Why You Need to STOP Expanding Your Services to Grow Your Business
Mar 16, 2018If you’re in a service based business it’s so tempting to promote a broad array of services to try and win more customers and sell more to them.
I understand the logic – more services means broader market scope which means bigger target market and should mean more customers (and revenue).
But often it will end up winning you LESS customers.
Why?
You’re not focussed on what you’re best at.
Customers don’t want to hire mediocre. They want to hire the experts, or at least the rising talent!
And, when your offering is too broad, nobody remembers exactly what you do. Your brand isn’t aligned with a particular skill or area of expertise, so once again you’re not top of mind for anyone.
The fastest way to grow a business is to become known for something that you’re really good at.
Ok – now you know why you need to be razor focused and choose a niche, what can you do about it?
Find your niche to build a strong business foundation
Rather than review the market for gaps to provide new services, find your niche and excel in it.
Ask yourself:
“What could I win an award for?”
“What can I do better than most others out there?”
“What can I help people with, that I really enjoy doing?”
“What do I want to be known for?”
This is your niche.
That’s where your business should focus because it’s where you can be the most credible, deliver the most value and build the most value in your brand.
Don’t worry that someone else is already offering the same service as you, if you’re good at what you do and have the right strategy for building trust with your target customer, you’ll find it easy to bring in the business.
Your aim should be to become known as the go-to person for that particular thing. For example, you’re the SEO whizz, or the WordPress Divi designer, or the Instagram queen.
Make your brand synonymous with your niche. Which means that it’s you people think of when they need that thing.
Tailor your offering to your Ideal Customer
There’ll always more people needing your services than what you’d be able to handle (even if your company grew) so don’t fear having a small niche.
In fact what you need to do is figure out exactly WHO you most want to service. Who do you enjoy working with?
Focus your message positioning to appeal to your ideal customer and tell them how you can help them achieve their goals.
(Not sure who your ideal customer is, or what their goals are? Grab my free customer avatar worksheet to figure it out).
Change your sales pitch
During my corporate career in marketing, I fielded hundreds of calls from agencies wanting to pitch for business.
I rarely agreed to meet with any of them unless I was genuinely looking for a specific supplier, for example, someone to provide SEO services.
99% of these meetings followed the same format: a long boring presentation about their agency, their way of working, their vision and lots of fancy slides about all their service offerings.
(And unfortunately their websites were exactly the same!)
What they didn’t get was that I wasn’t interested in everything they did.
All I wanted to know was whether they could help me with my current problem (SEO) and if they were awesome at it.
I didn’t want to hire someone who said they do SEO but really it was just an idea they had to generate extra revenue streams and they’ve got someone called Matt in their web team who says he knows a bit about it.
[It’s a terrible experience to be subjected to a long-winded recital of a business’ services, (or product features) if you aren’t interested in them. This could make or break a sale! Instead make sure you are only presenting what the customer is interested in. If you don’t know what they are interested in, you shouldn’t be presenting, you should just ask them questions to get the info you need.]
So I usually stop them during the presentation and ask “tell me what you are BEST at, what would you win an award for?”. I want to know if I am wasting my time or not.
If they aren’t best at what I am looking for, it’s better for both of us to stop wasting time in the meeting because I won’t be signing that contract!
It’s amazing how many people can’t answer that question, or won’t. Because they wanted my business no matter what.
But servicing someone with a mediocre offering is not going to do your business any good.
So, change your pitch to focus on your core service. Prove your expertise through knowledge and stories of success.
If they choose to work with you and like what you’re doing, then you can talk to them about other services. But focus on your core service first.
Why waste your time and effort selling services that you aren’t the best at? Leave them to someone else, focus on what you do best and become the leader in that field.
Become a recognised leader in your field
What happens when you focus on your niche?
You build a strong brand and, you’ll deliver top quality work.
Combine that with a laser focus on relationship management, and your customer experience will be outstanding!
When your customers are happy they don’t look to leave, and you’ll benefit from long, healthy relationships.
Your brand reputation will grow through word of mouth, new customers will seek you out and you’ll grow your business without needing to spend much time or money on marketing.
But, I hear you say, customers don’t want hundreds of suppliers, they want to consolidate to make their business admin easier.
That is true to a degree. But not at the expense of mediocre performance.
I know from experience it ends up much more hassle to manage a poor performing supplier than to add new suppliers who are each experts in their field.
Increase your revenue and your profits
Bottom line is that it’s about your bottom line.
When you are best at something you can also command a higher price. You can win business at that top price because you’re worth it.
More money for the same time spent means bigger profits.
However, make sure you don’t scrimp and save on areas that can improve your customers’ experience. If you’re the best, you need to give a great impression from start to finish.
Hire the best talent.
Find the best technology that can make life easier for your customers – does it integrate with their systems?
Is it user friendly? Can you help them to manage it?
Now, plan your expansion!
Once you have mastered your niche you can look at scaling your business.
Look at how you can extend your core service with add ons, or add new target customers.
Your existing customer base knows and trusts you to deliver quality, so ensure you only choose to deliver services you can achieve that same level of quality.
Focus your service to deliver the best value and experience for customers. It will help you retain customers for the long term which is the key to business success.
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Struggling to figure out what YOUR best niche is for your own business?
Maybe you would benefit from some advice to help you nail down your strategy.
Did you know that I offer private coaching services to a small number of business owners? I can work with you to define/ refine your entire business strategy and create a smart marketing plan to grow your business.