What is Market Research?

Market research is not as formal as it sounds. In your business, market research is collecting information from your ideal clients around their problems, fears, solutions they are desiring and any other information.

Market research is DIFFERENT than offer validation, and often times comes before offer validation.

Are you too far in your business to do market research?

Are you discounting market research and what it does inside of your business?

There is a common idea floating around the online business space that goes like this: 

“I’ve grown so much in my business, I don’t need to do market research anymore.” Or, “I can’t talk to my ideal client directly because they’re going to ask me questions and it’s going to blur a boundary.”

Market Research is not free coaching

The first thing, let’s address boundaries and being a coach. The thing is, you can decide what types of boundaries you want to have and how you enforce them. They have to be firm to a certain extent because if your clients are asking for help with the same things someone is sliding in your DMs for, it creates this weird energy exchange since your clients pay you for those in-depth answers and guidance. 

Now, when you’re doing market research, it doesn’t have to be as formal as you think. Really, it can be done in a formal OR informal capacity. I talk to my ideal clients daily and keep track of what questions they ask and what they’re telling me. Why? Because they’re the ones telling me what programs they want or need. 

And it doesn’t always have to come out in a paid offer. A lot of times, I take what they’re telling me and create SM posts and content out of it, if it makes sense to teach on it that way. 

This is why I try to view all of the people I talk to as future clients. We can’t discount the value in engaging with those people, watching their stories, and having conversations because this is where the market research is found. 

Why Market Research is critical in your business?

Real life example: Last year, I created a launch program simply because all the other well-known business coaches were offering this type of program, too. But this is exactly where I went wrong. I never checked in with my audience about whether that’s what they wanted or not. I didn’t sell a single program and begged people to sign up. 

Irresistible offers come from what the audience wants, not offers you create because you think people want them, or you think it will make you the most money.

How to ask for market research 

This can be tough, because you want to ask them questions, but you don’t want to pigeon hole them into the answers you want to hear. 

You want to preface the market research by emphasizing that these questions are about what they really want or need. Then, reply to what they’re telling you and ask follow up questions that address pain points. Take screenshots of the answers you get on polls so you can refer back for them. 

Another thing I like doing is have a fill in the blank. For example, before I launched Scale to $5k, I posted one of these on my IG stories that said, “Sales are hard because _________.”

This gave my audience the opportunity to share their current struggles, and it gives you the opportunity to enter these into an Excel spreadsheet to track and refer back to when you’re building out programs. 

No copying and pasting cold pitches into DMs and Facebook groups. Ask them questions around THEIR business and THEIR pain points. 

FACEBOOK:

I have built my market research around the questions I ask before people can join my facebook group. If they don’t answer the question, they aren’t let into the group unless I personally know them. I tell them to describe their current sales struggle so I can address them in my content using the exact language they use. 

And again, I collect the answers to these questions and use them to come up with programs and offers that can solve their problems. 

CALL OR SURVEY:

Another way to collect market research is scheduling actual market research calls, offering free audits, creating forms with questions for people to fill out, and getting active inside of Facebook groups as well. 

Typically, if you ask someone to answer market research questions, people might say no because it means time out of their calendar. But if you ask the questions outright (framing them with those pain points), you can give them the option to answer quickly with a voice memo and it feels like less work. 

Directly reach out to people and say, “Hey, I know we’ve talked about XYZ, and I’d love to get on a call and talk about this more in-depth!” Or, put the link in your bio to the survey and promote it on stories!

Types of Questions to Ask

You want to make sure these aren’t just yes or no questions – they should be open-ended:

“Describe a time when____”

“Describe a struggle you’re having.”

“Describe how __________ looks in your life.”

“What are your goals around your business?”

Think “What, How, Have you, Tell me about” question starters.

Overall, we need to have a pulse on our audience. What are they desiring? Where do they want to take their business? Without this, you will continue to launch programs that won’t sell, to be honest with you. You’re not taking what they’re saying and infusing it inside our programs.

If you are ready to start making $5k months or MORe in your business

Scale to $5k

This six-month group program focuses on the foundation of your business to scale to six figures and multiple six figures. 

This is for you if: 

• you desire to sign clients, launch a high ticket offer 
• You want to master sales + knowing sales beyond just the basics
• And you want the foundations to grow your business

What you will learn in six months:

• Creating content that converts and consistently nurtures
• How to CRUSH your sales calls and conversations 
• Building a profitable product suite (yes, service pros you too) 
• How to speak to your ideal client that can create the 24-hour conversion you see every where

What you get 

• Three coaching calls a month with your community 
• My eyes on whatever you are working on with the project review call
• Targeted education to sign clients, create content, have an EASY af launch 
• Course portal that has more than enough to help you learn
• Access to NEW programs that help move the needle forward
• and AMAZING community cheering you on 

You can learn more by click here