If you are reading this, there are at least three things happening (or NOT) in your business.

1. You are finding it very difficult to produce a consistent flow of clients despite having great marketing tools such as your poster printing or print posters in your arsenal;

2. You get one-time customers that do not go back for repeat business; and

3. Your phone never rings; your door does not open; and your cash register does not make the "kashing!" sound.

Yet despite all these scenarios, you still believe in your products and services. You still believe strongly that your product or service is the very thing that your target clients need. You are sure that what you are offering can make life better for your target clients.

So where is the error here? Why is there no steady flow of clients and customers coming in your doors? Why do you not have a steady string of callers asking for more information for the products and services they saw in your print posters?

The answer is in your market research – or the lack of it. As a marketer and business owner, you should know the importance of market research to get you the tools you need in order to generate positive response from your target clients. Your market research would make it easy for you to see whether there is a demand for your products and services, and whether you can position yourself as a unique and different business from everyone else. So before putting up your business, you have to start with your market research to give you a strong foundation.

This is where most business owners fail when they start to put up their business. They forget to conduct one because they strongly rely on their belief that their product is the miracle drug that would cure all diseases. With this belief, they fail to test the fact or even the market, whether there is a need for it or not. It just proves that people do not believe in market research – more than what they believe they can offer their target market.

Secondly, most business owners do not conduct market research because they find them difficult to get any meaningful results. Not only is it hard to get respondents to your research, you still have to contend that there is a 50-50 chance that you will not get sensible answers as people often say what they think you want to hear from them. The only way you can get real answers is if you look at how they act and what they do to find out what they need and want.

Here is the bottom line: in order for you to get higher chances of being successful in your business, define yourself based on what people are looking for and not what you think they want. You will have more appeal to your target clients if you provide them with what they want rather than what you believe will work for them. Market research will help you greatly in that department.

So next time you are wondering why you do not get the response you expect, look at your market research – do you have one in the first place?