As a business we want all want customers, the mistake we make is casting our net too wide and saying we will work with everyone and anyone, it’s a nice idea but it’s not one that will allow you win consistent sales or even know what’s working and what’s not working.
Narrowing down your ideal customer or your niche, is vital to having sustainable business success, it’s a scary thing because you will feel like you are cutting your nose off to spite your face and taking a risk BUT it’s vital. The question is, how do you start?
The first step is to look at your existing customer base and start creating links, create a basic list of business types and then note down how many of each you have to start with. It’s not perfect but it’s a way of making a start.
This little exercise gives you a foothold and will hopefully draw it down to a handful of business types. Next up, it breaking them down even more.
Take one of the business types and then complete the linked Customer Avatar sheet
Goals and Values
Forming an understanding of the business type is key as it allows you to flesh out the other aspects. Every business has a goal, whether it is to grow their turnover, profits, etc it’s their purpose and is quite often where the pain points come from, they stand in their way of achieving their goal. Then there are the values, what do they stand for, what do they hold dear to them? Staff wellbeing? Giving back to the community? Environmental? These all lead to helping you build a view of the potential niche customer’s core.
Next you have their challenges and pain points
Every business has challenges and pain points, these are your key sales points because they are looking at how they can get these solved. These have to be realistic pain points and not ones that you make up – otherwise you will never convert them.
Sources of information
This is where you can flesh out who these people are, because at the end of the day, people by from people. They read magazines, they read books to learn and move themselves forward. They align themselves with “gurus”, so sources of information goes to helping you understand the person behind the conversations you are having.
Finally, Objections and Roles
Is the person you would be dealing with the decision maker? Are they an influencer or just the researcher? It is vital that you get as close to the decision maker as possible, the further way you are, the more distorted the messages and the solutions you are offering to their pain points. The further away you are, the more like Chinese whispers it becomes.
Whilst this is not the definitive guide on creating your niche, it is a brilliant start to helping you achieve the results you want.
