Market segmenting divides a market into distinct groups that might require separate services or marketing mixes, weighing the group's potential against the producer's strengths and weaknesses. In short, market segmenting concentrates your resources and expertise where they'll give you the best return.

Smart marketing often means zeroing in on a handful of growing segments that need your products and services, so look for faster growing segments and capitalizing on them. Having some natural rapport to your market segments and being known as the go-to expert in their particular financial security wants and needs also helps — a lot!

The groups you're targeting must be well-defined, small enough in number (500 to 5,000) and sufficiently interrelated, so you can build name recognition and your reputation will precede you on every call. Do it right, and people will be chasing you down!

Since your market segments will be of a certain size and share certain characteristics, you can tailor marketing communication and sales efforts to each group. While you can target by occupation and gather general market information, local demographics and other factors dictate what, if anything, you can do with it. The same goes for selecting categories that are too loosely defined to qualify as markets. (That's why we say with marketing, the narrower the focus, the better the results.)

Example: While most people over 30 are prospects for retirement planning and homeowners are prospects for mortgage protection, neither constitutes a "market". Conversely, local educators, ranchers, East Indian medical professionals, conservative black families, female accountants, and tool and die makers (the folks we're following throughout this program) could qualify. Each group probably has identifiable characteristics, formal or informal organizations, and common needs, wants, and objectives.