From - The Customer Magnet : "The truth of the situation is that when your customers buy from you this is just one link in a long chain of sales. The challenge is to investigate this chain of sales and reverse-engineer what people are buying before they even come into contact with your business. Would you go and reverse-engineer what people are buying before you set up your website? Do you think this takes too much time therefore you just go by your own analysis or intuition?"
Personally I wouldn't go to that extent. I would rather go with my intuition. Too much analysis can cause analysis paralysis. My motto is simple - Just do it!
I agree with Vishal. It's so easy to get caught up in trying to find the best way to do things. I find that it is just a another distraction that delays your ultimate success.
I have suffered from Analysis Paralysis most of my life! One of my mentors said I have Consideration illness. Don't consider it, get it done.
Many marketers use that approach in their niche selection process. Their rationale is: find out what people are buying and simply sell it to them. This allows their business to hit the ground running and they avoid wasting time trying to reinvent the wheel. The approach has merit. Interesting question. Assuming your "analysis" is rigorous and comprehensive to begin with, how much time is too much time if it can help you gain a competitive and strategic edge? I agree that intuition has its place, but it usually springs from the fertile ground of knowledge and understanding of the subject at hand. That knowledge and understanding are usually acquired over time as well. I think that instead of being influenced by linear time -- how many hours, days, weeks it takes one to prepare -- the focus ought to be more on the quality of time spent and the rate of progress one attains. However you measure it, though, when it comes to the question of time, it's all relative! Hermas
If you can see other people selling what you are about to sell, then you know that there is a demand for it.
I know all about researching a subject and researching and researching some more, just to never do anything because something else always catches your attention and away you go. I heard a very successful marketer say once, "Successful people do one thing at a time, while unsuccessful people try to do everything at once". I find this to be accurate, that's my 2 cents.
I absolutely love the way you put this!! And I agree. Some analysis is good, but you also need to jump in at some point and just start doing it.
