Operating a successful business comes from having a purpose - knowing why you are in business!
Purpose gives meaning to our lives, and our business ventures. Purpose can be manufacturing a product that makes life easier for consumers or providing a level of professional service that is unparalleled in business. It can also be profit-oriented or of a charitable mindset to benefit a favorite cause. The purpose becomes the mission statement for your business.
Your purpose is the reason your business exists.
When the purpose is clear and focused, you and your employees - and your customers - can become passionate about your products or services. Things become much more simple. You avoid trying to be all things to all people. You know what you're doing. Consumers know what they're getting. Employees know their roles in the bigger scheme of your business. You can stay focused and when you stray and begin to wonder why, you re-visit the mission statement and re-commit to the purpose you're in business.
Important part of a business plan? Your purpose is essential; probably the most important element in putting together business and corporate marketing strategies.
Flip the coin. How do you know or find your purpose? Listen to your passion! What you desire, love to do, and care deeply about comprises your passion for business. This is why you want to start or operate your business venture, because you're passionate about providing that product or service to the consuming public.
If, like me, your passion is writing, you can trust that the mission statement for Fluidity includes writing successful business plans for entrepreneurs, business owners, and companies.
As you go into business, remember it is your passion that determines the purpose, or reason that your company exists. Keep in mind that you need to also have a focus on the consumer because, without customers, your idea is merely an idea without passion or purpose.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Essential: Market Research
If you own a business and wonder if your sales people represent you well in the marketplace, you need to do market research.
If you are curious about whether your customers will buy a new product in your line, you need market research.
If you would like to know how you compare to the competition in any particular area, you need to consider some market research.
Managing your business and remaining successful depends on market research. Plain and simple. Your initial market research should have told you there was a place for you in the market for your services or products. It also should have helped you understand how to compete effectively, where your market niche was, and what your consumers looked like.
Then you wove that market research into your business plan and developed a strategy for marketing your business profitably. The research in your plan is one of the aspects you manage by tweaking your business according to reliable market data. Some trends you ignore, others you try to position yourself to greatest advantage and ride out the trend. How you do it depends on your management style and the preferences of your management team.
So, how do you check on (do market research into) your sales people? Ask your customers and prospects to give you feedback. Go visit your customers yourself and see how they're being treated. You can always tag along with your sales representatives, too, knowing that you may get false indicators because you're with them. You can also monitor their performance each month, track it in a graph on a consistent basis, and identify trends that tell you how they're doing or where they might try to improve.
How do you determine if it's a viable market for a new product line? Talk to your customers and prospects. Ask them what they need, how they'd like to see it, what they'd pay for it, and how they'd like to see it delivered. Check out the marketplace. Does anyone else have anything similar? Get feedback from people you trust, including your banker, your accountant, your investment representative, your insurance agent, your business planner (who can help you with the market research), and your attorney.
How do you keep abreast of the competition? Watch the media. See what their ad messages say and who they're targeting demographically. Watch their signs. Talk to employees or have secret shoppers talk to their employees. Get to know the owner and build a relationship; usually there's more than enough business to go around if you can avoid being greedy.
Make adjustments to be better, and take care of your customers. They'll take care of you.
If you are curious about whether your customers will buy a new product in your line, you need market research.
If you would like to know how you compare to the competition in any particular area, you need to consider some market research.
Managing your business and remaining successful depends on market research. Plain and simple. Your initial market research should have told you there was a place for you in the market for your services or products. It also should have helped you understand how to compete effectively, where your market niche was, and what your consumers looked like.
Then you wove that market research into your business plan and developed a strategy for marketing your business profitably. The research in your plan is one of the aspects you manage by tweaking your business according to reliable market data. Some trends you ignore, others you try to position yourself to greatest advantage and ride out the trend. How you do it depends on your management style and the preferences of your management team.
So, how do you check on (do market research into) your sales people? Ask your customers and prospects to give you feedback. Go visit your customers yourself and see how they're being treated. You can always tag along with your sales representatives, too, knowing that you may get false indicators because you're with them. You can also monitor their performance each month, track it in a graph on a consistent basis, and identify trends that tell you how they're doing or where they might try to improve.
How do you determine if it's a viable market for a new product line? Talk to your customers and prospects. Ask them what they need, how they'd like to see it, what they'd pay for it, and how they'd like to see it delivered. Check out the marketplace. Does anyone else have anything similar? Get feedback from people you trust, including your banker, your accountant, your investment representative, your insurance agent, your business planner (who can help you with the market research), and your attorney.
How do you keep abreast of the competition? Watch the media. See what their ad messages say and who they're targeting demographically. Watch their signs. Talk to employees or have secret shoppers talk to their employees. Get to know the owner and build a relationship; usually there's more than enough business to go around if you can avoid being greedy.
Make adjustments to be better, and take care of your customers. They'll take care of you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)