You can check my previous post for more details on this, but let me make one thing abundantly clear: This isn't theoretical spewing by yet another information marketer. This stuff is coming straight from the front lines of capitalism. I'm in the trenches with start-ups and small business owners daily, helping them go after and acquire real business in the real world.
Every post is going to be based on real world events, with real businesses, who have to make payroll, have pay their suppliers, have make sales day after day, etc. to keep their head above water, survive, and thrive.
Real people. Real businesses. Real life.
And in very concise form, I'm going to bring you the solutions to the most pressing and important problems these folks have to conquer in order to succeed in business today, tomorrow, and for the long haul. Now for today's solution:
Do you really know your market?
If you don't listen to your market, you're flying blind.
Customers and clients (past, present and future)... your competition... your suppliers, vendors, partners, distributors... even your employees... they all are continually giving you pure gold feedback that can help you do what you do better, faster, higher, and more sustainably.
All too often I see entrepreneurs so goal focused and insistent upon getting their own way, that they aren't listening to anyone except themselves. And their businesses are hurting for it.
If you aren't listening to what is being said in your "market space," here are some of the negative consequences you might face (all based on real world examples):
- You might waste months (or years) developing a product that, when you take it to market, is a complete sales-failure.
- You might keep pursuing a start-up concept that is bound to fail, no matter how persistent and positive you might be about it.
- You might invest time and money in marketing and advertising that produces no actual results, and is thus a complete waste of time, energy, effort and a capital.
- You might invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to launch a new profit center, only to find out your direct competition had you annihilated before you even got started.
- .... and on and on...
The costs paid by those flying "market blind" are untold. The wasted time, the wasted money, the wasted effort... the pressure on your employees, the frustration to your partners, the stress on your family... it's all unnecessary.
The challenges of being in business are enough as it is. You really don't need to make things harder by proverbially "chopping your feet off" before you even run the race!
Know your space.
TAKEWAY: Sustainable, wealth building businesses are not built on guesswork. They are built on a continual flow of solid data coming from the marketplace. Commit to engage in continual R&D to drive your strategic decision making, or your days or numbered.
ACTION STEP: R&D your market on 2 fronts: Your customers and your competition.
- Identify your top 3 direct competitors and genuinely asses their strengths and weaknesses. Honestly, how do you stack up and what are you going to do about it?
- If you are a start-up, pitch your concept to real members of your target market. Can you sell them the idea and get them excited? Is there immediate evidence that your enterprise is viable, based upon an actual potential customer's response and feedback? (Friends, family, and business partners do not count as actual potential customers!) If you are in business, start following up with customers shortly after purchase and casually survey them about their experience doing business with you.... LISTEN to what they have to say and then DO something to improve your operations based upon their feedback. Don't dismiss what your market tells you.
To your enduring success,
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