The marketplace will pay a premium for specialists. A specialist lawyer, who is an expert in medical negligence, may be the wrong person to deal with the sale of your home, but she’s exactly who you need, to get that medical negligence issue successfully resolved.
The value of specialists
Successful business owners and consultants in every niche, have figured out that if they become specialist in a key area, they can work with great clients and earn attractive fees. Specialists have this additional value, because unlike generalists in their niche, they focus on being truly outstanding in one or two areas. So, if we need expert help with a specific issue, we hire a specialist rather than a generalist.
Struggling business owners and consultants also know it’s important to specialise. However, they get it all wrong. Rather than focus on the areas where they have expert knowledge, they claim to be specialists in everything (see photo.) In an effort to appeal to everyone, they use a message that fails to be directly relevant to anyone. This is a big mistake.
I took the photo for today’s post on a visit to my local town. The sign belongs to a small, generalist law firm. However, their sign claims that they are specialists. Not only that, they claim to specialise in everything! This is, of course, factually incorrect. Law is a massive, complex subject with specialisations within specialisations within specialisations. To claim that they are specialists in all areas of law is ridiculous. It also hurts their marketing.
Specialist marketing
From a marketing perspective, signs like that are pointless. They make it impossible for people to know what the law firm really is good at. If they listed their two or three main areas of expertise, anyone seeing that sign, with that problem, would stop and take note. By listing nothing and claiming everything, they are invisible.
Claiming to specialise in everything, simply tells people you specialise in nothing.
Claiming to specialise in one (or a few) complimentary areas, is vastly more effective.
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I worry when I see anyone call themselves a specialist of a broad range of things … it just screams “you aren’t doing anything very well” …
Specialising definitely makes you think more about what you are good at and what you enjoy doing which leads to a winning combination!
I found that sign amusing myself. As the saying goes, “if you market to everyone, you market to no one.”
I do agree that specialist must be good at an area to fetch a high rate. I also agree that a one man operation business should specialize instead of generalize.
However, when the business grow, the skill sets change. A business owner should shift from specialization to generalization. Instead of being there to solve problems personally, he/she should stand back to manage a group of specialists.
You seem to have misunderstood my post, apologies for not making it clearer. (I’m always working on that)
The post relates to the fact that if you specialise in everything, you end up specialising in nothing.
It’s perfectly fine if the owner wants to have a generalist business, but not to falsely claim they specialise in everything.
It’s an oxymoron.
Specialist are there to assist businesses focus on what they lack. Thanks for sharing Jim. Looking forward for more.