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- Business Impact 107: The Tragedy of Vanilla
Business Impact 107: The Tragedy of Vanilla
And how it can destroy your business.
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Thought of the Week
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Up Front: Why Vanilla Is the Worst Flavor for Your Business
This Week’s Quiz: Will We Stump You This Time?
Consider This: Time for a KISS
Something Special: A Solution for Financial Diversification & Security
UP FRONT:
The Power of Niche Marketing: Why Targeting Everyone Means Reaching No One
I’ve been consulting to entrepreneurs and business owners for over 40 years and one of the most consistent flaws that they make is that they think that they can serve everyone.
That’s a prescription to failure.
The minute you try to please everyone, you lose everyone.
Why?
If you’re being generic, you’re being boring. You won’t have an edge that will have a visceral appeal.
Think about it.
If you try to talk to all market segments, you’d be eaten for lunch by smart marketers who communicate in terms that specifically address smaller market segments.
And it’s those smaller segments that can make you the big money.
You can’t say the same thing to everyone.
Yet that’s what so many marketers do!
Consider this—
If you own a German Shepherd, would you prefer to buy a “dog training” course, or a “German Shepherd Training” course?
Who’s speaking your language?
Obviously the German Shepherd training—and you’d be happy to pay more, because you know it’s calling out to your particular needs.
People will pay more for products and services that call out to them specifically.
Focus on a specific market segment and OWN that segment.
For example, one of my clients, MJ, helps people get their lives back on track after divorce. That’s a huge market, but she doesn’t talk to the entire market.
She only talks to women.
And yet that’s too broad, so she’s narrowed it down to women over 50.
That’s still too broad, so she’s dialed it in even tighter: to Christian women who divorced after long-term marriages.
Are the needs of these women different from younger women? Certainly.
Can she talk to them in language that’s more relatable to them so that they know she understands them?
Definitely.
You may be thinking that she’s made her market too small.
And you’d be mistaken.
You see, people want to know that they’re understood.
Are you a part of her market?
Not at all (unless you’re one of the extremely small minority of our readers who would fit that demographic).
MJ is a hero to her women, and they happily pay top dollar because she speaks their language. They feel understood.
She can provide laser-focused relevance.
And the best part is that she’s talking to the people that she truly wants to engage with. She’s having a blast with them, and they adore her.
When you own your niche, you create a community that’s loyal and engaged. They don’t just follow you; they become your raving fans.
Talk to your perfect fit audience and turn them into raving fans.
Let’s get even more visceral.
What would you do if you needed heart surgery? Would you go to your family doctor, the general practitioner? Or would you go see the heart surgeon?
The answer is obvious.
Here’s the follow up question: Who makes more money? I just did a google search and your GP didn’t hit the top 8…but guess who took 2 of the top 3 spots?
The following are the highest paid doctor jobs in the order of increasing salaries:
Cardiologist
Nephrologist
Orthopaedic surgeon
Urologist
Neurologist
Oncologist
Surgeon
Pulmonologist
So when you catch yourself saying that your product and service can help everyone, stop and reconsider. Explore specific market segments, pick one, and become the leader in that space. You may be surprised how much easier, profitable, and fun that “small” market may be!
THIS WEEK’S QUIZ:
Which famous technology company was originally known as “Cadabra” in 1994 before adopting its current name a year later?
CONSIDER THIS:
Let me ask you a question…
When you’re crafting a marketing message, do you have a tendency to make things a bit more complicated or confusing than they need to be?
If you do, you’re not alone.
Perhaps you want to provide all of the details to better serve your clients of customers. If so, that’s a terrific call to service.
But if you’re in sales and marketing, all of those details can destroy your sale.
No doubt you’ve heard that “a confused mind doesn’t buy”.
That’s true. Our job as business owners and marketers is to inspire our prospects to see the vision of the solution you provide.
Once your prospect becomes a client, you can provide more details—but only in a carefully orchestrated manner to support the sale and make onboarding as fun and effortless as possible.
“If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter”
That quote has been attributed to many authors, but apparently we can thank French philosopher Blaise Pascal for those words of wisdom written in 1657.
They’re just as true today.
So follow the KISS method. Keep it Simple, Silly! (I think the original quote was “Keep it Simple, Stupid”, but that might seem a bit demeaning to some).
Don’t try to impress people with all you know. Avoid big words, for instance.
Big words don’t convert. Writing at a 6th grade reading level does.
When Steve Jobs introduced the ipod, he didn’t talk about all the technology that this little device had in it.
He just famously told us what it did for us:
Simple works.
1,000 songs in your pocket.
That’s all he needed to say.
How can you make your message shorter and more understandable?
THIS WEEK’S QUIZ:
Which company originally started as a video dating site called “Tune In Hook Up” before becoming the giant in its industry that it is today?
SPONSORED MESSAGE:
The Power of Investing (and How it Can Create Generational Wealth)
Last week we discussed the concept of looking at your business as an investment.
Today, let’s consider investments as a completely different element.
Consider being an investor in other areas so that you can diversify and create a steady stream of cashflow to support your lifestyle.
For instance, if you want to help people AND generate some significant cash, you might want to check out this presentation I did with Jason Palliser recently.
He’s got a revenue-generating system that is pretty remarkable. In fact, if you’re struggling with a business that simply isn’t going anywhere, this system could be more than investment—it could relieve the pain on a permanent basis!
We created the presentation for my PrideNomad community, but it applies to everyone who wants to create a location-free revenue stream.
I’ve been a real estate investor (and have trained real estate investors for over 3 decades) and I believe that there’s no better way (aside from your own businesss) to generate generational wealth than real estate.
Watch the presentation and see if you agree!
Incredible totally no-fee business banking. It’s who we use!
YOUR NEXT STEP:
Share this with your friends! We’ll be starting a referral program shortly…get a headstart now!
Quiz Answer
Amazon
Amazon was initially called “Cadabra,” as in “abracadabra,” but was renamed because the original name could be misheard as “cadaver.”
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