Whether you are thinking of starting a new business, buying an existing business or a franchise, it is important to understand the customer base of the business. The most successful businesses are those who know and deeply understand their customers; afterall, the goal of every business is to get and keep customers.
Here are some questions to ask to help you understand the customers of the business:
- Does the business cater to individual customers or businesses? Or is it the government?
- If individuals, do you know the demographics of the target market?
- If businesses, how big are these companies? Are they micro, small, medium or Fortune 500 type of businesses?
- How do the customers decide to buy this type of product/service?
- If the customers are the government or businesses, what is the purchasing process in the organization?
- Is the business heavily dependent on one or few customers?
- Are the customers in a growing market, or is the market shrinking?
- Are there possible changes or shift in the industry that could affect their purchase from the business?
It’s a fact that a successful business is one that does it pre-launch market research properly. It is very important to know who your audience is and then market your product accordingly.
This would be a great post if many people could view this especially the newbies in the internet marketing community..
MAny are venturing in a business online but the sad thing is most of them do not succeed because they do not know what they are targeting..
I would agree to your post…
In fact, thats what marketing is all about, knowing the targeted market, right?
Failing to know what market to target is just like, not wanting to succeed at all..