Insight #9: Target Marketing

This is the day you’ve been waiting for since 9^th grade. Today’s the day you’re going to find out what some of that funky stuff you learned in math class has to do with anything. Believe it or not, there’s a mathematical model - the Bell Curve - that explains how you should target your market. But first, we need to define some terms and dispel some traditional sales and marketing myths.

Target Marketing means a seller identifies market segments, selects one or more of them, and then develops products and marketing messages tailored to each. It’s a great concept, but most businesses don’t practice it, despite what they say. The reason is simple: Most products and services are not developed with the wants and needs of the customer in mind.

Instead of finding out what a market wants, most businesses first develop a product and then try to
figure out how to sell it.

This means that their marketing and sales efforts are usually feature-oriented. They say something like “Look at all the great widgets and whatzits on our doohickie”. This marketing technique is called, “Trying To Be All Things To All People.” In other words, “Attention, world. Here’s our crap. Come buy it whether you need it or not.”

Now let’s look at one approach in sales situations. Traditional sales books and trainers preach the importance of developing the skill of asking questions. When you get in front of a prospect, ask detailed questions about his wants and needs. Then try to slam him with a pitch that matches his needs list. There’s just one small problem with this approach: If you haven’t already determined what those needs are, then the prospect won’t even know that you can help him and you’ll never get the appointment in the first place.

You’ve heard the phrase “Sell the Appointment.” You have to sell the appointment when you use traditional sales techniques because nobody ever wants to see you, because they don’t perceive you as having any solutions to any of their problems. You’re a nuisance. You’re the person that gives salespeople a bad name.

This is not a reference to you specifically. It’s a reference to the other 95% that still use those antiquated methods. The better way is to sell to the Bell Curve instead of individuals. (Here’s the part you’ve been waiting for...9^th grade math relived.)

Simply stated, the Bell Curve is a statistical model that shows that 80% of a given sample of prospects will have the same wants and needs as everyone else in the sample.

For example, if your company services air conditioners, you might find that 80% of the market values both quick service and guaranteed appointment times more so than low price and warranty of service. Now, there are some people who simply want the very lowest price. And, there are others who insist that the warranty be overly extensive. But 80% of the people just want somebody there to fix their #!&%# air conditioner right now!

How do you find out what’s most important to your prospects? Informally poll your staff to find out what they think is most important. Then informally poll about 10 customers to find out what they think is most important. When you have that list – let’s say it includes the top 8 most important things - put it on a piece of paper and poll between 40 and 60 current customers and 40 to 60 prospective customers. Ask them to rank the importance of each of the eight items (on a scale of 1 to 10).

Tabulate the results by adding up the scores. You’ll find that the responses will invariably form a Bell Curve. One or two out of the eight will be far and away the most important; one or two will be of almost no importance. The rest will be somewhere in the middle. Congratulations! You just made a bell curve and validated everything your 9^th grade math teacher ever taught you.

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