Business Growth Blog

The biggest problems I see sales teams face by not having a clearly defined niche market, or target prospect, is a lack of focus on who their supposed to call on and an inability to create strong sales messages that get meetings.

And when you’re eager to work with any kind of company that walks through the door, it’s very easy to get monopolized by customers that take too much time for not enough money.

Here are 3 tips you can use to help you define your niche market.

Who do you want to sell to?

This may seem like an obvious question for a business, but identifying your marketing niche (a.k.a. buyer persona, target prospect, ideal profitable customer, ideal customer, etc.) may not be as easy as it sounds. Plus, as your company grows and develops, the answer might change over time.

Read on to find out generalist woes, specialist advantages, and 4 benefits of niche marketing.

The only way to sell is to communicate your message effectively to the right people.

Obviously, you wouldn't communicate with a toddler the same way you would with a teenager. In sales, you wouldn't (or shouldn't!) communicate the same message to all the various decision makers either.

For example, imagine you're selling technology to the HR department. The HR Director, CIO, and CEO may all be involved in the decision, and each one of those people has different agendas and priorities.

Isn’t that the question of all questions - how do you get sales meetings with new prospects in your niche market? It’s strange being on the fence between a marketer and salesperson. (I’m a salesperson turned marketer).

On the one hand, as a marketer, I know that the best leads will come from the awesome content I create and promote. On the other hand, as a salesperson, I need business - today. I don’t have time to wait 6 months for my company’s brand new blog to start generating leads. I don’t have time to wait for my marketing team (if I have one) to start creating gated premium content. I’ll get fired - or go broke - if I don’t set meetings right away.

Read on to find out how to get sales meetings from a marketing perspective vs. sales.

I was talking with an owner of an insurance agency the other day, and he was telling me one of his biggest challenges is getting his commercial insurance reps to clearly define their target audience. They’re struggling because they don’t really know who to start calling on.

It seems so simple: Who do you want to be your customers?

But when your service can span over multiple industries, it can be a real challenge. It’s still kind of a challenge for me and my marketing services! I could sell to a million different kinds of companies. Can’t I just sell to anyone who comes my way?

Sure I can. But the problem is that sales don’t normally "come your way". You have to actively go out and find people who could benefit from using your product or service and then convince them they would be better off working with you.

If you don’t clearly define your target audience and who you want to work with, sales is an uphill battle. Here’s why: