A target market will answer the question “who are you NOT trying to sell?” I’m going to tell a little personal story of when I first got into this industry. The credit card processing company for whom I worked offered a terrible compensation package, but they did offer some telemarketed leads. One of the big […]
A target market will answer the question “who are you NOT trying to sell?” I’m going to tell a little personal story of when I first got into this industry.
The credit card processing company for whom I worked offered a terrible compensation package, but they did offer some telemarketed leads. One of the big problems was although they told me they would stay within about fifteen miles of my house, their telemarketers weren’t very good and so ran out of numbers pretty quickly. In the rural area where I lived there were not very many businesses within fifteen miles as far as telemarketing goes. About two months into my work I was getting leads down in Johnstown, PA, which was about an hour from me. My first thought was not to even run these leads but to ask the telemarketers not to give them. However, I decided maybe I should go make a sale. I did drive to Johnstown, PA, and made six sales there during the remaining time I worked for that processor – about another 4 weeks. I have since probably spent as much as $1,000 in gas money driving back and forth to service those six clients. That was a huge waste of time and money; I never should’ve done that. At that time I had not defined my target market.
Let me encourage you to define your target market in three different areas.
1. Geographic target market. Where will you NOT sell? Decide how far out from your home you’re willing to go to get a sale. You may say, “I’m willing to go as far as it takes.” That’s not very smart unless the sell is a big deal or multi location client. You want to stay very tight around your house. If you’re doing in-field prospecting like I did, my recommendation would be to start out by staying within five miles of your home. Agree to take any referrals that are within ten miles. Keep a tight target market at the beginning. This obviously would be different if you’re doing telemarketing. You’d have to open the area up a little. However, if you do broaden your geographic area, be a little tighter on these next two.
2. What business types. As a general rule you want to start out with retail and restaurant locations. Stay away from doctors’ offices, lawyers, corporate clients, etc. Stick with individually owned small businesses. If you’re going to be out in the field or setting up appointments for yourself, retail and restaurant business types are the best. Some agents have had a lot of success with targeting even a more specific business type. Maybe you go after just the pizza places in your market. Try to get those first. Look on Google maps to find all the pizza places within ten miles of your location. Go to all those. Work that very specifically targeted market. To target your market is really helpful.
3. Business size. When you start out, stay away from your big chains and large businesses.
Remember, choose a target market and decide who you’re NOT going to sell.
Have a great day!
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