Selling to your target market is not a one-size-fits-all process. You need to understand who your ideal customers are, what their needs and goals are, and how your product or service can help them. In this article, you will learn some tips and best practices to sell to your target market effectively and efficiently.
The first step to sell to your target market is to know who they are. You can use various methods to research and segment your target market, such as surveys, interviews, personas, customer profiles, and market analysis. The more you know about your target market, the more you can tailor your sales message, value proposition, and offer to their specific pain points, challenges, and desires.
Once you have a clear picture of your target market, you need to find them. You can use different channels and strategies to reach out to your target market, such as referrals, social media, email marketing, content marketing, events, and networking. The key is to choose the most relevant and effective channels for your target market, and to optimize your outreach for each channel. For example, you can use LinkedIn to connect with B2B prospects, or Instagram to showcase your product to B2C consumers.
When you find your target market, you need to engage them. You need to capture their attention, interest, and curiosity, and build trust and rapport with them. You can use various techniques to engage your target market, such as storytelling, testimonials, case studies, demonstrations, and free trials. The goal is to show them how your product or service can solve their problems, improve their situation, and deliver value to them.
Not every prospect in your target market is ready or willing to buy from you. You need to qualify your target market, and filter out the ones who are not a good fit for your offer, or who are not in the right stage of the buyer's journey. You can use different criteria to qualify your target market, such as budget, authority, need, and timing. The benefit of qualifying your target market is that you can focus your time and resources on the most qualified and promising leads, and avoid wasting time on the ones who are not likely to convert.
From a purely sales perspective it is indeed important to focus time and ressources on the leads that are the better chance to convert and/or the biggest potential. On the other hand from an overall perspective for your business it is still very important to focus some ressources and time to engage with the rest of your audience and market that are not ready to but yet. It will take more time to drive them through the whole buying process but if you don’t do it and only focus on the part of the audience ready to buy yet (which is a very little part of your target market), you will run out of good lead quit fast and it will increase a lot the length of the sales cycle and the acquisition costs.
The final step to sell to your target market is to close them. You need to persuade them to take action, and overcome any objections or doubts they may have. You can use different tactics to close your target market, such as discounts, incentives, guarantees, testimonials, and urgency. The key is to align your closing strategy with your target market's needs, goals, and motivations, and to make it easy and convenient for them to buy from you.
Selling to your target market does not end with closing them. You need to follow up with them, and ensure that they are satisfied with their purchase, and that they become loyal and repeat customers. You can use different methods to follow up with your target market, such as thank-you notes, feedback requests, referrals requests, upsells, cross-sells, and newsletters. The goal is to maintain and strengthen your relationship with your target market, and to increase their lifetime value and advocacy for your brand.
Key elements of a Sales Message Framework as part of the selling process can be found in the mnemonic aid: HOPSCOTCH Hook - get prospect’s attention Opening - elevator pitch Problem - reason for interest Solution - unique answer Call to Action - moving forward Objection Handling - Test Close - CLOSE - Helpful follow-up - The last step in HOPSCOTCH is the Helpful follow-up. This is the most important step in building a thriving organization.
Look up “Social Selling Index | Sales Navigator” to learn more about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. Business.LinkedIn.com is the place to go to expand one’s reach on this platform.