Want To Be More Profitable in 2021? Then, Be Specific!

Don't fall into to "generic" trap of prospecting for new opportunities and customers without a targeted plan.

Once upon a time, I was living the entrepreneurial dream. I had a thriving “coaching” business that was booming on social media, selling out small and medium in-person conferences (pre Covid 19 days), hosting live virtual trainings and so much more. I thought I was living the dream.

Until, I realised that I reached a plateau in the growth and expansion of my business and global reach. Everyday began to feel like Groundhog day, with a steady influx of prospects contacting my office for free information, instead of solutions. My team spent the majority of the day discerning committed prospects and leads, which is a fancy way of saying my team had to eliminate the time wasters. I was feeling overwhelmed and beginning to feel disconnected from a business model that I thought I was passionate about, but essentially, I was distancing myself from my own success. 

And for good reason - I built a very “generic” business model. 

I started a “business coaching” company, where I thought that because I had a pretty noticeable success rate at building companies - brick and mortar and thought leadership - and marketing a successful brand, I could teach others how to do the same. Although simple and genuine in my intention as a founder, I was not exactly clear about defining the type of business models we work with, hence, my team was swamped daily with ambitious hopefuls, who were just willing to invest in “coaching.” In hindsight, I can see where there is no issue with the model, but ethically, I did not feel like I was serving my ideal target market, while growing as a leader. 

About 5 years ago, as I was going through these growing pains, I began to ask myself, “How can we attract our ideal client(s) without wasting an entire day saying, Thank you, but we will pass at this time? I thought about all of the high performing leaders within various industries and noticed one similarity - they all had a specific specialty. It was my Ah-Ha moment.

Think about it this way 

• A Neurosurgeon is the highest paid doctor
• A Patent Attorney is the highest paid lawyer
• A commercial builder is the highest paid contractor

As a result, I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to grow a successful and sustainable business model, removing my expertise from the generic category was going to be crucial in overcoming the plateau I was experiencing. Honestly, once I made that decision, my sales and demand grew by 6X. 

Labeling myself as a “business coach” was too broad. I was casting out a wide net and catching very few qualified prospects, and as a person who is always meeting with my team about improving productivity, it is simply impossible to be productive when you haven't narrowed down your specialty. Once I sat down with a few gifted high performance leaders and gleaned from their experience, we rebranded, narrowed in to my target audience, created a new marketing campaign and launched!

How do you specialize?

Qualify prospects upfront

By clearly defining your specific area of expertise, you are pre-qualifying prospects upfront by urgency and intention. Think of it as getting pre-qualified for a mortgage to shop for your first home - most realtors don’t want to spend their days driving you around to see homes that you can’t afford or not qualified to purchase.

By labeling yourself as a “business coach” or “leadership consultant,” you are casting your net too wide. Specificity changes how a potential customer views your business, for example “Business coach for casual dining restaurant startups,” or “Leadership coach for women ER physicians.” Once your ideal target market can see their specialty in your headline, they are more likely to inquire. If it is too generic, you may lose their business. 

Many entrepreneurs who are struggling to build a consistent cashflow business model are married to the idea of building a brand with fancy logos will do the trick, or just purchasing ads and buying attention will translate into sales - wrong! The broad scope of defining your expertise and phishing for a wide range of prospects is a waste of time.

Use clear & filtering language in your marketing

Although you may believe that your language is clear on all of your marketing collateral, if you are steadily not attracting your ideal prospects, your language is vague. It is imperative to mention your area of specialty on every platform, including your website, to ensure prospects can connect their specific needs to your specific problem.

For example - 

(Vague) "Visit Carla’s bakery if you want some sweet treats." 

(Specific) "Visit Marco’s French bakery, ranked #1 for French Macarons and Crepes." 

Even though Carla’s bakery may offer French pastries, it doesn’t offer any specialized treats within the title. On the other hand, if I were a customer, who was searching for chocolate chip cookies, I would assume Marco’s French Bakery may not carry a wide variety. The use of filtered language in the marketing collateral was clear about Marco’s specialty, which may deter generic buyers. 

Don’t Follow the Masses

It is easy to fall into the trap of following trends and labeling your expertise/business in a way that is “easy” to understand. Keep in mind, both Chick-fila and Popeyes sell chicken sandwiches, as we noticed with the marketing genius of the chicken sandwich wars of 2019, but Chick-fila will always win an award for customer experience and service. Chick-fila never lowered their standard to cater to the fast-food masses, and continues to lead in popularity and market expansion. 

Focus on quality over quantity when you are building a business model. Remember, it is easy to get caught up in competing for attention, but generic attention produces "generic" results. Market to your target market specifically.

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Carol Sankar is a high level consultant and the founder of The Confidence Factor for Women in Leadership. She has been featured at TEDx, The Steve Harvey Show, Harvard Business School, The United Way and more. In addition, her work has been covered by Inc. Magazine, Glamour, O Magazine, Forbes, Harvard, Entrepreneur Magazine — to name a few. Carol is also a contributor for Inc., & Entrepreneur Magazine. For more details, visit www.carolsankar.com