The other day I needed some work done on my bike. I have a custom built recumbent bike and was shopping in a up-scale bike shop. The salesman offered me two products to choose from. Both parts looked about the same to me.
The salesman said that the higher quality gears weighed 2 ounces less and were maybe a little bit stronger. Apparently they drilled holes in the gears to make them lighter and made them from a better quality steel.
The prices were $29 for one product and $119 for the other product. The better product cost $45 more for each ounce less for a total of $90 for 2 ounces less.
I asked a few more questions before I came to the conclusion that the two products were pretty much the same for my purposes. The main difference was the higher priced product was being targeted to a more up-scale customer. They apparently carry the lower priced products to use as a selling tool for the more expensive products.
I thought it over and decided that I could lose a pound or two myself and get by with the cheaper parts. However the event itself started me thinking about the importance of targeting & diversifying my products to achieve more sales.
If a product is targeted correctly it doesn't have to be any harder to sell a more expensive product is than selling the cheaper product. In fact selling a perception about the suitability of a product builds trust and may often the key selling the product itself. Since there are all kinds of people wanting all kinds of products it's important to understand how to match up the product to the potential customer.
Let me give you an example. I sell several marketing courses online. Two are targeted to the serious or experienced Internet marketer. Two additional courses are targeted to less experienced beginners, people not willing or able to afford of fully take advantage of the high end courses. I offer several similar yet different products in order fit a bigger variety of needs. You can see them all below.
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I also sell several lower cost marketing systems targeted to the needs of less experienced computer user or Internet marketer.
Rather than depend on one product to sell to everyone diversify your product line so you can make more sales. Don't misunderstand me I'm not saying sell everything to everybody, that doesn't work. You want to choose a narrow niche to start.
Then gradually as you create content you will eventually discover products to appeal to sub-groups within your niche.
For example, I coached a kids track club to five national championships using the principals of targeting & diversification to reduce the risk of overuse injuries. I created a computer program that required that each kid to understand and then write down the purpose of each workout before starting. I learned that strategic rest was at least as important to long term performance as the workouts.
In the same way what you don't do can actually be more important than what you do. Likewise investors and gamblers can tell you about how they use strategic diversity to smooth out the risks while at the same time stabilizing their income.
Carefully plan your business direction. Write down your reasoning before every important decision, you will be surprised at how helpful it can be in determining where you are and where you want to go with your business.
The more you know about your customers the better you can create useful content to serve them. Creating targeted content will attract your product line. If you focus on the content you will be naturally drawn to specific products, buy them, try them and allow your reports help direct your sales positioning. Rather than directing your content let your content direct you.
When I was a kid I learned that it's sometimes more satisfying to be a key player on a unknown team than a bench warmer on a major league team. Sometimes Less is more, it's a matter of point of view. My guess is you too will find out that sometimes LESS really is MORE.
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