Years ago, I heard a speaker tell her audience… “An ass can’t ride two horses at once”. Personally, coming from an equestrian background, I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair. What she meant was that you won’t become successful by trying to sell to more than one type of client or as the old saying goes, a fox can’t chase two rabbits at once.
So why should you narrow your audience? Why should you have a small niche and only try to sell to those individuals? How can it hurt your business if you don’t have a super narrow niche?
You’ve probably been asked this question many times….
“Who is your target market?”
Think back to your answer or answers. If you’re anything like myself (or my clients), over the years your answer probably changed!
In your early years, as you were learning your business, you probably said something like… anybody and everybody!
However, as you & your business matured, you probably realized who you didn’t want to sell to! You wanted to make things easier in your business, so there were customers that you truly didn’t want to work with. This process of weeding out the ‘not so perfect’ clients is one step towards narrowing down your niche.
Narrowing down your niche to serve only dream clients is one of the best ways to improve your marketing proficiency and make more money! When your marketing language speaks to your dream client you will attract more of those clients into your business and make more money!
Here’s 3 reasons why you can’t effectively sell to everyone and how to stop!
1. Focus is your friend!
When you take picture with your smartphone, you tap on the center of the screen to focus on the items you want to highlight. If you take the picture without stopping to focus, often the result is a blurry mess – faces fuzzy or items out of focus. You have a picture that no one wants to look at or much less share.
Trying to sell to everyone is like taking a picture without tapping to focus. You can do it, but the result isn’t pretty. Applying a sharper focus to your marketing lets you hone in on the people who are your best prospects thus increasing your marketing proficiency because with a clear vision your efforts will be much more effective.
The people in your business picture will be happy with the outcome (results) and they will share your branding, leading to referrals and more sales.
In today’s very competitive online world, you aren’t limited to selling in your geographic area – the world is your marketplace. And the world is the marketplace for your competitors. You now have competition from far and wide. Focus in on those you can serve best – be clear and be specific.
2. It’s impossible to please everyone
It’s just a fact of life that you can’t please everyone at the same time. Try as you might, one person will be happy when another is sad. One is cold when the other is hot. People are just different, and people want different things. Different people need different things.
Successful selling requires that we understand which people we can BEST serve – not just those we can or might possibly serve. I know that you want the best results for your clients – so focus in on those who will get the best results and you’ll be much happier and wealthier.
You can focus on those clients when you have clearly identified their needs and wants …. in language that they understand (increasing your marketing proficiency by explaining their needs clearly).
The audience that will get the best results all have a few commonalities even though they might have a wide range of demographics, personalities or needs. Find out these commonalities so you can thoroughly understand how to help these people achieve their goals. The more targeted your approach, the more passionate these dream clients will feel about what you do for them.
3. Bland isn’t memorable
If your offer/program/product is designed to appeal to everyone – it rarely succeeds! By the time you remove every element that anyone dislikes, there’s precious little left to make your offer stand out.
With a lack of differentiation in the market, you look and sound like everyone else — no one can remember why your business is any better … that’s not memorable and it’s certainly not profitable.
The best products and services are distinctive, and appealing to buyers who appreciate those unique qualities – those are your dream clients! And those dream clients help sell you by spreading the word to others!
If you want to quickly increase your marketing proficiency and your sales revenue, remember these three principles:
1. FOCUS on a carefully selected dream client … and when you think you’re there, sharpen your focus even more. A tool that might help you is my “Client Needs Identifier’ (click here to download)
2. DECIDE who in the overall marketplace that you can get the best results for …. And then do it exceptionally well!
3. BE DISTINCTIVE in the marketplace instead of following the herd. When you differentiate yourself, you’ll be more memorable and more profitable. (Hint: Don’t be different just to be different – be different to make your client aware of a problem they didn’t know they had AND that positions you as the solution.)
Join me on Tuesday afternoon at 1pm on FB Live as I explore this topic even deeper. Are you a member of my FB group – join here and get free weekly trainings like this one – https://www.facebook.com/groups/supersmartmarketing
If you’ve missed this training, no worries. You can find all of the free video trainings (100+) in the group by looking under “MORE”, then ‘media’, then ‘videos’.
YOU CAN DO THIS
Diana
* Marketing Proficiency is what I call the effectiveness of your marketing upon your business results. In other words, a high marketing proficiency would mean that every marketing effort would positively impact your business results.
