In every sector, there is a value chain. The customer (or client) has a need. In order to resolve that need, they will probably need more than one vendor. You are one of those vendors. The other vendors are your value chain. They are your natural partners. Figure out how you can help each other, and reach out to them.
If you know exactly who your customer is, and understand their needs, it can be that simple.
If you are an emerging company still finding your market, it can be more complex.
There is no substitute for market research. Until you’ve done yours, your assumptions about your customer can lead you to waste your marketing budget. On the other hand, market research can be a bottomless pit into which you pour money.
I start with a stripped-down approach. I interview your people to find out who they think needs your product or service. If you already have customers, I interview them, to see if what they value about your product matches your assumptions. I interview all the kinds of people you and I think might need your product. I interview people who might be your competitors, to see if I can find your unique selling point, your secret sauce.
(Sometimes the people you think are your competitors turn out to be natural partners.)
This level of market research can be all you need – for finding your natural partners, and for focusing your marketing budget.
Even if we later hire a market research firm to fine tune your marketing, the preliminary work you’ve done ensures that you can save a large amount of money by pointing them in the right direction. In market research speak, you’re not hiring them to “boil the ocean”.
In the blog “Partner Co-Marketing Can Boost Your”, I extoll the virtues of having partners. Go find them.
