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Back on November 1st I wrote a blog post about The Number One Marketing Mistake Made by Small Business People Today. In today’s article–and in 8 more over the coming weeks–I’ll fill you in on the other “Top Ten Marketing Mistakes Made By Small Businesses” and give you a little insight into what you should do about them.

Small Business Marketing Mistake #2: Trying to Sell To Everybody

The guy was made of steel.

I mean literally. Or, well not literally: metaphorically. But if ever a guy came close to actually, literally being made of steel it was this guy here.

He was also built like an upside-down triangle with corded rope shoulders, biceps as big as dobermans and chest muscles so well defined that whole rivers could flow in the canyons between them. He was 5′10″ of steely defined gym-rat strength. He could bench press me, my brother and an entire lacrosse team at the same time.

And he couldn’t stretch to save his life.

I mean he tried there in my yoga class, sweating and suffering and pulling and balancing and silently cursing with the rest of us. Every time the instructor said “change” this steely specimen of protein-powder enhanced muscle mass gamely went through the motions trying to fold forward, wrap arms around elbows or arch oh, so elegantly backward.

And while I certainly admired the guy for all his effort, my inner marketing weasel got positively Zen-less at the sight of him. Why? Because our dear big muscle master was ignoring the core marketing principal of niching.

Alright, Haddad, what are you on about?

Just this: You can’t be both a massive body builder and a svelte and flexible yogi. Just like you can’t be both the cheapest and the most luxurious car manufacturer, or a real estate agent who specializes in both high class urban condos and spread out Montana ranches.

I mean, you can try. But it isn’t going to work out to well, and you might just hurt yourself. And even worse some guy with a blog post to write might just use you as a metaphor for a marketing principle.

If you want to be successful in business you can’t sell to everybody. You’ve got to pick one thing and be great at it. If you want to be successful, you’ve got to niche.

“But . . . but . . . if I niche myself–if I suddenly say that I only work with a certain industry or that I’m an expert in just this one thing–won’t I lose business?”

Sure. But it’s business you probably don’t really want anyway. And business that isn’t paying you that well. And business that you’ll probably resent actually doing. And if you do it right–if you pick a niche that there’s actually a demand for and become an unassailable expert in that little corner of your field, you’ll more than make up for those jobs you’re “losing out on.”

Really, you should look at niching as an opportunity–as a way to pick out just the kind of client or consumer you want to be working with and just the kind of work you want to be doing and build your whole business around it. In the end–after the dust has settled and after you’ve rid yourself of the “blazing eyes of fear” you’ll find that you’ve built a more successful, more profitable and–this is my favorite part–more fun business and that the whole concept of “competition” seems downright quaint.

Tune in next time for marketing mistake #3: Not Knowing what you’re REALLY selling.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 1:18 pm and is filed under News. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.