July 23, 2020
How do I decide what to niche down on?
Long time list member and TPS alum Jeeva Nadarajah invited me to drop by her bi-weekly “virtual happy hour” for some Q&A about hourly billing, value pricing, positioning, productivity, and so forth.
One of the questions that came up was a classic:
I know I should niche down to get more/better leads, but how do I decide what to niche down on?
This is a tough question because the answer cannot be found in the outside world. It’s in your gut.
But what if you stink at listening to your gut?
Over the years, I have found that there are two questions I can walk a student through that will sometimes uncover a meaningful answer. The first is this...
1. What do you want to be known for?
This question doesn’t always work but when it does, the answer will generally be a horizontal specialization (e.g., “I want to be recognized as the top SEO expert in the world”) or it’ll be some kind of a mission statement (e.g., “I want to teach 1B creatives how to make a living doing what they love”).
If I get an answer that I believe the student is genuinely committed to, then we agree on a strategy that best fits the objective, and start executing tactics that align with the strategy.
But if I don’t get a concrete answer to what they want to be known for, I’ll move on to the second question...
2. Who do you most want to help?
If you know who you want to help, it solves a lot of problems for you. You don’t need to be a brilliant entrepreneur to be successful. Just use your expertise to help these folks get what they want.
This typically raises a few more questions:
- “How do I know what they want?” Ask them.
- “What if I don’t have the expertise they need?” Get it.
- “What if there aren’t enough of them?” There are.
- “What if they don’t have a lot of money?” Package your expertise differently.
- “What if I can’t think of anyone I care about helping?” Well, then... maybe you should rethink the idea of running a service business.
Thanks so much to Jeeva for creating this group and honoring me with an invitation to speak. It was delightful! If you’d like to participate in Jeeva’s next virtual happy hour, probably the best thing to do would be to connect with her on LinkedIn.
Yours,
—J
P.S. The next session of The Pricing Seminar is coming up in September. If you’d like to know when early bird pricing is announced, you can add your name to the list here. I hope to see you there!