Focusing On Your Niche
Discovering and capitalizing on your niche can be the single most powerful concept you develop for your coaching practice. Defining your area of expertise and marketing that to the world differentiates you from your competition and allows you to operate from a position of strength and confidence.
Here are three reasons to become an expert in your field:
- Experts make more money.
- Command more respect.
- Gain more control.
The Magic of Thinking Small
In developing your niche, smaller is better. The more focused you are on a specific market, the better you can serve that market. The smaller the market, the easier it is for you to research and meet the needs of those clients. The added bonus is that it is easier and also less expensive to market to those prospective clients.Serving too many different types of clients can stunt your growth and hold you back. You can't be all things to all people. People won't be able to "get you," which - after all - is what they are buying. Is it not?
There you are. You know this is good advice because it has a 3-item list. Now are we applying it?
Me: I'm going after the people who follow 5M's exploits and are interested in space travel. Yes. A nice small niche.
Coyote: People who like elegant poetry. Yes. Perhaps a smaller niche than it should be.
IO: People interested in Nordic artifacts. Well done, IO.
Chair: People interested in dating issues and can put up with someone who has commitment issues. Yes, another small niche.
Bob: Home renovations? Entertaining? Going Out? You're a little more Lifetime network than HGTV, Bob.
Lucy [and here]: Hmm. Poetry lovers = small niche. Art lovers = broad niche, especially with the wide variety of topics covered. Perhaps, Lucy, you should only do frog pictures.
5M: Okay, you had that narrow niche of people who liked ongoing dysfunctional relationships. Then you started going after the kitten lovers. Then the new relationship that's working out. You can't be all things to all people, 5M. Maybe you should let the soup lovers go.
5 comments:
Yeah, true, my niche became a lot smaller after the slammers started their parlour tricks. But you wouldn't believe the traffic I get on the Anthropomorphized Mythological Creature-Thingy Hotline....
Slammers? is that new slang for spammers?
You know, since so many of you are using that word verification thing, people like me who don't use it aren't getting spammers any more.
Meanwhile Musie is asking about Planning!!! That's like my specialty! I can't wait until tomorrow's astrogation exam is over. I'm going to provide a big guided tour to planning.
Oh, stop me, someone, I've got to think about astrogation and here I am planning my posting on planning!
Say, Coyote, is that hotline number public?
What?!
Do you really want me to snip my budding career already?! (snort snort)
One week with Fred was enough to make me see how it's never going to work out between us...pray, please don't ask me to spend the rest of my life with frogs, Dwarf!
Lucy, snip your career? I'm trying to help you build it!
Didn't you notice: Experts make more money! Command more respect! Gain more control!
So, the frog didn't work out. What about salamanders?
Er...salamanders....sure! (But not more than two weeks, at the most).
Dwarfie are you biased towards amphibians? I don't mind spending time with marsupials!
And...yes, of course (if I could write italics, that would be in italics) you're helping me build my career!
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