Every Entrepreneur has a good idea who they want to sell to or who they think will buy what they have….however most people miss the mark.  They build their new business around what they want to do, rather than building it around what the market wants them to do.  Building what you want is the fastest way to go out of business.

We are experts in taking a new idea (concept) into market.  We start by learning what your concept is all about, then we help you analyze your market opportunity.  We guide you through the process of documenting and grouping potential customers (segmentation).  This is done using techniques of our trade that have been adapted to the startup world.  These streamlined techniques will help you build a clear understanding of the relevant differences that define each group of target customers.  We help you evaluate and prove a variety of attributes, such as:

– Customer problems (things your concept could address or solve)
– Desires and motives (these are truly powerful!)
– Purchase expectations (where, how, packaging, pricing, etc.)
– Demographics (age, income, sex, geography, etc.)
– Spending alternatives (who else is competing for their dollar?)

Not all customers are built equally.  They have different needs and objections, different purchasing opportunities, and different ways in which you need to reach them and nurture the relationship with them.  This is part of why you need to segment your market…because you need to then evaluate which segments are good for your business and which will simply drain your resources.

Once we have your market segmented, we will take you through a fast process of characterization and estimating each segment so you know which ones are worth chasing first, and which to avoid for now (or forever).  This includes:

– Size (how many buyers in this segment)
– Reach (how you reach them to start the sales process)
– Cost (estimation of your customer acquisition cost)
– Alignment (how well they fit with your concept)
– Value (how valuable you are to this segment)
– Price (what you might charge)
– Profitability (after all costs of doing business considered)

Selecting your target markets is not about picking the largest ones or the ones that appear to have the most revenue.  It’s also not about going after the “low hanging fruit”, which is an approach most people are drawn to.  These first impulse approaches often lead startups into dead ends…they find revenue, they sell stuff, they think they are realizing their dream.  Then one day rather soon, they plateau, then sink into the statistics.  We offer a better way, proven through years of experience, to help you work around this risk.

Once you have characterized your segments, it’s time to decide which ones are right for you to go after first.  We will look at all the factors that matter for each segment.  Then we will look at how success in some segments can pave the way to other segments.  This work is done using techniques that we have developed, which essentially deliver a map of your risks, and ranking of segments by various attributes (such as profit, revenue, risk, alignment, and differentiation), and a “roadmap” of which segments you will go after and when.  Examples of factors we include are:

– Gross Revenue
– Net Profit
– Staffing Requirements
– Operational requirements (software, facilities, etc.)
– Risk factors
– Barriers of entry (things that keep you from reaching your target)
– Barriers of adoption (things that keep them from buying)