- Let's say you want to start a business.
You have an idea.
How do you know that the idea is valid?
How do you know that the marketplace,
people actually want to buy this product or service?
In the art of war Sun Tzu said it best,
"A battle is won before it is ever fought."
Before you even launch an idea,
product or service in the marketplace,
if you have done your research properly,
you would already know if that product is likely
to be successful or not likely to be successful.
I remember many years ago, my mentor shared a story with me.
He said, Dan, let's say you have an idea,
and you craft a little sales page,
or a little letter out there,
and what you want to do is you want to take it to,
let's say, take it to a pub, take it to somewhere.
And you will show that sales page,
that sales letter to people.
And if people say,
"Hey, that's, yeah, that's pretty cool idea, that's nice."
That means the idea is shit.
That means they're being nice.
They're being polite.
But if they say, "Oh, where can I buy this?
"How can I get some of this?"
Then you know that you've got something.
Because people vote with their wallets,
not with their mouth.
They might say something,
but unless they are willing to vote with their wallet,
willing to put some money on the line and spend some money,
I mean, talk is cheap.
So when it comes to market research,
I'm going to give you some tips today
while we're going somewhere.
So I believe when it comes to market research,
there are three questions.
Three critical questions that you have to ask.
The very first question is this,
is their pain sense of urgency or irrational passion?
The reason this question is powerful is,
are you selling a nice to have, or a must have?
Are there emotional buttons that you could push
when you're selling this product?
So you could have a good idea for a product,
but if there's no pain,
chances are, whatever you've come up with,
most of the time is not new.
And people already have a preferred choice.
They're buying that product from somebody.
Let's say you have an idea for a Cola drink.
Well, chances are, people are not going to buy from you.
It doesn't matter what its taste is like
because people prefer to buy from Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola.
They have certain preferences.
It's very difficult to enter their marketplace.
Maybe your drink taste is better.
It doesn't matter.
You don't have the distribution network and so forth.
They've been around a long time.
So there has to be a reason
why people would want to make a switch
or why they would want
to buy this new thing that you've got.
And then sense of urgency.
Do they need to buy now
or could they just procrastinate and wait three months?
If there's no urgency,
then it's more difficult for you to make that sale.
If there's no irrational passion,
meaning that people don't get excited about this
like, eh, yeah, I could buy that or maybe I won't buy that,
then you will have a harder time trying to get traction.
So that's the very first question.
Now, so how do you know how to find out about these things?
I recommend a few places.
Number one, Amazon.
Amazon is a fantastic place, especially Amazon reviews.
You look at what people are not happy about.
What are they complaining about?
They might say, "Hey, I like this product,
"but there are certain features that I don't like."
Hey, that would give you some ideas.
Second, forums.
Go to different forums in your category.
What are people talking about?
What do they like?
What don't they like?
What they want to see more of.
Reddit also have a lot of people on there,
talking about different products and services.
That would also give you very, very good ideas.
When you go to where the conversations are,
when you pay attention to
what are some of the pains people are experiencing,
what are some of the needs that people have
that are not being fulfilled?
That will give you a lot of great ideas.
So that's the first question.
The second question you need to ask
before you do any kind of market research is,
are they actively looking for solutions?
Why is this question so critical?
Because I've met so many entrepreneurs,
they've got a great idea,
they've got a great product, a good service,
but they don't know how to reach the right people.
They don't know how to put their products,
their offers, their services in front of the right people.
Well, wouldn't it be nice to figure out in the beginning?
And how do you do that?
You do that, if you're marketing online example,
you do that by doing your keyword research.
You could find out exactly the search volume
of people using the keywords to search
for your products or services every single day on Google.
If they're not actively looking for solutions,
they're not typing in the keywords, then chances are,
you will have a tough time reaching those audience.
Why?
Because they're not searching for it.
They're not actively seeking it out.
They're not actively looking for solutions.
Then you'll have a problem scaling that business.
I mean, tools like this are out there,
there are so many other keyword tools,
and if you're willing to spend a few bucks,
man, you can find a whole bunch of them,
but keyword research before you do anything.
That's how you do your market research.
The third question you have to ask is,
who are the competitions?
Who are already selling to the same audience?
Because there may be a potential for collaboration.
There may be a potential for a joint venture opportunity,
if you're getting started.
Who is already selling to that audience?
Because you could see their funnel,
you could see the offers,
you could see their marketing.
Are they marketing through Facebook,
or what are the sales channels,
the marketing channels and platforms that they're using?
That would give you a very, very good idea.
When you do all that,
you find out, okay, what are they complaining about?
What are some of the pains they're experiencing?
You find out that you could actually target them,
you know they are actively searching
through keyword research,
you find out who are the competitions.
And this is before you develop anything.
If you could do all that,
then chances of you succeeding is definitely higher.
Not guaranteed, but it is higher.
So those are some of the basics
when it comes to market research.
Of course, there's so much more that you could do,
but for most people, most of my fans,
those are very good first few steps.
Until then I'll see you in my Bentley.