A recent conversation with a client about a new service they were looking to develop and launch really reinforced to me (and the client) how important having a clear definition of your target market is in any marketing activity.

The client in question had a great idea to develop a service for start-up business owners. They had ideas about the elements of the service they wanted to include, how they would promote it and how much they were going to charge. Then they asked me the million dollar question. How many do you think we can sell?

As I don’t have a crystal ball I went back to marketing basics and asked a few searching questions about their plans to help them start to put flesh on the bones of their innovative thinking.

It turns out the only question we needed was ‘have you defined your target market?’ We quickly agreed that ‘start-up businesses’ wasn’t an adequate definition.

A target market is a unique group or audience for your product or service. You may have multiple target markets – and now is the time to realise that, because when it comes to how you promote your business to them, sell to them and even how you service them – there may need to be a number of different approaches

This sequence of questions, answered fully, will provide you with a very clear picture of who will buy your product or service and help you decide how large that market is and what proportion of the market is likely to buy from you.

Questions for defining your target market

Who are they?
Think in terms of demographics (age, sex, income level, educational attainment etc), geography (local, national, international), job role or title – the things you can list and measure. But also think in terms of psychographics, the attributes relating to personality, lifestyle, interests, values and attitudes. This will help you get to grips with what motivates your potential clients and this will be very important when you start to think about selling to them.

Examples of the demographic and psychographic factors you need to consider if you are selling business to business are given below:

Demographic	Psychographic
Industry type Size of company (no. of employees) Geographic location(s) Annual revenue Business structure (plc, partnership, etc) Who are their customers? Age of the company Gender balance of staff and management Age spread of employees and decision makers Who you’ll need to sell to in the company	Mission / philosophy of the business   Reputation   Community involvement / Corporate social responsibility  Standards and awards for excellence

Can you paint a picture of your target client?
You need to be as precise as you possibly can be, for example:

Our clients are family owned businesses who are into the second generation. They lack a formal management structure. Our client is the son of the founder. He is 35 years old. He’s worked in the family firm since university. He’s a family man earning £50,000 per annum.
These would be the demographic factors

Our client has built a business on strong family values. They have a reputation for being a caring employer and most of the staff have been with them for 10 years plus. Their management style is a bit haphazard. The founder, who’s a technician, likes to know what’s going on but prefers not to get involved in day to day management which he leaves to his son.
This delves more into the psychographic factors, which as you can see will influence how decisions are made, what the priorities are and who is making the decisions.

How do they make decisions?
Don’t forget if you are targeting businesses you are still targeting people – a business can’t make a decision to buy, it’s the people within the business that make that decision. But when you are selling in a business to business environment you have to consider the full decision making process.

Who’s involved? How are decisions made? Who holds the budget? Who is the ultimate decision maker?

Consider the motivators for each party in the decision making process and by different types of people. For example finance people will want to see the facts and figures, return on investment and whether the expenditure is budgeted; junior staff might be driven by a desire to impress their boss or protect their backs; some people will be driven by pride (wanting to do a good job) and others by objectives and goals (which might ultimately be related to their pay or bonus).

Getting to grips with the motivations of people in your target audience will make the whole process of attracting their attention and selling to them so much easier.

Big business and public sector bodies are traditionally slower to make decisions and often more people are involved in the decision making process.

In SME’s or family owned businesses there may still be barriers to decision making even though the structure is flatter and there are fewer people involved. For small businesses decisions are held up due to a lack of time or cash at any given moment.

Know the types of organisation you are dealing with and develop a detailed understanding of how decisions are made, who’s involved and what some of the triggers are likely to be. Getting to understand the likely decision making timetable can help on the frustration front too.

What keeps them awake at night?
What challenges do they face? What concerns do they have in business? What opportunities are they desperate to exploit but not quite clear how to move forward?

This is perhaps the critical question when you start to consider a new product or service because unless you can present a compelling case that you can help them with a challenge or solve a problem why would they buy your product?

Of all the businesses I’ve worked with over the years, and of all the great businesses I observe and read about, the most successful are those who take a rigorous and uncompromising approach to clarity when it comes to who exactly they are targeting. If you can do the same all of your marketing will be a whole lot more successful.

Further reading:

No cost marketing in 4 easy steps

The 60 minute make-over to improve marketing results

Written by Teresa Harris, Second Opinion Marketing. Teresa is an independent marketing consultant working with professional practices, small businesses and public sector bodies to develop effective marketing plans which achieve their business objectives. As a marketing coach Teresa works with new marketing managers and small business owners to enhance their marketing performance.

Contact Teresa on 01789 740396 or by email.

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