This comprehensive guide will walk you through every feature of the Target Market module in OffConOn ERP. Whether you're a marketing manager defining your ideal customer profile, a sales leader building targeted territories, or a business owner looking to focus your efforts, this module gives you the tools to move from scattered outreach to strategic targeting.

1. Getting Started: Your First Look

Where to Find It

Navigate to: Main Menu → Sales → Target Markets

You'll see the Target Market List View - your home base for all targeting activities. If you're new, this list will be empty. Don't worry - we'll build your first market together.

Understanding Key Concepts

Before we dive in, let's clarify three essential terms you'll see throughout:

1. Target Market: A defined group of potential customers sharing specific characteristics.
2. Type: The fundamental classification - either Businesses (B2B) or Individuals (B2C). This choice is permanent for each market.
3. Characteristics: The criteria that define your market (location, industry, language, etc.).

2. Creating Your First Target Market: Step-by-Step

Let's create a practical example together. Imagine you're launching a new accounting software for small businesses in Texas.

Step 1: Initiate Creation

1. From the Target Market List View, click the "Create" button (usually in the top-left corner).
2. You'll see a form with three required fields.

Step 2: Fill the Basic Information

• Type: Select "Businesses" (since we're targeting companies, not individual accountants).
  • Important: Once saved, this cannot be changed. Choose carefully!
• Name: Enter Texas Small Business Accounting Prospects
  • Tip: Be descriptive but concise. Your team should understand the market just from the name.
  • Character Counter: You'll see "0/85" as you type. The maximum is 85 characters.
• Description: Optional but recommended. Add:
  • Small businesses (1-50 employees) in Texas needing cloud-based accounting solutions. Focus on retail and service industries.
  • Character Counter: "0/500" - you have up to 500 characters for context.

Step 3: Choose Your Next Step

Here's where OffConOn's flexible workflow shines. All four options save your market first, then take you to different next steps:

• Option A: "Add sales contacts"
  • Choose this if you already have a list of Texas businesses in your CRM.
  • What happens: After saving, you'll jump directly to assigning contacts.
• Option B: "Add characteristics"
  • Choose this to define what makes a business part of this market.
  • What happens: After saving, you'll go to the characteristics selector.
  • Our choice: Let's select this for our example.
• Option C: "Go to dashboard"
  • Choose this to see the complete view (it will be empty initially).
  • What happens: After saving, you'll see the market dashboard.
• Option D: "Save"
  • Choose this if you just want to save the basics for now.
  • What happens: You'll return to the list view.

For our example: Click "Add characteristics".

3. Working with Characteristics: Built-In vs. Custom

Characteristics are the heart of your target market definition. After clicking "Add characteristics," you'll see an interface with two main sections.

Section A: Built-In Characteristics

These are pre-defined in OffConOn and organized by Type. Since we chose "Businesses," we see business-specific options:

Geographic Characteristics (Hierarchical)

1. Global Region: Start broad → Select Americas
2. Country: This filters based on region → Select United States
3. State/Province: This filters based on country → Select Texas
4. City: Optional - you could specify Houston, Dallas, Austin or leave blank for all Texas.
5. Postal Code: Optional - for hyper-local targeting.

Business-Specific Characteristics

1. Service Area: Click the dropdown → Select Accounting & Financial Services
   1. Note: Service Areas are managed separately in OffConOn. If you don't see yours, contact your administrator.
2. Entity Type: Optional - you could specify LLC, Corporation, Sole Proprietorship

How to Select Multiple Values

For fields like "City" where you might want several:

• Click the dropdown
• Select Houston
• Click the dropdown again (it remains open)
• Select Dallas
• Continue until all desired cities are checked
• Click outside the dropdown to close

Section B: Custom Attributes

What if you need criteria that don't exist in the built-in list? That's where custom attributes come in.

Scenario: We want to target businesses with 1-50 employees.

1. Click the "Add Custom Attribute" button.
2. A selector opens showing all available custom fields.
3. If "Employee Size Range" exists, select it.
4. A new field appears based on its type (dropdown, checkbox, etc.).
5. Select 1-10 employees and 11-50 employees.

