We recently installed a dartboard in our office for some friendly lunchtime competition. As we brushed up on the rules, many were surprised to note that the bullseye is not the top value location on the board. A bullseye in standard darts is worth 50 points. There are in fact there are 4 other locations that are worth more (triple ring 17-20 – valued at 51-60 points). This knowledge has changed the way that we play the game. We find that we are consistently getting higher scores than when we just were aiming for the bullseye. A small bit of information about the game has allowed us to quickly improve our score, without necessarily getting better at darts.

We find similar situations with many of our clients. They feel like they know their target audience. They have always aimed for the “bullseye”, and paid limited attention to the rest of the board (market), as they figured it was not their best option. However, in some cases our market research has shown that a business could improve their results by simply adjusting their efforts to target a slightly different segment of the market. By making small changes, we might be able to improve your business without altering the game.

Here are a couple questions that can help to determine some key information to improve your sales score. These are just a few of the things that a good marketer should know about your business.

• What is your most profitable service/product?
• What product/service do you sell the most?
• What product/service do you advertise and market the most?
• Who is your most qualified buyer (gender, age, income, marital status, etc.)?
• Why do clients choose to contact you?
• Where do your clients come from?
• What area(s) do you target with your advertising?
• Who is involved in the buying decision (spouses, business partners, etc.)?
• What are the primary buying objections?

Once we know answers to these questions (and many more), we can then help our clients to hone in their game, and make the best decisions with their marketing budget. A major part of that is ensuring that we are aiming and hitting the right target audience – which may be slightly off center from the bullseye.