Jim's Marketing Blog

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One of the things I work on with many of my clients, is the development of a valuable niche for their business. A highly profitable niche, with literally no competition.

Here’s a quick look at the approach I use, plus some ideas you can adapt into your own business.

The niche model I use is based on the strategy I developed for my own business. Here are 3 of over 70 processes I’ve developed.

Enriching my competitors

Instead of focusing on crushing the competition, I focused on enriching the competition. When I started out, my strategies were so different from other providers in my industry, they were no longer competitors. This gave me the freedom to enrich, elevate, connect and promote their marketing businesses. That remains to this day. Marketing providers are by far, the biggest market sector I serve.

The following is from a previous article I wrote on this subject – the full article is here.

“I chose to proactively seek out opportunities to help my competitors flourish, to open doors for them, to share new ideas and strategies I’d developed with them, to connect them with useful people, etc. I was in my twenties at the time and many in the industry said I was young and naive. I saw things very differently…”

Tip: If you found that interesting, I strongly recommend you read the full article.

Closing sales replaced by opening relationships

Instead of focusing on closing sales, I focused on opening relationships. It has always struck me as odd that good salespeople are referred to as good closers. So I decided to focus on opening instead of closing.

Opening relationships, to be precise.

Whilst sales closers have a toolkit of psychological closing techniques, I didn’t. Instead of seeing the sales process as a game of chess, pitting me against the prospect, I wanted to be on the same side of the table as the prospect. In their corner. Looking out for their best interests, exactly as I would if they were already my client. This transforms initial meetings with a prospective client. It switches things 180 degrees, from the usual chess game.

Yes, it does mean being willing to openly, honestly tell a prospective client if you don’t think you can help. When this happens, you’ve still planted some amazingly positive seeds.

You’ve just demonstrated to a prospective client that you can be trusted. You’ve also demonstrated that you offer an exceptionally professional service. In my experience, these same prospective clients often go on to become regular sources of high quality referrals.

This approach has set me apart and allowed me to further develop my reputation as a trusted adviser. That’s because it’s in such stark contrast to the usual strategy, of closing tricks and needy follow-up emails.

Building an influential network, not a big network

People in the marketing industry are known for the size of their networks. They’re at every networking event. They’re amongst the most active people on Linkedin. I took a very different approach. Instead of focusing on growing a large contact network, I focused on growing a small, but influential network.

Even when I was starting out, I never saw the value of what’s usually thought of as ‘networking’. For example, I think I had my last lot of business cards printed around 2002/3. Oh, and I’ve never had a Linkedin account or had any need for one.

Why?

Business is all about people and the depth of the relationships you have with them. I chose to intentionally develop strong, meaningful relationships with people who I believed to be the best fit.

Initially my main focus was senior media people, marketing experts and mentors. I was 29 when I started my business, no one knew who I was and I needed to be around people who were able to help me get known and develop. If you followed the link I shared earlier, you’ll have seen how my first 6-months in business went.

As with every person I have shared this selective networking approach with, I too have found that you automatically get many of the benefits of a large network. Such as massively expanding the reach of your work, your opinions and your ideas.

For example, you’ll find that from time to time, your influential contacts recommend you and your work to their audience. An audience that respects their endorsement. Another example is media coverage, something I have professionally benefited from enormously. Lots of journalists have known me for years. They trust me and are comfortable enough to contact me, and cite me, when they need expert opinion.

Tip: One way to get started is to think who would be really useful for you to know in 12-months or 18-months time. And today, start to look for ways to earn their attention and then their interest. It’s not by cold emailing them or pestering them. It’s about being useful to them. Gently. Over time.

I hope that quick look at 3 of the 70+ processes I’ve developed, has encouraged you to seriously consider a more niche approach to the growth of your business.

Image: Drew Beamer

If you’d like to see a surge in new, high-quality clients, then today’s message is written just for you. It all starts with Sam and her problem.

It ends with a proven way for you to transform the future of your business.

Sam is a successful business owner. She needs a great new website for her business. She has a significant budget and is very eagerly looking to invest.

However, Sam’s now presented with a huge problem! All the web design providers she’s found have snazzy looking websites, as you’d expect. And on these websites, they make the same lofty claims about their services.

• They say they have a great, experienced team.
• They say they use the most up-to-date design techniques.
• They say they understand the needs of their clients.
• They say they will give you a dedicated account manager.
• They say they will build you a site that engages your marketplace, drives sales and gets your business noticed.
• They then provide predictable case-studies or testimonials.

How the heck is Sam supposed to choose?

In essence, none of these providers have given her any reason, why Sam should hire them, as opposed to their identical looking competitors.

And these same web design companies are wondering why business is so slow. They’re sitting there, right now, blaming coronavirus, the economy, etc. They’re waiting for things to improve.

Why this is YOUR problem too

Whatever industry you are in, right now, there are people in Sam’s position desperately keen to hire you. Money is not an issue. Plus, they are really eager to get moving. They just need to know that hiring you is the right decision.

Now, maybe you already get these high quality, eager-to-proceed enquiries regularly.

But let me tell you, the majority of small business owners don’t.

Most people reading this are suffering from an unpredictable flow of new clients. This makes it impossible to plan ahead with any real confidence. They’re working hard. They’re darn good at what they do, too. Yet to their marketplace, they look way too similar to their competitors.

You’d think the answer was obvious

And it is. They need to look at what their competitors are doing, then build a service that’s meaningfully better and market it correctly.

But that’s NOT what allows the problem to persist!

What allows the problem to persist, is that too many small business owners think it doesn’t matter.

Among them are the web design companies in Sam’s marketplace. Who are capable of delighting Sam with their service, yet who are missing a (minimum) $95,000 web design project. Of course, they’re missing out on countless other great clients too.

All the time wondering why business is so quiet.

We need to be smarter than that. So, learn how to stand out, then communicate it effectively. Or find someone, who can show you how.

Anything less and you’re leaving a fortune on the table, needlessly.