When you are thinking of undertaking a business, the first thing to think about is the market and where to sell the produce or product. Marketing has been a problem in the past, the product is made, and then have not been able to sell it, there is nowhere to sell it, don't know where to sell it, or who to sell it to. When it is produced and then find it is impossible to sell, it is like death. You can't even think of profit, as the initial costs haven't been returned. You need to think of the following questions and their answers.
The produce you have made, who will you sell it to?
Sell to people in rural areas
Sell to people in town
Sell to visitors from other countries
Sell to tourists
Sell to children, youth, adults, elders
People like different things. People in the rural areas like fresh colours. People in cities such as Bangkok like colours that don't stand out. People from other countries, tourists from Japan and Europe, like natural colours, dark colours. Children like fresh colours, lots of colours and pictures, adults who work like plain colours, when they where them, they look tidy and polite. Tourists will buy things that are light and easy to carry and that can't be broken easily, as they must take them back to their country. When you know who you will sell the product to, then you will be able to produce this product to meet the needs of the group or the market.
Once you have produced it, where will you sell it? Close by or far away
Sell overseas
sell in the village, in the district, in the province
sell in towns, in Bangkok
In most cases when selling to people in the same areas or people in the community, you will know each other and can see each other. If there is a problem with the product, then they can come and exchange it, return it, and can talk about it. It is not necessary to guarantee it, but if you can, that is good. Such as with a food product, communities can see how you make it, where it is produced, and know if it is clean or not. Even if the product has no guarantee, it can still be sold. But if you are going to sell in the towns, the producers and consumers do not know each other, they can't see how it is made, can't see where it is made, there is no guarantee. Therefore the consumers will not have confidence in the product, and will not buy it.
The timeframe for selling. When can you sell it? During festivals, such as New Year, Christmas, Songkran, Mothers Day, then you can prepare the product so that it is suitable for that festival. This should include preparing work for production and preparing stock so that there is enough to sell. With community products, there are other limitations to selling it. For example, it is an alternative occupation rather than main occupation. Therefore, production must occur outside the rice season. Sometimes materials are available only during certain seasons and times, in particularly natural materials. Products that are handicrafts, take a lot of time as they are made by hand.
Sell as an item, sell individually, sell small numbers
Sell wholesale, sell bulk
Sell as orders
Selling individually and selling bulk, must have different prices. When selling by orders where the product must meet the needs of that client, the client should make a deposit or a partial payment in advance or there should be a contract for the sale. If there is a default on the contract, then there is a basis for demanding payment for the losses.
Techniques in selling this is an important factor that must be considered in selling the product, starting from when the product is shown to the consumer to create interest in the product. Describe where the product is from, the unique points of the product, describe the difficult methods used to produce it, special points of the product. For example, it is old and hard to find. The selling techniques including; reduce, exchange, give away, supplement, will help to sell the product.
