Strategic Marketing Program Part 2 - For Identifying All Potential Market Segments
This exercise is very quick and to the point. It should take you no more than 5 to 10 minutes.
Take your list of all potential client segments and get rid of anything that obviously doesn't belong there. Some of the factors you can use to determine this are:
1. I don't like this particular market segment and wouldn't enjoy working with them.
2. I have no relevant experience that I could use to win contracts with this segment.
Maybe you're a big fan of nuclear reactors but you specialize in effective communication skills, not energy management. Chances are poor you'd be hired in this market.
3. The segment is too big – it really isn't a segment.
For example, "Healthcare" is too broad a definition for a tightly targeted segment. Providing career guidance to nurses who want to become nurse-practitioners is a much more tightly defined, easily reachable segment.
4. The segment is too small – it really isn't a segment.
Have you cut your segment too tight and made it too small to build an ongoing practice around? You have two options here. Either eliminate it, or find other similar mini-segments on your list that you can combine it with to make a complete segment.
5. The segment just doesn't belong on my list.
For whatever reason, some segments obviously aren't a good match for you. Trust your gut instincts – if a segment just seems wrong, now is the time to kill it.
Sometimes in your eagerness to identify every potential segment, you'll list things that just don't make sense. That's alright. The purpose of the initial Work Exercise was to create an exhaustive list. But now, you want to get rid of anything that doesn't make sense. For example, if you live in the United States and listed Asian corporations as a potential segment, but you're afraid of flying, this wouldn't be a good bet for you.
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