How to Sell a Product for Small Business Owners
As a small business owner, you may be trying to sell a physical product, a service, or a digital product. No matter what you’re selling, learning to sell a product will make a big impact on your income and will help you build the future you want. But how does one sell a product? How do you determine what your ideal customer is? Can you analyze similar businesses to find out what is successful? How much potential does your product have to sell well? If you’re a small business owner and you want to start selling products, you’ll need to know this information. This article will answer all these questions and more. Let’s get into it, shall we?
Price it Right
The price of your product is key to attracting or repelling customers. Pricing is a tricky part of your business! If the price is too high compared to the associated value of the product, the customers will be repelled. On the other side, if you price the product too cheap, people will assume that it’s poor quality. You must price it right to make a profit, and attract customers, but how you show value for the product is also very important.
If you’re selling something that has a lot of competition and it’s thought of as common, a buyer will almost always buy the cheapest option. So, in this case, it would be wise to look at the price your competitors have. However, the key to increasing the product’s price is your customer’s perception of how valuable the product is to them. For example, you can sell shoes that are of the same quality or even higher quality than Adidas. However, the buyers are not certain of how high the quality of your product is, therefore they are not willing to spend as much for it. Communicating and showing value to your customers is essential to bypass their need to search for it elsewhere.
As a side note: value can be found or created in many different ways. Why is it that people spend more money for Adidas than a better quality shoe made by an unknown company? People value the name Adidas because this represents value to them. Value in name, value in being around for years, value in more reviews. There are many other ways to build value. If you want to compete against a big brand, you’ll need to differentiate yourself and provide value that a big brand cannot. For example, a brand like Adidas may not be able to provide as good of customer service as a small brand. Maybe Adidas cannot customize as much as a small brand can.
Know All About Your Product
To sell a product you must first know all about it, therefore research even the most minor details. In most cases, you cannot convince someone to buy a product if you do not know it well enough. When you understand your product well, you’ll be able to identify it’s selling points. Selling points are the reasons that someone should buy the product. Also, knowing your product also helps with customer service, when you can answer customer questions they are more likely to buy. By learning all about a product, you can also sell it by using its benefits efficiently.
Examples of selling the benefits of a product:
- If you sell a product like fish, you can advertise that they help brain function.
- If you sell mouthwash, you can advertise that it makes your breath smell good.
- If you sell phones, you can advertise how many cameras the phones have.
Some of these examples may be common knowledge. However, not everyone knows them. For instance, someone may not know what omega-3 is, and they don’t have to. Advertise what your product can offer and make the advertisement as simple as possible. Take the boring details about what the product is (The feature) and describe it in a way that helps them (the benefit). Instead of saying fish has omega-3 in the advertisement, say it improves brain function. Simplicity is your best friend when it comes to advertising. Once you learn about your product, you can find more benefits to advertise it with.
How to Find Your Ideal Customer to Sell a Product to
Your ideal customer is a customer who has the characteristics of someone who would buy your product. By learning about your ideal customers, you can market your product better by advertising on websites they use, and by using their vocabulary/slang in your ads so they can relate to and buy the product you sell.
Ask questions about the characteristics of your ideal customer such as, what hobbies do they have/how do they spend their time? How old are they? Which goals have they set? What fears do they have? What do they need? The more of these questions you can answer, the easier you will find whom to sell your product to.
Find Where to Market and Sell a Product
Every product can be marketed somewhere, whether in a place near you or online. Find where to market your product to reach as many potential people who will buy as possible. If you know your ideal customer as the article mentioned previously, it is easier to find where to sell a product.
Examples of marketing your product in the right place:
- If you sell a product like fast food and have a movable cantine, move near a concert because people will be hungry before and after the concert.
- If your product is gym supplements, your shop should be located near a gym.
- If you sell piano lessons, you want to advertise them on websites or channels that focus on music.
The time you sell your product might also matter. Someone might need it at night, and someone else in the morning. But this depends solely on what the product is. For example, a product this applies to is food. Some people want to eat at night, so a fast food shop that is open at night is useful to them. Whereas some products have nothing to do with the time you sell them at. For example, a record shop can be open at any time, as records are not an item that is urgently needed. Products that are needed both night and day, are usually ones that cover basic needs. That includes food, water, medicine, and medical treatment.
Research and Learn From Competition
Find both the big and small competitors in the niche of your product and see what they do. You are sure to learn something you can implement to improve your product sales. Innovation is important, but you can receive inspiration from competitors to enhance an area in which your product lacks. Also do not only look at what your competition does right; see what they also do wrong to avoid it. Look at the feedback both your product and theirs receive from customers by looking at comments, as they can help you improve your product.
Examples of learning from your competition:
- If you sell copywriting services, look at the bios of other successful copywriters to see what makes them sell.
- If you sell books and see a competitor shop blundered, by not putting the books inside the shop when it rained… it can serve as a reminder to always be aware of the weather.
- If you sell a product like beverages and see a competitor sharing free samples, you can use a similar strategy to increase customers.
Make sure not to obsess over what your competition does. Simply observe and be inspired by them. Also do not obsess over and take feedback comments to heart. For example, just because someone said they do not like the color blue in your product’s package, does not mean you should change it. Change something only if you see a large number of people mentioning it.
How to Find Your Product Selling Potential
Your product’s selling potential depends on the pool of potential customers. Ask yourself questions such as, how large is the community that will buy the product? how much do your competitors sell? If your competitors have sold 10.000 units of their product, it is possible you can do it too.
Examples of determining selling potential:
- If your product is fast food, almost anyone can buy it.
- If your product is a book, only people who read similar books will buy it.
- If you sell a product like a woman’s purse, only women will buy it.
Keep in mind that knowing how many people can buy, does not mean they will all buy; even if they know about your product. Also, just because your competition has sold 10.000 units does not mean you cannot sell more or less than that. Finding your selling potential is an estimate, not a guaranteed number of sales.
How to Sell a Product Conclusion
Now that you learned all about how to sell a product, let’s recap! Price your product right as the perception a customer has for the value of your product matters the most. Learn everything you can about your product to sell it efficiently. Find your ideal customer by asking yourself questions about their characteristics. Learn from your competition and be inspired by them. However, do not obsess over them and what they do. The selling potential of your product is determined by how many people are interested in buying it. I hope you found some value in this article and I wish you luck with whatever product you decide to sell!
Resources
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/ideal-customer
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