What If the Custom Field Doesn't Exist?

You'll need to create it first:

1. Ask your system administrator, or if you have permissions:
2. Navigate to Custom Fields Module
3. Create a new field: Name=Employee Size Range, Type=Multi-select Dropdown
4. Add options: 1-10, 11-50, 51-200, 201-500, 500+
5. Return to your Target Market and add the target market to your new custom field.

Section C: For Individual-Type Markets

If you had chosen "Individuals" as your Type, you'd see different built-in characteristics:

• Language: Spanish, English, etc.
• Skill: Accounting, Bookkeeping, Tax Preparation
• Job Title: CFO, Accountant, Bookkeeper
• Interest: Small Business Management, Tax Law

The selection process is identical.

Saving Your Characteristics

Once you've made all selections:

1. Review your choices in the summary panel
2. Click "Save"
3. You're automatically taken to the Dashboard

4. Adding Contacts to Your Markets

There are three ways to add CRM contacts to your target market:

Method 1: From the Target Market (Recommended for Bulk)

1. From the Dashboard or List View, click "Add sales contacts"
2. You'll see a filtered list of only Business-type contacts (remember our Type rule!)
3. Use the filters on this page to narrow down:
   1. Filter by State = Texas
   2. Filter by Industry = Retail (if that field exists in your CRM)
4. Select contacts using checkboxes
   1. Select individual contacts: Check the box next to each name
   2. Select all on page: Check the header checkbox
5. Click "Assign to [Market Name]"
6. The contacts now appear in your Dashboard's contact panel

Method 2: From Individual Contact Records

1. Navigate to any CRM contact's detail page
2. Find the "Target Markets" section
3. Click "Add to Market"
4. Search for and select your market Texas Small Business Accounting Prospects
5. System Check: If the contact is Type=Individual but your market is Type=Businesses, you'll get an error message. They must match.

Removing Contacts

To remove a contact from a market:

• From Dashboard: Find the contact in the list, click the "×" or "Remove" button next to their name
• From Contact Record: Go to the contact's Target Markets section, click "Remove" next to the market name

Important: Removing a contact from a market does not delete the contact from CRM. It only removes the association.

5. Navigating the Dashboard: Your Control Center

The Dashboard is where everything comes together. Let's explore each section:

Top Header Section

• Market Name: Texas Small Business Accounting Prospects
• Type Icon: A business building icon (indicating Business-type)
• Edit Button: Click to modify name or description (but not Type)

Characteristics Panel (Right Side)

All your selected characteristics display as clean cards:

• Geography: United States > Texas > Houston, Dallas, Austin
• Custom: Employee Size Range: 1-10, 11-50

Each characteristic is clickable to see more details or edit.

Contacts Panel (Left Side)

• Counter: "45 Contacts" (shows total assigned)
• Search Bar: Filter contacts by name, company, etc.
• Contact Cards: Each shows:
  • Contact name and company
  • Primary contact info (email/phone)
  • Last contact date
  • "View Full Profile" link
  • "Remove" button

Actions Menu

Top-left of the Dashboard:

• Add More Characteristics
• Add More Contacts

6. Managing Multiple Markets: List View Actions

Return to the main List View to see all your markets at once.

Columns Displayed

• Name: Texas Small Business Accounting Prospects
• Type: Business (with icon)
• Contact Count: 45 (live-updating)
• Last Modified: 2023-10-26

Quick Details Preview

Click the details button to see a popup summary without opening the dashboard.

Row Actions (Available for Each Market)

Each market row has four action buttons:

1. Add sales contacts: Takes you directly to contact assignment
2. Add characteristics: Takes you to add/edit characteristics
3. Go to dashboard: Opens the full dashboard view
4. Delete: Removes the entire target market

The Delete Process

If you click Delete:

1. A confirmation dialog appears: "Delete 'Texas Small Business Accounting Prospects'? This will remove the market definition and all characteristic assignments, but will NOT delete the CRM contacts themselves."
2. You must type "DELETE" in a confirmation box
3. Click "Confirm Delete" or "Cancel"
4. If confirmed, the market disappears from your list
5. What happens to contacts? They remain in CRM but lose this market association.

