Supply And Demand Is The Key To Your Sales
Knowing where the market is heading is just what good research is all about
© David Newton www.EntrepreneursSydney.com
March 23, 2009
What is the best new product to sell?
What is my best niche market?
How do I know what trends are there to follow?
In times of a recessionary environment making a choice about what you’re going to sell isn’t such a petty thing anymore. You really do need to make a choice based on good facts and clear understanding.
You know it seems not that long ago we were in the recession – you remember the one we had to have? Well I was making phone calls day after day for a catering product that at the time was going no where. When I spoke with a business lady who said to me, “Get out now while you still can”. You know I’m glad I did, the guy I was working for was soon broke and had to walk away from his business. I made a switch over that weekend and joined another small business to business marketing firm and the results were immediate and positive.
What this simple change taught me was that on one hand I was selling a product deemed as a luxury and the buyers although they wanted it had none or little budget for it at the time. On the other hand, at the other company, I was selling a product which was in high demand regardless of the economic situation.
To cut a long story short, this wasn’t my only example I covered during that year, for me 1990 was an eye opener about issues like what is a luxury product and what are absolute necessity products. When times are going tough, you need to ask yourself what are people really going to buy and what will they drop. You need to be aware of the reasoning behind their choices.
Research Plays A Vital Role
Quite often I’ve seen people go down a pathway of seeking out niches and trends. Now of and by itself that’s okay. The real challenge is looking at products from a neutral or in a plain view without all the hype and marching bands. Not easy – after all we are often told that we need to be enthusiastic about what we are selling in order to sell it in the first place. So what can you do?
Good knowledge is the key and being aware of fundamentals is also handy. There are a few ways to go about this, and the answers aren’t always as simple as they look. You need to be good and digging and looking at the bigger picture rather than just one source of information, you need to look at who is promoting that information and even if they have vested interests in the details they give you.
That’s why I use publicly available information where ever possible.
The Financial Review
www.afr.com Often overlooked by the average business person, this newspaper has many interesting and useful articles and research on a daily basis. Plus you can look at the figures of the economy in a “snap shot view” to see what direction the business world is heading.
Business Review Weekly
www.brw.com.au This magazine is something I buy just now and then, as it has each issue with a specific theme behind it. As a result, some of the issues I’ve purchased I have kept for ages, as the material found in them is terrific.
Lateline Business (ABC TV)
Maybe one of the best business interview shows you’ll see on TV is this little gem. Likewise watching the ABC show on Sunday called “Insiders” holds a lot of useful facts about business trends.
Bernard Salt – Demographer
www.bernardsalt.com.au This website holds a host of demographic data, every bit of which you can use to see the direction of consumer and business trends. What’s more Bernard helps you with understanding the complex data available and sometimes in a comical satirical way.
ABS Website
www.abs.gov.au If you want raw data on population, buying habits, and employment, plus a lot of other things, this site gives you tons of info. What’s more, with a phone call to the department and they can email you some special reports to help you out. Very useful.
The ‘Business for Sale’ Ads Pages
If you read the ads on a regular basis, as I’ve done now for decades, you’ll easily spot businesses that fade into fashion and those that have faded away from interest. I often love calling up the ads. Its interesting calling just regular business owners who wish to sell their business. Plus calling those who have headlines saying their business is the answer to all your worries … ha! The confidence of these people are most interesting – then given time, maybe a year or two, their ads are gone, they have moved to another project. Anyway, it’s always worthy research anytime of the year. But don’t just call them, make appointments and see them.
Job Ads – (Seek – Career One etc)
Often overlooked are the pages of job ads, and the demands for staffing levels and where staff is required. Even executive positions can be a clue to where companies are planning their next moves, long before they tell the share market. Thus it makes a good read for you and discovering what’s really going on.
Business Clubs
In my case I should know – I run a business club (See www.EntrepreneursSydney.com ) and what I can say is that by being a part of regular conversation and listening to guest speakers each month you can tap into trends, special news, and the direction of business. You also have the advantage of directly meeting and doing business with people in your business circle.
Now you don’t need to be an economist to handle all of the figures, but still you do need to be aware of what you’re actually hearing and if that info has a bias, then be able to take that into account before you use it as decision making material.
Quiz Local “Serial Business Owners”
It’s amazing who lives right near you, my local café owner has owned over 5 cafes in the last 15 years, and was a wealth of information to my business pursuits.
There’s one thing you can do to help you in making a decision about what type of business or product you might like to ask around a few existing business owners what they see is going on for their business and ask why they are still at it for so long. If you spend time talking with a business owner who has seen more than one business you’ll be able to tap into some seasoned understandings. Better still, if they have a positive outlook and that they can give you some industry insider knowledge that you can see useful.
Cyclical Buying Patterns
Some products are only one hit sales and may never be purchased for many months or years after the first purchase (i.e. a laptop computer, a car, an office chair) and some products have a very short repeat buying time (i.e. a coffee, a ream of copy paper, a daily newspaper, a sandwich) so be aware that if you are selling products which have a long cycle, you might need to wait between the next sale. Likewise, if its coffee, you’re selling, you’re going to need hundreds of buyers to make the day profitable for you.
Use Your Business Intuition
Often a lot of good business sense – built upon those who have experience and read a lot, will deliver up for you an intuitive feel. Keep files and cut out pages from papers etc. The trick is doing your research, dropping it and then looking at again in a clearer light after consideration, you’ll develop a true “inner-confidence” about what you want to sell. If used correctly, you can make the most out of your fundamental analysis.
David Newton – regularly holds social business events in Sydney www.EntrepreneursSydney.com He also has a social walks group in Sydney www.SydneyWalking.com plus many other events www.MySydneyNetworking.com