Defining the Market and Basic Factors

All portable executives need to define the target market for their product or service. This process involves looking at people in the broad sense of potential customers and deciding which of them are most likely to purchase your product or service. This is called target market definition. Niche players, like Carol Fernier in her milk carton/media bartering business, and Frank Gilbert, who writes books for high school students, zero in on their target market as they define (and refine) their offerings. The majority of portable executives, however, must first identify their target market before they can begin developing their marketing plans.

As you begin to determine who your target market is, the size of your potential market can be quite daunting. Two key points help narrow it down. First, decide which potential customers you can communicate with, then estimate how many of them you can actually service if they do become customers.

You probably already have a sense of which your target market is, based upon your work during the searching process and business creation periods. For instance, portable executive Sam Marks, who specializes in marketing and strategic planning, decided during his searching period to focus on servicing professional service companies, while Anne Rarich, who specializes in training and development, decided to concentrate her efforts on companies that need help in management development. Focusing on a target market in this way helps ensure that your marketing materials are addressing likely buyers of your services.



Once you have identified your market, you'll need to research and identify specific targets to which you will direct your message. Armed with this research, you can then use your network contacts to identify specific groups or individuals within companies who should be made aware of your offering. This is probably the most effective method of identifying, and connecting with, appropriate individuals in the target market.

Invariably, as a portable executive, you must determine whether you will derive greater benefits from conducting extensive market research or from making random "cold" calls on prospective clients. On the one hand, devoting considerable amounts of time to conducting market research may well yield a list of "perfect customers," which will enable you to tailor your message and concentrate your efforts on "selling" to that specific audience. On the other hand, if you decide not to spend as much time on targeting the market, you will be sending your message to a far broader universe and will, as a result, need to spend more time doing follow up. No matter which strategy you employ, you must remember to allocate appropriate levels of money and time to reach the optimum number of potential customers.

In defining your market, you must consider a number of factors:

• Is the offering so specialized that the group of potential users is highly defined? Or is it so broad that identification is virtually impossible?
  
  
• Are you prepared to cope with the failure-or the success-of a broad based marketing program? A company launching the sale of telephone horoscopes in Los Angeles expected an estimated 5,000 calls the first day. Instead, they got 30,000, and the demand increased from there.
  
  
• Know the purpose of each specific marketing activity and evaluate the response to it accordingly. For example, if you are trying to create awareness, don't measure results by the number of orders received.
  

Creating Your Message

There are four basic elements that should include in his or her marketing message:

1. A clear understanding of the customers' needs.
   
   
2. A clear statement of how the service or product meets those needs.
   
   
3. A clear indication of how the offering is distinguishable from the competition.
   
   
4. Believability.
   

Most portable executives agree that putting together their message was one of the hardest things they had to do. Human re sources executive Richard Achilles said.

Putting my thoughts together in a concise and penetrating way was very, very difficult. I was in my study most of every day and night for over a week. I had more arguments with myself during that one week than I have before or since. I studied the honesty and veracity of the statements I was making and the degree of service I could deliver. I didn't do it casually. The message was scrubbed down to "This is what I can do."

Achilles' experience reflects some of the reasons why creating a marketing message is so difficult. Portable executives just starting out are not sure exactly how to present what they are offering in a way that is honest, accurate, and attractive to potential customers. Developing one's message involves a process of experimentation that evolves over time and is affected by the actual results obtains. Therefore, even though creating the message is critically important, one should not spend a protracted amount of time agonizing over it. Develop brochures and other promotional materials as soon as possible, and go to press with an early version. These materials will evolve as one's business does, and the relatively low cost of production makes it affordable for to produce new materials as the need arises.

The most important point of any message is that it is flexible enough to evolve, as one's business does, to reflect any changes, improvements, or new market focuses. Also, when creating a message, portable executives must be sure not to focus too much on their competency and skill set and not enough on the customer's needs. Messages that blatantly blow the presenter's horn are destined to turn off potential clients.