If an investor asked you to describe your market, what would you say? “Market” is a vague term that could mean many things–customers, competition, sales… Start out with your bull’s-eye and work out from there. Your bull’s-eye is the market size accounting for most of the present sales in products like yours. Go on to explain why there is a need for your product, and how your product reaches its market. Finish off with a strong statement on the number of sales you expect to take, and the number of dollars you’ll make.
- What is your market? Do you supply the primary or after market–the Barbie dolls or Barbie doll clothes?
- What stage of growth is your company in–are you a new company, experiencing rapid growth, stable, or phasing out operations? How about your industry and your competition?
- Where is your market going or not going and why?
- What are the economic trends of your market? (Mention things like industry and socio-economic trends, government policy, population shifts, inflation, interest rates, unemployment, currency exchange rates, recession.)
- How does your company fit into the market? What need are you fulfilling?
- How do you sell and distribute your product?
- Where is your market–worldwide, regional, or local?
- In what ways can you segment your market–geographic, industry, volume versus unit buyers?
- Which segment is most important and which has the greatest growth potential?
- How will you penetrate into each of these segments?
- What commission and discount schedules do you give retailers, wholesalers, and distributors? How do these compare to your competitors’?
- If you have distributors or salespeople, how did you select, train, and compensate them?