Top 8 questions to ask yourself when selecting your target market

by Davina Schonle | Jul 9, 2021 | Business

Today we wanted to take you through how you can really understand who it is you want to target to do business with.  We have come up with our top 8 questions to ask yourself when making this plan.

1. Who will you work with?

• • If you wanted to, you could go for absolutely any company in the world. It is a bit like when you’re going into a restaurant and you’ve got too much on the menu and can’t decide what to order!

2. What industry will you work with?

1. • Here are some of the types of industries you could select from: Retail, E-Commerce, Banking, Tourist, Construction, Food and Beverage, Legal, etc.
   • Think about your hobbies, about what you like, about what you’re interested in when choosing your target industry.  This is important, as if you’re going to speak with people who are passionate about their industry and you’re not, there is a high risk you will get bored easily and lower your motivation.  Choose something that you enjoy talking about – the best deals are the ones you have an understanding about through your own knowledge by reading market reports or magazines about that industry etc.
   • You can choose multiple industries if you want to – we would recommend up to three different industries. When choosing multiple industries you need to have a look at your long-term plan, your current situation and risk mitigation, to determine if you could expand to multiple industries or stick with one industry. It depends on you, on your personality. However, there’s plenty of work and plenty of companies in one single industry.

3. What type of companies?

1. • Here are some of the types of companies you could sell into: Non-profits; Education; Government; Run by women;  Founded by women; Focus on diversity; Focus on creativity; Focus on arts; Focus on social good; Focus on social advancements; Focus on environmental impact; Focus on personal development.

4. What size company should you target?

1. • When looking into company size, think about the company headcount, the revenue of the company (range min-max) and if they are global or not. 
   • Usually the size of the company doesn’t necessarily matter.  Even in large companies, you may have exposure and the chance to work with teams of only around 25 people. Sometimes people avoid large organisations because they don’t want to be in communication with so many people. In reality – unless you are doing a speaking session/workshop etc – you are very unlikely to be in front of too many people. 
   • On the other hand, with a micro business with only £2 million revenue, for example, it may be very hard for you to get a substantial piece of work. 

5. Where are they located?

1. • Where is the company based?  Are you happy to travel to that location regularly to do business with this company?

6. What is the company looking to do?

1. • Survive (restructuring, outsourcing, resource allocation)
   • Thrive (talent attraction, hiring and recruiting, training and development, procedures and systems)
   • Engage (employee communication, collaboration, diversity and inclusion, expanded social responsibility)
   • Innovate (growth strategies, new policies, innovation).
     • Is the stage of their business relevant to what you are offering?  For example if you are offering training would a company in survival mode really be interested?

7. What values do they have?

1. • As we discussed last week, ensuring the target businesses’ values align with yours is essential to keep you motivated and ensure success.  Ensure you research their values through looking at their websites mission statements, values etc.

8. What are the problems you can solve for them?

1. • When thinking about this also consider what impact are the problems having on the individuals, on the teams, on the peers and on the organisation?
   • And identify the risks if the problem is not getting resolved (short-term vs long-term impacts).

Grab a coffee and give this a try.  What is the outcome?  Does it match with who your current customers are?  What could you do today to focus more on your target market?  Continue the conversation with us through social.