What To Sell: How To Select The Right Product For Your Business

What to Sell: How to Select the Right
Product for Your Business

JUNE 1, 2013 BY GEORGE RODRIGUEZ 1 COMMENT
A key question often asked by start-up entrepreneurs is what to sell in the business.
What products or services could you sell that will make you money?
The selection of the right product or service is critical. In fact, the choice of a product or
service for your business can make or break your business. Choose a product that
requires significant production capital when you have none and couldn’t find any, and
your business is compromised from the start. Offer a service that a hundred other
entrepreneurs offer in your locality and you may find it hard to get noticed above your
competitors. Or select a product with an extremely specialized market yet you do not
know how to reach the potential customers, and your business can go kaput.
Your products or services define your business. Your products are your business! If you
want to turn your business into an income-generating machine, the first step is to
choose the right product or services to sell.
With the right products, you even stand a better chance at keeping your customers. The
idea is to keep your customers forever by continually offering them a valuable product
or service, thereby diminishing your costs of reaching and appealing to them. Wise
product selection is therefore critical to your business success.
How do you choose the right product to sell? Here are a few questions to help you
narrow your focus and hopefully select the product that will work for you:
1. What are your primary considerations for choosing a particular product?
Make a list of your selection criteria, and what you think are important to you in
identifying what business to engage in. There are a myriad reasons for selecting a
product, and these reasons can include: financial benefit to your business, relatively low
investment requirements, positive return on investment, fit with present strategy,
feasible to develop and produce, easy to source and procure, relatively low risk, and
time to see intended results.
2. Can you meet the needs of the customer and solve a specific problem?
Your product must address a need or an opportunity. You need to know how your
products or services can assist customers. It must have a real value that customers can
recognize, want and need. Include in your product information and sales materials how
your products can benefit the customers, e.g. help reduce time, effort and expense.
3. How capable are you to produce the product?
Just as an athlete needs to know his physical condition before he enters a race, you
must also know if you have the time, resources and capability to produce your product.
Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of going forward with a business idea only to find
that they cannot afford the manpower required, or do not have the resources to
outsource the product development. As a result, many experience slippage in release
dates making the mistake of launching half-finished web sites. You must also evaluate
at the onset how you can scale up the production if there is a strong demand for the
product.
4. What is the size of your potential reachable market?
You need to at least get an idea of the size of your market. Know who are likely to use
or benefit from your products. If you are selling an information product on how to sell at
eBay, define who will be your potential customers you think will be interested in your
product. Many small and home business entrepreneurs view market research as an
unnecessary and expensive cost, but understanding who and how big your market can
pay off in the long run.
5. Would you need to comply with government rules and regulations?

New laws or government rules and regulations can impact your product. Some products
can be sold immediately without the need for government approval. Others, however,
require permits, licenses and approval from the government.
6. If a similar product exists, can your product be superior in its functionality,

presentation or marketing?
This entails knowing and understanding your Unique Selling Proposition. Your unique
selling proposition is the one thing that makes that your product different than any other.
It’s the one reason they think consumers will buy the product even though it may seem
no different from many others just like it. It may be that the product has a lower price or
more convenient packaging, or it may taste or smell better, or last longer.
7. What barriers must be overcome for a potential new product entry?
Barriers to entry include high research and development expenditure, high presence of
start-up or sunk costs, and international trade restrictions such as tariffs and quotas.
Patents are likewise important barriers for many small and home-based businesses,
where your competitor may hold legal protection for an integral component of your
product and hence may prevent you from manufacturing your product. Other barriers to
entry include predatory pricing of competitors that will force you to operate at a loss,
high advertising and marketing costs to compete with established brands in the industry,
and the cost advantages enjoyed by your competitor that allows them to set lower
prices.
8. What are the potential sales, growth, profits, and time for payback?
Before starting your business, run your numbers first. Get a clear idea of your cost
structure, how much sales you need to have to breakeven and post a profit, and what
your return on investment will be.

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What to Sell: How to Select the Right

Product for Your Business

1. What are your primary considerations for choosing a particular product?

3. How capable are you to produce the product?

4. What is the size of your potential reachable market?

5. Would you need to comply with government rules and regulations?

6. If a similar product exists, can your product be superior in its functionality,

7. What barriers must be overcome for a potential new product entry?

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