You’ve all heard the expression “flogging a dead horse”, some of you may use this expression often, I certainly do.

I do however use it a little too often to explain to small business owners that their product or service offerings simply won’t sell. It’s a marketing disaster.

If you’re facing quiet and tough times, take the time to review your actual product or service offering.

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Am I offering a product or service that people in my area actually want to buy?
2. Does my product/service price meet the expectations of my customers? Too cheap? Too expensive?
3. Do I clearly promote my key product or service offering in my advertising?
4. Are my potential customers familiar with this product? Have they had or used one before?
5. Do my customers need to be convinced of the concept of the product/service before buying the actual product/service? (think selling Ipods to people who own CD Players)

I think you’ll be quite surprised at the answers you give yourself. Here is a little scenario.

Bob owns ABC Coffee shop. He is certain the coffee is the best in Bunbury. His price  is lower than everyone else. Much lower. His coffee shop looks lovely, has friendly welcoming staff and in a location with passing foot traffic. Bob is puzzled at why he has no customers?

After asking himself the above questions and surveying a few customers, Bob realised that his price was too cheap. Customers expected a coffee in his local area to cost between $3 and $4. If it was less than this, they deemed it to be “bad coffee” and if it was higher than this, they deemed it to be “a rip off”.

There is an important lesson to be learnt here. Make sure your product or service offering is one that customers will actually want to buy.