Subject: The Phenomenon - Specialization
Articles for Review Only
posted by HPBA on Tuesday, January 15th 2008 @ 7:43 PM
PHENOMENON TRIGGER #1: Specialization and Nicheing Who's afraid of a little Specialization? (Everyone, it seems) I've spent the better part of the past four years working with new real estate entrepreneurs and I can tell you that it's harder to get new investors to specialize than it is to get my 5 year old daughter Savannah to voluntarily turn off "Dora The Explorer". And there is about an equal amount of crying and whining from each.
Why the resistance to specialization? A healthy combination of FEAR and GREED. (By the way - fear and greed are two of the most powerful "action", "sales" triggers that you're ever going to find so you want to be very conversant with how they impact human behavior and decision-making. Just try to be immune to them yourself. No problem, right?) How Do Fear and Greed Work? "I don't want to specialize in THIS geographic area because I'll miss out on opportunities in THAT geographic area." That's GREED. "What if there are not enough clients to keep me in business if I specialize?" That's FEAR.
So businesses choose instead to be "all things to all people" and then they wonder why their experience of business is: 1) Working extraordinarily hard (and spending lots of money) to connect with prospective customer and get them "in the door"
2) Having to Compete with other businesses for their customer's dollar- spending time negotiating, pleading, and competing on price 3) Never building a large base of customers who "stick around" 4) Having to Charge "Walmart" prices rather than "Nieman's" prices
In comparison, what happens when you specialize? When you choose a niche market and you commit to "dominating the market"?
1) It's easier to put your message in front of your target market (partially, because you actually have a target market!)
2) Your message is more compelling and attractive to them. 3) You can begin to "know" your market so you can craft and customize your products, services, delivery mechanisms, and follow up processes to better connect with them. 4) You have a "competition-free" zone because you've transformed your business model so that you are the ONLY CHOICE for your target market. 5) Price competition disappears because you are now having your prospective customers compare apples and oranges 6) You actually start to BECOME an expert, a specialist, someone who your customers believe is worth going through hoops and paying higher prices to work with.
So, which of the above scenarios would you rather have as your Business Experience? Well, ask yourself: Which one DO you have...NOW?
Specialization - Segmenting - Nicheing yourself and your business has extraordinary rewards for the Renegage Entrepreneur. Whether it's specialization on a technical skill, a geographic area, where the customer came from, the problem the customer has, or some demographic information that characterizes the customer (age, gender, education, lifestyle, etc), niche-ing yourself forces you into the "right" mindset - focused on your customer - and out of the "normal" mindset - focused on your product - and thus starts moving you onto what will be the Staging ground for your Business Phenomenon!
Frazier O'Leary www.breakthroughbusinessstrategies.com | 
