Client: Can you help my startup market a revolutionary new cleaning agent?
Me: Maybe. Who is your target?
Client: Everyone.
Me: Then I can’t help. If you want my help, let’s narrow your target and become much more specific?
Client: But why would I want to leave out lots of opportunities? I want to reach everyone and sell every person possible. Why give up revenue?
Me: You have things backward. Customers want to buy from people who are experts and are part of their world. They want products made for them, for their pain points and their specific industry.
Client: But I’ll be missing out on lots of sales, right? Why focus and be so narrow?
Me: If you broke your leg, would you go to an allergy doctor? Narrow and specific is critical to marketing success.
Part of a Community
If a salesperson shows up at your restaurant saying they have an all-purpose cleaner made for every location in the world, how would you respond? As they give you a list of hospitals, food manufacturing facilities, residential homes, apartments, prisons, office building and restaurants – are you interested?
A better approach is when that same salesperson says that she has created a product just for you based on her experience in your industry. When she tells the story of how she worked for 25 years in quick-serve restaurants, she will grab your attention. When a salesperson speaks your language, knows your business and can understand your pain points, their chances for success improve.
Marketing Lessons Learned: Be Specific
- When you are in the early years of building a brand, be narrow and focus on your targeting. In the future, if you succeed in one segment, you can add a team and a product to focus on more industries. Start with one sector. Focus is a key to marketing success.
- Products and services should provide narrow solutions for specific audiences. There are enough restaurants that a hyper-focus on this segment, can produce sufficient revenue for growth. Don’t try to be all things to all people.
- When you sell someone, they often wonder how much you understand about their needs? The best salespeople are filled with empathy for their potential customer, feeling their pain. And, they demonstrate knowledge of their customer’s stories, challenges, and dreams.
- We search for experts all the time – think of how you search on Google. Not for hats. But for warm wool, handmade knit hats for newborn babies as gifts. Or, baseball caps that are adjustable and can be custom printed and delivered in 3 days. When a salesperson shows up, their first question will be, what do you know about my business?
Marketing requires specificity. People who need experts to help them solve their problems, rarely seek out generalists.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free and we can explore if working together makes sense. Try my new chat feature on my site if you have a quick question.
Photo by Karan Chawla on Unsplash
