GROUPE IFSM

ENGLISH TEST N°4

Filières: RHC2
COVID19 2H00MN

HITTING MARKET
Common pitfalls entrepreneurs undergo in their quest for success result from the same mistakes. By
far, the most prevalent trap is mistaking the ability to build a product for the ability to satisfy a market
need. Like Goldilocks in the home three bears, most customers are seeking the product that is “just
right” for them. For entrepreneurs, the challenge is to understand what makes a product “just right”
enough to satisfy the needs of a large enough group of customers so that one can claim there is a
sizable market to address.
Three key questions to answer when starting a company are: who, if anyone, has a real need for the
thing I propose to sell, and how many of those potential customers are there? How much, if anything,
are there spending to address that need today? Does my product meet that need in a manner that either
saves or makes them substantial amount of money? This will not only help you determine the market
for your product, it will also provide information that is critical if you need to secure financing. In
addition, the process will yield variable information about your customers that will help you fine-turn
your ideas. You ask and answer those questions well; entrepreneurs need to be wheeling to be told
there is wrong. Often people have taken the time needed to k now their customers called. It is not
surprising that the entrepreneurs who are most successful are those who visit as many potential
customers as possible with two critical, if conflicting, outcomes in mind: first, they try to sell the
prospect the notion that they are right or the prospects should become the customer then they listen to
the prospect to learn why they are wrong and why the prospect shouldn’t be a customer.
The successful entrepreneur is listening from the very beginning, in order to change and adapt more
quickly to real market needs. Entrepreneurs who spend a lot of time tying to understand why they
don’t have it right are very likely to be selling a lot more or their product, a year later, than those who
only try to prove they are right and insist that customer is wrong(…)
A positive and aggressive attitude towards market research enables entrepreneurs to make that most
critical of decisions: should I spend the next several years of my life on this business? If you have
decided to become an entrepreneur, then also decide to become a market researcher. Ultimately, the
two are inseparable.

I. COMPREHENSION CHECK (6 marks)

1. Explain the title of the text.
2. To what extent is it important for an entrepreneur to answer the 3 golden questions in the
text before starting a business?
3. Based on your understanding of the text, give two moral qualities that should characterize
entrepreneurs, and then justify your answer quoting from the text.

II. WRITING: (Not more than 12 lines) (6 marks)

Do you agree with the author that “being an entrepreneur is inseparable to being a market researcher?
Give concrete examples to support your viewpoint.

III. TRANSLATE INTO FRENCH (4 marks)

From “common pitfalls…” down to “…sizable market to address…”

IV. TRANSLATE INTO ENGLISH (4 marks)

L’étude du marché peut paraitre difficile et coûteuse. Pour éviter ce piège, il faut plutôt s’adonner
avec détermination à cette tâche. Cela signifie se soumettre parfois au feed –back sévère du marché.

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 Quoi que cela puisse être déplaisant, c’est la seule façon de réussir. Même un entrepreneur sans grand
budget peut réaliser avec succès une bonne étude de marché s’il est créatif et brave.

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