Coach Angus MacLennan shares his thoughts and expertise in this week’s guest post as he explains his view that:
Niching Has Failed
After years of reading about the need to have a micro niche its time we admit that niching has failed! OK that is not the case in every instance but the times are changing and we need to adapt to the demands of a time poor but knowledge rich client base who are making slower buying decisions. Having a niche is no longer enough as clients are starting to demand a bespoke service. As service providers we need to give them what they want, when they want it and in the way they expect to receive it.
Clients are buying into the marketing hype that tells them they are all unique. Mix this with the ease with which they can research you, your products, your competitors and the detractors of your particular service and we have a situation where having a micro niche can count against you. Sure we are all a little different but lets face it – almost every conceivable problem has been faced by someone before.
Its easier to market to a micro niche but clients are demanding more and more now. They want a bespoke service – even if their problem is not actually unique. As a coach I have seen most problems, and there variants, and I can tell you that there are very few occasions now where I see something new. Its usually the same problem as the last client but with a particular twist.
While more and more clients feel that they have a unique problem, when you tell them its common they are happy to know they are not alone. However they still expect a bespoke solution. Its an interesting dilemma for service providers. Standard products are great and will always sell to some clients but more and more clients are expecting a service sculpted to their situation. They don’t want to hear about your niche. They want to know that you can fix their problem.
This shift is something my clients are seeing with their own clients. Their clients have taken on board the marketing that says we are all different. Interestingly, that marketing is designed to sell the same product to millions of “unique” people via mass media and mass production. People accept their “unique” shirt from Topshop is not actually unique but when they deal with smaller businesses they expect a bespoke service and my clients are finding that a narrowly defined niche can count against them.
Its time we looked to our transferable skills. What is it that we can do as professionals that can be applied to any situation. Those are the skills we need to market and those are the skills we need to highlight when selling our service. Have a niche to help your marketing but make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to help all those other people who could benefit from your skills but who don’t know what you can do because all they see is your niche.
Go back to basics and do a skills assessment to highlight your transferable skills and abilities. If you are crystal clear on your own broad range of skills you will start to notice more opportunities that you may have missed before. There are so many people out there who need your skills. Once I realised I needed to look up from niche marketing I saw so many more opportunities and my business has tripled in turnover in the last 8 months. Same clients but they are coming from so many new and different directions.
See a need, fill a need.
Have a great day.
Angus
About the Author/Further Resources
My name is Angus MacLennan and I am a Coach delivering practical Business Support to Business Owners and Transitions Support to people going through Change.
I enjoy writing articles about Business and Personal Growth & Development and I am lucky enough to be published in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia and to have my work incorporated into multiple training and support programmes. When I am not out enjoying the great outdoors with my kids or helping local charities I like to spend my time Coaching and delivering Workshops.
My mission is to deliver a quality service to help every client develop their business or career and enable them to have the work/life balance they want.
Over the past 7 years I have had hundreds of hours experience coaching across three continents.
I am a Master Practitioner of NLP, a Master Results Coach and have a Degree in Industrial/Organisational Psychology and a Post Grad Dip in Personnel Management.
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