Why Narrowing Your Niche Will Double Your Book of Business

I made a big, stupid marketing mistake. The only solace I can take is that most service pros, maybe even you, have made this mistake.

You’re proud of what you do as a financial advisor and you have a right to be. You study hard to learn your craft. You have a box full of tools that can help almost anyone. You have a strong desire to help people as well as make money. So you market to everyone. “That’s the way to go,” you think. “That’ll give me the biggest pool of prospects. I’ll get more clients.”

Sadly, experience has proven, trying to appeal to everyone severely dilutes your message and hardly anyone hears you. You’re not special. You don’t talk exactly how the in-groups talk. You have no rapport.

Another problem with this approach is that it’s hard and expensive to convince prospects. Why? If you’re saying you can help everyone, it means you have to try and convince everyone.

Trying to convince everyone is for corporations with DEEP pockets. Corporations like Procter & Gamble, Western Electric and Coca-Cola.

Get real. Not only don’t you have that kind of money, you don’t need everyone. You couldn’t handle everyone

The answer is—specialize. Specialize in a narrow niche. Works like magic. It’s like Alice in Wonderland where less is more.

Okay, let’s not use fantasy. The hard facts are:

• You can’t possibly service everyone.
• Even in the narrowest of niches, you have all the prospects you could possibly want. For instance, if your niche is wealthy divorced women, there are between 47, 860 and 59, 670 divorced women with assets over 1 million. You need only 0.19% of these women to have a caseload of 90 clients.
• You would use different language trying to attract these women then you would trying to attract, let’s say, retiring top executives.

Now some of you may be way ahead of me and have already specialized. Good for you. You are ahead of the pack. Some of you specialize in divorcees, professional athletes, key corporate executives, etc.

If you already specialize, you have to ask yourself these questions. “Do I know how to speak to them in their language, language that resonates with them and easily establishes rapport? Do I know what will cause them to choose you over another financial advisor?”

Unless you have interviewed a sample of your specialty or niche, you’ll be guessing and probably getting it wrong.

You need to learn just exactly what language to use with your chosen niche. It’s easy, but not simple, and you need to learn this yourself. Don’t copy the language your competitors use for two good reasons. Number 1: You don’t want to be just another copycat and Number 2: They may have gotten it wrong.

So if you want effortless marketing, you need to specialize in a niche whose members are:

• Easy to find.
• Have sizable assets.
• Want financial services.
• Willing and able to spend money for financial services.
• Easy to get them to talk to you.
• Enjoyable to work with

You want a group of people whom you enjoy working with. Which niche you pick depends a lot on you, your personality, your likes and dislikes.

When you find a group that seems to measure up, you should interview a dozen or so members to find out the best way to market to them. You need about ten or fifteen well thought out questions to ask. Then call them in person or by telephone. If you have a hard time getting through or they won’t talk to you, you know it’s not a good niche. Find another one.

Follow these steps and your marketing will become so much easier, so much more enjoyable. You’ll find yourself attracting more profitable clients who are loyal and willing to refer others.

A lot of you are going to resist choosing a narrow niche. I know from working with other professionals. I know from my own reaction when I decided to specialize. It’s plain scary. You feel as if you’ll be shutting out potential clients because they won’t fit into your specialty. Take it from me, the opposite is true.

Because of this natural emotional resistance, it’s a good idea to get support when transitioning into a new specialty. A mentor, coach or mastermind group is of enormous help.

Anyhow, my big, stupid marketing mistake was trying to coach everybody. When I chose my niche, things improved dramatically. My life became easier. My income went way up and I had more fun. I chose to work with independent financial advisors.

Have you carved out your own ideal niche of profitable investors?

Do they see you as influential, maybe even the “go-to” advisor?

What can you do in the next 90 days to amp up that influence with your target market?

Share your comments on this blog.

I’d love to hear your questions. I will answer them. Let me know what you think.