The Secret To Make It Rain Like A Multi-Million-Dollar Agency

So are you an agency owner who wants to make it rain?

I am not talking a sprinkling of right-fit clients, I am talking a downpour.

When I researched my book Rainmaker Confidential, I found a common denominator among the most successful rainmakers.

In fact the same truth worked for business consultants, coaches, and entrepreneurs as well.

The secret is to make yourself less interesting to the masses. And more intensely interesting to a select few.

In other words, make it rain by finding riches in the niches, witches.

My friend Ellen Melko Moore calls that the witch slap of truth (or something like that).

The truth is finding a niche target market takes time, effort, and dedication that many agency owners do not know how to give.

Many are too frightened to even try.

"What if I choose the wrong one?" they lament. The lamentations are because fear never sleeps.

But fear not. In researching a target market, here are ten filter questions the rainmakers revealed to me that you should ponder in the following rank order:

1.???Are you interested in solving the problems this group has? If their problems do not energize you, that should be a non-starter.

2.???Have you worked with any already? Targeting prospects in a market you have never worked with is possible but not probable.

Niche prospects want a successful track record in the niche.

3.???Can they afford you? Money isn’t everything, but it is certainly one important thing.

4.???Are they willing to pay more for better service? There is no winning the low-price provider game. You cash bigger checks by providing better service to those willing to pay for it.

5.???Do they already know they need an agency like you? If you must educate the prospect that they need an agency like yours, then you are waging an uphill battle.

6.???Are they numerous? One of my clients goes fishing. He says: “If you want to catch catfish, go to a fishing hole where the catfish are. The more catfish there are, the better the fishing will be. That’s just math.” In his brilliant book The Business of Expertise, Nashville-based business consultant David C. Baker advises there should be 2,000 to 10,000 prospects.

7.???Do you have few real competitors? If this is an attractive market, then it will attract other agencies. Even if you discover and create a new market, others will find it too. The trick is to offer a unique problem-solving process, which you document and trademark.

Clients like process and find a proprietary process that you value as intellectual property as differentiating when they choose whom to hire.

8.???Can you find them easily enough through lists and associations? Demographics matter. You should be able to define with numbers your target market. Psychographics are well and good, but it’s hard to find a list.

9.???Can you find a target-rich environment where they gather? Go again to the fishing hole metaphor. If you prefer, what is their watering hole? What do they read, and what do they attend? You can Google that stuff (I know, I used a noun as a verb).

10. Will some make marquee clients, advocates, and references? This might be a hush-hush group that never wants it known that you helped them. That will make it hard to demonstrate a successful track record in your testimonials.

Bottom line: The more quality thinking you do up front, the easier your business development will be.