Introducing The Three E's of Product Selection
Introducing The Three E's of Product Selection
After you’ve answered these preliminary questions, you’re ready to look at the
three E’s of product selection: experience, education, and enthusiasm.
The three E’s will help you narrow that infinite set of product options to a much
more manageable list, and eventually to a successful business venture. I cover the
three E’s in the following sections.
EXPERIENCE
The key to being successful with a product is having experience with that product.
The more you know about the product, the greater the chances that you’ll be
successful.
When I left the corporate setting and decided to form my own import/export trading
company, I decided to focus initially on health and beauty aids and disposable
medical supplies.
I made this choice because of my experience in the industry. (I had just spent ten
years working in that area, and it was something that I knew a lot about.)
You have an infinite number of product choices. Start by reviewing your own
background. Look for areas in which you may have some specific experience — this
experience can come from your employment background, a family contact in another
country, or simply a hobby.
The key when trying to introduce a product into a market is knowledge, and
experience is that link that will provide you with the knowledge that you need to
be successful.
EDUCATION
Many people fail because they think they know it all. There will always be new
things to learn, and the sooner you learn that, the more successful you’ll be.
Product knowledge is important, and education is the key to gaining that knowledge.
Use education to expand and develop your base of experience.
Reading this book is a good place to start, but don’t stop here.
ENTHUSIASM
You must enjoy selling your product. If you aren’t enthusiastic about your product,
you’ll have a hard time convincing someone else that she should buy it from you.
You can have the experience and use education to fill in the blanks,
but if you aren’t enthusiastic about the product, it simply won’t work.
After they returned home to the United States, she continued to express her
interest in starting her own business importing this line of crystal glassware.
Her next step was to learn about the process of importing and figure out what she
needed to do to set up such a business.
On the advice of her husband, she attended my seminar and learned all the specifics
of dealing with suppliers, customers, and U.S. Customs regulations.
Working on her own, she started to realize that she enjoyed going out there meeting
and introducing clients to the products that she really loved.
She enjoyed sharing the stories of her visits to the factories and the devotion
that many of these craftsmen had toward the quality of their products.
She enjoyed the challenge and that was a result of her personal enthusiasm for the
product that she selected.
She had the experience (product knowledge). She used education wisely.
And she had enthusiasm — the final key in evaluating and selecting a product.