Make Your List and Check It Twice

With a new year upon us, business leaders, marketers and those selling ideas can benefit from a thorough and honest review of their target markets and prospect lists.

It is essential to clearly define who you want to reach and influence.  In many instances, the target audience is too broadly defined. 

“Our main customers are women aged 25-54.” 

“We need to reach parents in our school district.”

“Physicians drive our volume levels.”

Drill down into each target market as much as possible.  Women 25 to 30 years old think and act differently than women 50 to 55 years old.  Further segmenting each target audience allows you to craft your message and communicate it accordingly, resulting in more effective marketing of your idea, product or service.

Senior managers and marketers also need to prioritize within each target market to effectively allocate resources.  Prioritizing clients and prospects can be as straightforward as your ABC’s. Segment clients and prospects based on their potential impact into A, B, and C categories. 

While it sounds easy enough, we have found most companies and marketers do not realistically assess the potential of clients and prospects. In some cases, ‘A’ prospects should actually be in the ‘B’ or ‘C’ categories.  Worse yet, other prospects really are not prospects at all…they are ‘Fake Maybes’ who might never result in a sale. 

As counter intuitive as it may seem, companies and marketers need to purge their lists of some prospects.  Moving on and finding a real lead is much more productive because ‘Fake Maybes’ take an emotional toll and consume valuable marketing resources.

Invest the time now to re-prioritize clients and prospects. Move them up and down based on realistic projections and don’t be afraid to completely eliminate some if necessary.

Making your list and checking it twice to kick off the new year will be one of the best gifts you can give yourself and your company in 2008.

David M. Mastovich, MBA, is the president of Massolutions, a Pittsburgh based Strategic Marketing firm that focuses on improving the bottom line for client companies through creative marketing, selling, messaging and customer experience enhancement.

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