January 29, 2020
Specialization Diagram
Sent by Jonathan Stark on January 29th, 2020
One of the quickest ways I know of to kickstart your lead pipeline (and ultimately increase your prices) is to specialize.
But what exactly do I mean by specialize?
I think most often, people define specialization as going deep into a particular skills or discipline or area of expertise.
And to be honest, that’s probably the most accurate use of the term.
But IMHO, there’s another approach to specialization, and that approach has little to do with your discipline.
Instead, it has to do with specializing in who you help.
Who you help can be defined in many ways:
- Industry
- Job title
- Age
- Salary
- Zip code
- Gender
- Alma mater
- Political affiliation
- Religious affiliation
- Favorite hobby
- Favorite sport
- Mission in life
- Worldview
- etc etc etc
Whatever facet you might use to define a target market specialization, I think it’s worth noting that you probably don’t have to specialize in BOTH your discipline AND your market.
Put another way, you can probably sell a broad range of skills to a very specific target market OR you can sell a very specific skill to a broad range of target markets.
Put yet another way, specializing in both dimensions might be too specific in your particular case.
I visualize it as a 2x2 Specialization Diagram where the vertical axis is market and the horizontal is discipline.
This diagram results in four quadrants:
- Bottom Left: Everything for Everyone
- Bottom Right: Something for Everyone
- Top Left: Everything for Someone
- Top Right: Something for Someone
In general, most people probably won’t have success playing in the bottom left (i.e., Everything for Everyone) quadrant because it’s too general, or in the top right (i.e., Something for Someone) because it’s too specific.
So for most people I work with, the decision boils down to:
“Should I specialize by marketing myself as Something for Everyone or as Everything for Someone”?
They are different strategies and therefore require different tactics to be successful, but they can both work to attract more leads, close more deals, and increase your prices.
Yours,
—J