Episode 1083: The riches are in the niches
Whether you’re American or European, the saying holds true everywhere. The riches are in the niches, and it’s easy to underestimate why.
Staying in your lane on purpose
It’s common to get approached to do all sorts of adjacent work once people know what you do. The instinct is to say yes to as much as possible, because more offerings surely means more opportunity. In practice, saying no to almost everything except one very specific thing is what actually builds a business.
Doing one thing, and doing it extremely well, means becoming the obvious choice for that exact problem. Nearly every business has faced some version of it, even if very few people specialise in solving it properly.
Why fewer buyers can mean more sales
There’s a strange correlation and causation trap here. It feels logical that going after more people, being all things to all people, should lead to more clients. The opposite tends to be true.
The more specialised you become, the easier it is to sell to people, because they connect with exactly what you do instead of trying to work out if you’re even relevant to them. Fewer people come your way, but they’re higher quality, and they convert at a much higher rate.
Specialist or generalist, the choice is obvious
Imagine you had a very specific problem to solve. Would you go to someone who does a bit of everything and this problem happens to be one small part of it, or someone who has built their entire methodology around solving that exact problem?
Most people choose the specialist every time, in any industry. If you’ve never tried niching down before, it’s worth testing properly.
Where in your business are you currently trying to be everything to everyone?
Take Action
Write down every type of client or problem you currently say yes to. Circle the one you’re genuinely best at and enjoy the most. For the next month, lead every piece of marketing and outreach with that one thing only, and track whether conversations get easier.
See Also
- 117+ ways to differentiate from the competition
- What To Say To Sell™
- The Specialist Effect
- The Niche Effect
- The Qualified Effect
- 180+ ways to improve conversion
- 100+ ways to differentiate
