Knowing Your Market

by Jeff Gustafson, iMpro, LLC

What is the market you are targeting?  How does that market think?  What are they looking for?  What do they want from a contractor?  To do things the same today as yesterday and to expect to still get results may not be effective.  In difficult markets like this you have to think beyond what you have done in the past.  The market is stagnant to say the least.  Many people are waiting to see what happens before committing to anything and confidence is running very low.  Does this mean we just bury our heads and wait till things turn around?  I guess if you have compiled a tidy nest egg and don't have a lot of obligations you can do that.  But I don't know many people that necessarily live within their means.  Most people adjust upward with their success.  So to maintain your standard of living you have to either find a way to turn things around or you find something else to do. 

Let's talk about your market.  Do you know who buys your product and why?  Is there something that you do that is unique that attracts certain people to your product as opposed to someone else?  Don't answer that with what you think but answer that with what you know.  Talk to your clients and get honest feedback.  The idea is to then see if there are some patterns to what they say.  If they exist, look at who selected you and look at their age, their income, their lifestyle, their professions...anything you can glean that will give you a clue as to what sort of person seems to like what you do.  That is a great start.  If you know the sort of people that seem to prefer your work, your product, then you can work toward marketing to other people that fall within that same demographic/psycho-graphic.  This sort of approach helps you to define what your market is and how best to approach it. 

Don't get fooled by thinking that the world is your market.  That doesn't work in anything.  We have all heard the phrase "a jack of all trades - a master of none" and that is where you fall when you think the world is your market.  It is best to find that niche where you best fit - where there is plenty of opportunity and then put your efforts into that niche so that you claim that piece of turf - You become that "master" within the niche.