7. Viewing Markets from Contact Profiles

This reverse view is incredibly powerful for understanding context.

How to Access

1. Go to any CRM contact (e.g., "Sarah Johnson - Lone Star Retail")
2. Find the "Target Markets" section
3. You'll see a list of all markets this contact belongs to

What You Can Do Here

• See strategic context: "Ah, Sarah is part of our Texas small business push"
• Navigate to markets: Click any market name to jump to its dashboard
• Add to more markets: Use the "Add to Market" button
• Understand overlap: See if a contact fits multiple strategies

Example View:

Sarah Johnson

Company: Lone Star Retail

Target Markets Assigned:

✓ Texas Small Business Accounting Prospects (Business)

✓ Retail Industry Initiative (Business)

✓ Q4 Software Promotion (Business)

8. Best Practices and Common Scenarios

Best Practice 1: Naming Convention

Establish a team convention for market names:

• Region-Type-Product: TX-SMB-AccountingSoftware
• Campaign-Year-Market: BackToSchool2023-Teachers
• Source-Characteristic: LinkedIn-ITManagers-Germany

Best Practice 2: Start Broad, Then Narrow

1. Create All US Manufacturing Companies
2. Create child markets: US-Auto-Parts, US-Aerospace, US-Industrial-Equipment
3. Contacts can belong to both parent and child markets

Common Scenario 1: Event Targeting

You're hosting a webinar for marketing executives:

1. Create market: Q1-Webinar-MarketingExecs
2. Type: Individuals
3. Characteristics:
   1. Job Title: Marketing Director, CMO, VP Marketing
   2. Custom: "Webinar Attendance" = "Past Attendee" (using custom field)
4. Add contacts from past events
5. Use dashboard to track invites and attendance

Common Scenario 2: Product Launch

Launching a product in specific regions:

1. Create market: EU-Launch-PremiumProduct
2. Type: Businesses
3. Characteristics:
   1. Region: Europe
   2. Custom: "Current Product" = "Competitor X" (if you have this data)
4. Assign sales territories based on this market

Common Scenario 3: Upsell Campaign

Targeting existing customers for premium features:

1. Create market: Upsell-Enterprise-Features
2. Type: Businesses
3. Characteristics:
   1. All countries
   2. Custom: "Current Plan" = "Professional"
   3. Custom: "Employee Size" = "200+"
4. Link to campaign in CRM

9. Troubleshooting and FAQs

Q: I can't change a market from "Businesses" to "Individuals"

A: This is intentional. The Type is set at creation and cannot be changed. You must create a new market with the correct Type and reassign contacts if needed.

Q: Why don't I see certain contacts when trying to add them?

A: Check:

1. Does the contact Type match the market Type? (Business vs. Individual)
2. Are you looking at the right CRM view? (Some filters may be active)
3. Does your user role have permission to view those contacts?

Q: Can I duplicate/copy a target market?

A: Currently, there's no direct "Duplicate" button. The fastest way:

1. Create a new market with similar name
2. Manually select the same characteristics
3. Use the same contact filters to assign similar contacts

Q: How many characteristics can I add?

A: There's no practical limit, but for usability, we recommend 5-10 key characteristics. Too many makes the market overly specific.

Q: Who can see my target markets?

A: Visibility is controlled by OffConOn's RBAC (Role-Based Access Control). Typically:

• Marketing: Can create and edit all markets
• Sales: Can view and assign contacts to their markets
• Executives: Can view all markets and dashboards
• Custom roles: Your administrator can set specific permissions

Q: What happens if I edit characteristics after contacts are assigned?

A: The contacts remain assigned. Characteristics define the market, but don't automatically add/remove contacts. You might want to review contacts after significant characteristic changes.

You're now equipped to master strategic targeting in OffConOn! Start with one market, get comfortable with the workflow, and gradually build out your targeting strategy. Remember: the goal isn't to create hundreds of markets, but to create meaningful, actionable segments that drive your business forward.

Happy targeting! 🎯