3 Easy Ways To Find The Best Places To Sell by:Tom Perrett

You are a small business with something to sell

. What you need now is to find the best places to make contact with your potential customers.

Who is going to be your customer?

When starting out in business you need to understand where you customers can be found. You need to describe them. Are they old, young, male, female etc? Are they a business? What kind of business? Try to think what else that same target market might buy. Once you find what that product is, you need to find the suppliers of this product.

Find a friend that knows this market better than you.

So the XYZ Company sells products to the same customer as you, but a non competitive product. Take a look at their website; see if they have any press releases in their news pages. Search for the XYZ Company on the internet looking for links to them from exhibition organisers or specific magazines.

It might be a good ploy to ring the XYZ Company sales manager. In my experience a sales manager never refuses to take a call just in case you are a customer. Simply say that who you are and what you sell i.e. you are not a competitor, then ask if you can ask a few simple questions as you are new to the market. Start by asking which trade magazines they advertise in, then what exhibitions or trade shows they attend. Lastly ask if there is a trade body that represents their interests in this industry. Job done!

Research the market.

Find the contact details of the trade magazines and ask for their media pack. This tells you the cost of advertising but also tells you distribution details such as where the readers are based and what are their job titles etc. Now you know if they are the right magazine for your market.

Assuming that this magazine attracts your customers start thinking of how they can help you with advertising, mailings, press releases, do they support exhibitions or conferences. You will find their advertising staff will have lots of ideas.

Attend a trade show. Get there on the first day, early. Generally first days are the quietest, and exhibitors are enthusiastic. Find someone who sells something similar but not identical to you and explain that you were new to the market and are here to see if it is the right show for you to attend another year. If they are not busy they will normally give you some time, and more crucially an opinion. Keep asking at more and more stands. You may even find someone who would like to distribute your products, but let them raise the possibility as most shows don't allow you to sell to the exhibitors, you could get kicked out. Don't expect a good reception from a busy stand.

During the busy times in the middle of the day look up the stands of trade magazines and trade bodies as they will be more than happy to discuss their industry with a newcomer. Trade bodies will also be able to tell you about industry trends, which may help you to decide your route and method to market. Lastly speak to the exhibition organisers as they will also furnish you with facts about the show hoping to attract you next year.

Now you are ready to make the marketing plan and put those ideas into action.

http://www.the-old-fox.co.uk

About the author

Tom Perrett works as a pay-as-you-go Marketing Manager. He enjoys finding ways to stop clients squandering their budget on things that don`t work helps them find new ways to make their small business more profitable and live up to its potential.

http://www.the-old-fox.co.uk

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