| Do you find that selling seems to slip to
the bottom of your To-Do list every week? That there are always other "better"
things to do?
- People to see
- Places to go
- Things to do?
If so, it's a sign that you don't love selling. Many people
don't love selling. You're not alone. And you don't have to change who you are to build
the business and earn the income you want-you simply have to learn how to find a niche.
Your niche is a specific group of people and businesses you
enjoy working with, who have challenges that you can solve, they want those challenges
solved, and they can afford to pay you for your products and services. They could be
consumers, businesses, non-profit organizations, government agencies or schools or
education-related organizations.
For example, if your expertise is in "motivating
employees to work at their peak performance level", a niche for you might be
"employees in the healthcare industry" rather than "employees" in
general. Or your niche might be "employees in marketing departments of consulting
companies".
With a niche, you are providing solutions to a specific
group of people who really want and will pay for your products and services. You're making
your solutions more targeted and can deliver them in a laser-beam focus to a group of
people who really want and benefit from your knowledge. Successful leading experts own a
niche. You can't be the leading expert for "everyone". Why is a niche so
important? And what does having a niche really do for you?
It simplifies your life and your marketing. When you're
recognized as a leading expert in your field, clients and the media call you - you don't
spend a lot of your time selling.
Let's take a real-life example. One of my clients has
services she offers to business owners. The service is appropriate for various types of
businesses and their owners, including speakers, authors, coaches, free-lance writers and
trainers. She shows business owners how to get more clients, even if you're not
comfortable with selling. When we first met, she was trying to market to all of these
groups. Now she's focusing on one niche right now - speakers.
A key success strategy for marketing your business and
becoming known as a leading expert in your area is writing articles for ezines and
newsletters. When you look up ezines and newsletters to send your article to, you'll find
thousands and thousands if you look for "business owners". My client looked up
"business owners" and didn't know where to start sending her articles.
Now, with the niche she's chosen, she still finds many
ezines and newsletters for "speakers". However, it's a manageable number, and
she's now spending her time sending her articles out rather than deciding which of
thousands of newsletters she wants to submit them to.
And when these speakers read her articles and call her, she
has a program, answers and examples of how other speakers get more speaking engagements.
So they know she's "the expert".
(c) 2005 Jan Wallen - All rights reserved. |
