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In this article you will find out why not finding a market niche has so much to do with your low self esteem.
Often when we start in a business we think all it takes is having a great product or service and it will sell itself. If you participate in network marketing that's what the people upstairs told you, and that's why you got into the business in the first place. ( they didn't tell you that finding a market niche is important they told you everyone who breathes is your prospect. Right?)
There are products and services that seemingly fly off the shelf, but in reality the people who own these businesses have done their homework. They know what they have and they know about finding a market niche. They know who to market it to.
Having a great product or service is just one part of the successful sales and marketing equation. The successful sales and marketing equation consists of three parts:
o Having a great product.
o Finding a market niche to market it to.
o And, most importantly, knowing who you are.
In this article, we will look at each of these three components and how low self esteem may be affecting them. We will take the mystery out of finding a market niche and you will get clear on how to find yours.
So to begin with, let's look at part one of the successful sales and marketing equation: having a great product or service.
Having a great product or service is pretty self explanatory, because usually the way we find our products is by trying them out and falling in love with them. It's like finding the one 'right' person and falling in love with him. You just know it's the right one.
My opinion is that a great product or service is the one you love. It's interesting, though, that when we fall in love with the real one we don't want anybody else to fall in love with him. Weird logic that we think just because we love something so much everybody else will, and it will sell itself.
Self esteem doesn't get much in the way with part one though.
Now let's look at part two of the successful sales and marketing equation: finding a market niche to market to. Here is where things are starting to get tricky. Finding a market niche is a two step process.
The first step is doing market research, and the second step is evaluating the data and choosing a target market.
First let's clarify what a niche and a target market are so we are on the same page.
A niche is subcategory of a market. A market is an overall industry. Let me give you a clear example.
Let's say the product you fell in love with is a skin care line. The Market you are then in is the beauty industry. The beauty industry has several sub categories, like skin care, hair care, nail care, and even pedi-care. You can break it down even further: skin care for teens, for moms, for men, for dogs, etc.
The breaking it down even further has to do with step two of finding a market niche and determining your target market.
Your target market is the group that is the most interested in your product or service. So in our skin care example, it might be women age 35 and up, mature women (because the younger ones don't have wrinkles yet), women who are sophisticated and have money to spend on beauty.
So again, step one in finding a market niche is researching your industry, and step two is finding your hot target market.
Sounds pretty straightforward, and it's probably not obvious to you yet how low self esteem comes into play and messes things up. Therefore, let's start with market research and you will see what happens.
In market research we are looking for supply and demand. We are looking at who is buying, how they are buying, and how many are buying. We are also looking at who is offering, how many are offering, and how are they offering it.
We want our results to show a high demand (lots of people wanting your skin care) and a low supply (not very many people selling it).
Here is where low self esteem starts to play tricks on you.
Imagine just for a moment, your self esteem is very low, the skin care products you just bought (and you now have a garage full of) you bought in the hope of finally making it and getting from the low zone to the higher regions of wealth.
You now do your market research and you find out that tons of other people are selling the same exact thing and not enough people are looking for it.
Looking at your findings, you start to feel pretty desperate and upset, which is predictable and understandable. You just invested all your savings in the skin care. These results can't be right! (Because if they are it means you were wrong.)
You start seeing your search results through a filter, which is called denial. This denial will keep you from seeing things clearly and you will not be able to find a perfect market niche.
Now I said before that there are three parts to the successful sales and marketing equation and that's a very good thing because part three will save you from falling apart if your market research doesn't turn out the way you wanted it.
Part three will save you even if you found out that your product is something nobody wants, or something that too many others are also selling. Part three of the successful sales and marketing equation is the most important part. If you get this one right you can sell any product to any target market.
Part three is knowing who YOU are.
Yes, having a great product to sell is important, and yes, finding a hot target market and finding a market niche is important, but unless you put yourself in the equation, you're not in business. I am going to be really honest here, and I am not sugar coating anything because I really want to help you! Stay with me: this is some deep stuff that - if you get it - will solve most of your marketing problems.
Knowing who YOU are. What does that mean?
It means that you realize your power and your strengths. It also means that you know which gifts and talents you brought to the earth. It means that you realize that you have gifts and talents and that they only can be gifts if you share them!
The naked truth is, in order to know who you are you will have to GET OVER YOURSELF!
Let me explain what I mean by that. Do you think people are attracted to you when you are in low self esteem land? It's even hard for people who love you to be around you in those moments.
As long as you sing the song of 'woe is me,' everybody else is an expert, but I know nothing; poor me, poor me, look at me, I am just a worthless thing; as long as you are in self pity land, you are withholding your gifts from the world and nobody can notice you.
How long have you been living by now? And you really want to tell me with a straight face that there is nothing you have learned and that you can teach somebody? That's a flat out lie!
It's really that simple.
So this is why part three of the successful sales and marketing equation is the most important part. It is totally in your hands.
Be generous, share your knowledge and they will come in droves. As soon as you start focusing on how you can help other people, people will start feeling attracted to you. People will start buying from you because you have given to them and they therefore trust you. People only want to buy from people they trust.
Here are some practical steps how you can go about this:
o Start going to online forums that are related to your interests.
o Look for questions which you can answer. Be yourself.
o Grow more and more into this new role of being a servant to people who love your advice, who seek your advice.
In the process, your confidence will grow and doors will open. If you go about finding a market niche in this way, your niche will soon find you.
Get out of your head and get into action.
If you want more help figuring out what your strengths are and how to communicate your message powerfully, come and join me at the Playing it Big Boot camp.
Playing it big as in being done with playing it small. Find the Camp at http://www.EmpoweredBusinessWoman.com
I am also recommending you read this article by Ann Sieg on Attracting vs. Chasing your Customers
