
- I also play Stock Market.....
Re: Quote of the Day - ?"Where focus goes energy flows." - Tony
- Focus on a single task, eliminate millions of disractions
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