How to determine your chances of getting easy customers, and making it happen
Most people only have a few priorities and spend their money accordingly. If you want easy sales, you must tap into these priorities.
BY DON DEBELAK
As anyone who has studied inventions knows, success isn’t always a case of having the best product or the best strategy. Often, the difference is choosing a market where customers are easy to get.
Before investing too much money in an invention, it pays to consider how easy it will be to sell. Let’s look at this from two major themes—priorities for customers, and your ability to get and retain them through entry points.
Great blender, but …
How important your product is to potential customers is the first consideration in easy sales.
Many people might rate your product as much better than your competitors’, but unless your product is a priority to consumers, your sales will be low.
You might make the best blender, but most consumers don’t place a high priority on this. Conversely, many people put a high priority on owning clothes with certain brand names, which aren’t necessarily of a higher quality than other clothing brands.
Most people only have a few priorities and spend their money accordingly. If you want easy sales, you must tap into these priorities.
The second point related to priority to customers is your competitive advantage. What will make people choose your product over others? Your product needs a significant advantage.
Some possible categories where your product could have a competitive advantage: support of customers’ self-image; performance; completeness of solution; best perceived value; first with newest technology; best visual appeal; highest quality; best-known brand name, lowest pricing.
A third point regarding your product’s importance to potential customers is the price/value relationship.
Some people think buying a new car is a waste of money due to the immediate depreciation; others disagree. Your desired customer group must think your product is well worth the price.
Getting them in the door
The second consideration in your quest for easy sales is getting and retaining customers, built around how many entry points you have for this purpose.
Entry points are different ways for customers to start buying your products. These include buying online, in a retail store, in catalogs, renting or even leasing.
The more entry points your product has, the easier sales will be because customers will have an easier time finding you.
The best way to create more entry points is to enter your customer’s world. Where does he or she shop or eat? What does he or she do in his or her free time?
Find ways to collaborate on promotions with other businesses your customers frequent. For instance, if you sell motorcycle gear in your town, find all the restaurants, pool halls, movie theaters, etc., motorcyclists are most likely to patronize. Then offer a free T-shirt coupon or baseball cap coupon to them as a promotion through that other business..
Also, host seminars, hold contests and be active in associations. These efforts can bring customers into contact with you, creating more entry points.
Another tactic often used by people who have their own retail or internet store is to carry other people’s products. That way, someone looking for pool chemicals might come to your website and see your patented pool filtration system.