Nick James

Success in business comes from sourcing a good product or developing a good service that sells to people's wants. Try to avoid selling to people's needs, as this example illustrates:

Seminar attendees were asked who wanted a BMW/Mercedes/Jaguar; everybody put their hand up. They were then asked who needed a BMW/Mercedes/Jaguar; nobody put their hand up. Any cheap car would fulfil their needs and get them from A to B, instead people desired (and often bought) the car they wanted, despite it being more expensive.

People buy on emotional impulse and then rationalise their purchase with logic.

This is a really important point you should remember. Your product or service must first appeal to people's emotions and then have credibility to satisfy their logical decision; Otherwise they won't buy from you.

You must ensure that people will want to buy your product before you start creating or sourcing it. If you don't, you will end up sourcing a product and then wondering whom, if anybody, you can sell it to. It is easier to research your market first to get a product people will want to buy, than it is to change people's spending habits. Profitable direct marketing is always market-driven (giving people products they want to buy), never product driven (selling products you want to sell to them).

Given that your product must be market driven, the more you find out about the kind of products that people want to buy, the easier it will be to come up with successful products yourself. Finding out what your market wants is pretty straightforward; you just look at what they are already buying.