In last month's blog post, I covered eleven market research related questions that a new business owner and founder should be asking. In this month's post I will be covering the first of the eleven questions, "What value does my solution add versus the existing solutions in the market?"
This question goes to the core of why customers will be buying your product. If there is no need or problem to solve, then there is no market demand to satisfy. Over time, you will then find it difficult to demonstrate a sustainable demand for your product or products.
Customers will be buying the benefit, or result, and not the actual product. It is, therefore, important to fully understand what is the solution that your product will bring to prospective customers, what customer problems you are/ will be seeking to solve and what customers would like to achieve. In addition, you will need to be able to articulate what makes your product different (from the competition), i.e. why should customers choose you and your product(s) over the alternatives and other solutions in the market.
Market research will support you in getting this clarity. Speaking with customers provides the possibility to validate and test any assumptions you have by getting feedback on the size of the problem; the importance to customers to solve the problem (- does the problem drive people to actively seek to solve it, or can the problem be ignored by them); who is actively seeking to get their problem solved; and what they are willing to pay. (The third part on the "who is actively seeking" will be covered in a future post on targeting and segmentation.) An understanding of what people are paying for other solutions in the market will be valuable information to have.
If you would like to hear more, please reach out via the Contact Form for a free consult call. I help owners of small businesses to be clear in communicating the scope of their offers and in identifying their ideal clients or customers.
Comments