CHAMPION CHAT
Joseph Walsh
Sales Coaching, Training and Consulting for the Voluntary Benefits Industry| Keynote Speaker| Building Sales Culture| Certified Maxwell Leadership Coach, Speaker and Trainer|Referral Generation and Prospecting Coach
Happy Thursday Voluntary Benefit Champions
It's Thursday, so it's time for another edition of Champion Chat. This week we are going to talk about Niche Marketing. This can be a very powerful method of prospecting and marketing. I know because it is a practice I conducted in my business from 1995 until I retired from in 2018.
I stumbled into my niche...check cashing stores and short term loan companies across the country by accident. However, I worked these two industries thoroughly via niche marketing, referral generation and networking. In fact at my peak, my prospecting was done two weekends a year....at the Illinois Check Cashing Show and the FISCA Show.
Once I stumbled into these two connected industries, I never cold called again.
In 1995 my prospecting was me sending 25 letters to businesses then following up with a phone call. This was slow until I called a check cashing store in downtown Chicago and the owner was there waiting for the police due to a robbery. Barry and I talked for about 25 minutes and he told me to stop by his office the next day to meet with him and his business partner Richard. We met the next day, he signed the agreement and I spent that June going to his 32 locations and meeting with his 136 employees. I wrote 131 and was on cloud nine. In July I took Barry and Richard out to dinner where they told me about the Community Currency Exchange Association Of Illinois, a group they belonged to. They said that for $500 I could join and they would help me meet other owners like them. I signed up and my future was sealed. From August of 1995 on I marketed at first to check cashing stores in Illinois then all over the country. These same business owners then got immersed in the short term loan industry and this opened up a whole new market beginning in 1999.
I cannot stress how your business can change by simply changing how you prospect!
Now as you know, I occasionally publish some of my coaching modules here in my newsletter. Today I am providing my module on Niche Marketing. You will find it below.
First however, I want to again offer an opportunity to all leaders, teams and agents out there. If you want help with putting a proven prospecting system in place, please use the link below to book a 30 minute no cost session with me.
Calendly Link:
I hope you all read this, absorb the information and then use it so you can experience the level of success I did. Please leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section below.
FINDING AND MARKETING TO YOUR NICHE
Discussion Questions
? Have you ever looked for a common denominator among your clients?
? Do you have an idea of who your soulmate prospect and client are?
? Have you ever worked in a market like: A common industry? An organization with a common thread… geographic area? Common business characteristics? A business association?
Key Concepts
? Research and Identify your niche market. ? Research, identify and devise a prospecting plan for your avatar. ? Look at the viability for the organization to lead to new prospects.
? Work in your niche market in a smart and hard fashion.
B2B NICHE MARKETING AND PROSPECTING
1. What is an avatar?
An avatar is a customer (sometimes referred to as a buyer persona, marketing persona, a customer profile, or a prospect profile) is a representation of your soulmate customer or client – a type of person or business that you want to utilize or purchase your products and/or services. Chances are you have seen this phrase tossed around countless times in terms of digital marketing.
2. In the voluntary benefits industry, you have two avatars for each new group.
The employer and the employees
3. Their opinion of your prospecting approach, presentation and your enrollment process are key to you penetrating your chosen niche market.
4. Once you define your niche market and avatar the way you market and prospect will drastically change .
5. How do you research, identify and choose a niche market and your avatar?
Consider the type of business or industry you worked in prior to entering the voluntary benefits industry.
Are there any specific industries or demographics you currently serve on a regular basis?
Do you have a product or service that has special appeal to a certain industry or demographic?
What does the competitive landscape look like for the niche you want to focus on?
List industries you thoroughly understand the needs they have; challenges they face and qualities the businesses have in common.
Next, look at:
Is it a market in which offering voluntary benefits is:
Viable?
Where the products and services you offer will be desirable and there is a definite need?
Where the carrier you use for products and services will support that industry or organization?
Is there an association or organization for the industry you are considering?
Is there an area where there is a concentration of these particular industries?
6. Where do you find the information on the industries you are looking at?
Search Industrial Directories
Dun & Bradstreet Directory or Web Site
Bloomberg
Business Insider
Global Data
Marketline
Plunkett Research
Timetric
IDC
7. Choose 2-3 Niche Markets so you can market and prospect in each to identify which is the most viable and you can work most effectively.
8. How will you market in this Niche?
Social Media Marketing?
Association Marketing?
Paid Marketing Strategy or Organic Marketing?
Email Marketing?
Direct Mail?
Networking?
Referral Generation?
ASSOCIATION MARKETING
Typically, once you settle on a niche market, you need to find a way to effectively market and prospect within that niche.
One of the easiest ways to market with any industry is to research if there is a Trade Organization that many of your potential prospects belong to.
Once you find an association or organization that fits your niche, do your research. Make sure you:
1. See how large the association is.
2. Find out how you become a vendor member.
3. Explore what the benefits of being a vendor member are.
4. Check out the association website.
5. Research if this association meets regularly and has events that you can attend.
6. Ask if they have a trade show that serves the niche you are exploring and how you can participate.
7. If you see that this association will support your plan, join it.
8. Obtain a member list including the business owner’s
A. Email address
B. Website
C. Phone Number
9. Introduce yourself to the members of the association by:
A. Sending an email that introduces you and what you do.
B. Makes an offer that you can follow up on with a phone call.
C. Make sure you only send the number of emails you can follow up on within three to five days with a phone call.
10. Begin to attend meetings and introduce yourself to the membership.
11. Set up a meeting with the person in charge of the association and begin the process of developing them as a referral partner.
12. As you make progress focus more on marketing within your niche.
ACTION ITEMS
. Research 2-3 potential niche markets thoroughly
. Meet with the head of each association and explain what you want to do so you can see if the niche is viable.
. Develop your marketing and prospecting plan for your niche. Include what your offer will be to these companies.
. Begin prospecting and selling within your market.
. Evaluate your progress and make adjustments in your prospecting and sales approach.
Recommended Reading
If You Want To Get Rich – Build A Power Niche by Bruce Stachenfeld
Niche Marketing Blueprint by Stuart Sutton
Conclusion
Folks, I know that you have a number of people chirping in your ear about how you should do things so you're probably reticent to listen to my ideas. However, please don't dismiss them. I realize many of you probably get tired of hearing this but I have the experience, productions, awards and accolades to backup my advice. As an agent, manager and eventually agency owner I opened over 2000 voluntary benefit groups in 27 years. During those 27 years I qualified for The Million Dollar Roundtable 23 times. Additionally, I qualified for 53 reward trips, 104 company awards and have now helped many agencies, agents and leaders through coaching, speaking and training. That being said please start researching 2-3 niche markets this weekend. Start with the jobs and career you had before entering the voluntary benefits industry. Why? Because chances are you speak the language of that industry. Next look at what your family and close friends do and where they work. Unfortunately most of you will keep plugging along, doing what you are currently doing and doing what the carrier you represent tells you. If I had done that, I never would have opened all those groups. So.....strat thinking outside the box. Look at the most successful entrepreneurs in the world and how they think. Don't you think that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban and Warren Buffet think outside the box, question what they are doing and try new ideas and concepts.
Lastly, I am here for you....so reach out and talk to me for 30 minutes. Do this my clicking the link below:
Be A Champion In Everything You Do!