How to Sell Advice

Two ways.

Think about.

Niching.

So there are a lot of ways to think
about niching in your business

and your consulting business.

And in many ways, the tighter
you go, the easier it can be to

sell what it is that you offer.

After all people are ultimately
swimming in options when it

comes to buying what they want.

You know, there's a million different
things and the internet has only

made it easier for people to find.

What they're looking for.

So the competition tends
to be quite fierce.

And what people are looking for
when given a choice is specificity.

And that's what we're gonna talk about
today is how do you add specificity

to your positioning as a consultant,
in order to stand out, to be

differentiated, ultimately to create a
price premium and to have people sign

up and pay, pay for what you want to.

Well, where you were, what you're
offering for your expertise.

So really there are kind of two ways to
think about, to think about this there's

many ways, but there's two angles that I
want to kind of talk to you about today.

Number one is you can get
specific about who you serve.

And this is the more typical kind
of advice that you hear pick a

niche is the kind of common sort of
guidance that people will give you.

And yes, I agree.

Picking a niche is a great way
to grow your consulting business.

It's really hard to say we
help anyone do everything.

So at some point you have to kind of say,
we're going to leave a little bit of money

on the table here by getting specific,
whether that's in this particular way or

the other way, which we'll talk about.

And.

In order to not leave money on the table.

With other opportunities
that can come along your way.

So the more you kind of think
I'm going to exclude X number of

people, the more you're actually
picking up different money, you're

always leaving money on the table.

I like to say whether you pick a niche,
whether you get specific or not, you're

always leaving money on the table.

The question is which money do
you want to leave on the table?

So you want to be a little bit
intentional about how you niche

yourself in the first place.

And these are the two ways that I'm, that
I'm kind of thinking about it and that

I want you to kind of explore in your
mind a little bit if especially if you're

struggling a bit with, with your niche.

So number one is you can get
specific about who you serve.

And of course the more specific about
who you serve you are the more likely

water resonate with people to find them.

It's kind of easier to
speak their language.

It's easier to be sort
of ubiquitous to them.

So that's the benefit of, of getting
specific about who you serve.

Which also then allows you.

To be a little broader in
terms of how you serve them.

So for example, if I help multi location,
coworking spaces do better marketing.

That's a pretty specific target market in
a fairly broad way that I can help them.

And you could reason if you're listening
to this and thinking to yourself,

well, you know, it makes sense that
you can have a broad knowledge about

marketing, but then have potentially
rare knowledge about how to apply it.

Uniquely to the multi location
co-working industry, for example.

And so that would allow you to kind of
say, you know, yes, this is a broad.

Claim abroad, problem being solved.

However, it's applied to
a very specific situation.

So that allows you to kind of have a
leg to stand on in terms of credibility

versus saying, if I can help anyone
do marketing at scale while then

you're kind of it begs the question.

Well, where are your weaknesses?

And.

Can you really help anyone?

Can you help that?

Advanced sciences life sciences company.

You know, take their market
to their product, to market.

Probably not.

So you want to have either, or, and
this is what the second point is.

You either want to be very
specific about who you serve or.

Very specific about the problem you solve.

And so that's, that's the angle.

Number two that I want to talk
to you a little bit about today.

So the typical conventional wisdom
is pick a niche and I think that's

still a good one to some extent.

I think you have to
have a focus otherwise.

Everything you say is
going to be watered down.

Everything's going to be generic.

Nothing is going to be specific and
therefore you're going to be invisible.

So I think you have to pick some
level of niche to begin with.

The question is how niche do you go?

And I think part of the answer
to that is how specific is the

problem that you're solving.

So the more specific, the
problem that you're solving.

The the less specific you.

You need to be.

Potentially for your target market.

And that's because you can kind
of credibly say, well, you know,

I help, for example, if I were
to say, I help people sell their

expertise through membership programs.

That's a pretty specific promise,
even though the target market of

quote-unquote people is fairly broad.

Obviously the implication there is that
they would be entrepreneurs of some kind.

And maybe you can kind of clarify
what that means a bit, but

generally the target market in that
particular case is quite broad.

Whereas the value proposition, the problem
that I helped solve is quite specific.

So it stands to reason that I could
probably credibly solve that problem for

a wide range, if not most people that
come along looking to solve that problem.

However, if I were to say, you
know, I I'll faith-based dog

groomers to pick an example that my
client knows, used to joke about.

Uh, sell membership programs.

Well, the problem with that is yes,
that if you found a faith-based

dog room who wanted to sell a
membership program, you'd be the

obvious choice, which would be great.

The problem with that is though that
the market is often too small and it's,

or it's hard to reach these folks.

And that's the difficult
part in the whole equation.

So, what do you do?

Do you, do you focus on the target market
to get really, really specific there?

Or do you get very, very specific
on the problem that you're solving?

And this is ultimately
what strategy is all about?

There's no perfect way to position
a consulting business, but

specificity really does help.

So the question is where are
you going to be specific?

What hard choices are you going to
make about who you serve, who you don't

serve, or what level of granularity,
what level of depth are you going

to go on one specific problem now?

Of course.

And this is a topic
for another discussion.

You can be, say, broader
and have different products.

And those products can focus on
specific target markets or those

products can focus on very specific
problems or even a combination of both.

So there's a way that you, that
you can use products as a form of

leverage as a form of sorry, niching.

But that's a topic for another
discussion I may have covered in the

past, but for now, just thinking about
yourself more broadly as a consultant.

I'm a freelancer adviser agency.

Are you going to go deep on the
problem that you're solving?

Or are you going to go
deep on a target market?

And that's the hard choice
that you need to make, that are

involved with, with strategy.

Strategy is about making trade-offs.

It's about choosing what money to
leave on the table, so you can pick

up more of a different kind of money.

So I think, you know, as they say
hard choices, easy life, easy life.

Easy choices, hard life.

This is the, this is the challenge that we
all have, and there's no perfect answer.

And you're, it's, it's a discovery.

And I, you know, I do think that
you can niche down too quickly or

too specifically, and I'm not, I'm
not a maximalist when it comes to.

Finding the tightest problem with
the tightest niche necessarily.

It's about finding the right size.

That's going to sustain your business
ultimately at the end of the day,

because a lot of things you can do are
transferable to different industries,

the transferable to different problems.

And this is the challenge we have
as consultants is we're very capable

of doing a wide range of things.

So that's inherent to strategy.

You have to help your
clients make these hard.

Trade-offs make these hard decisions
every day so that their business

can be more effective strategies.

About what advantages are you going
to capitalize on to give you that?

To give you that advantage to, to
sustain that opportunity for you to

grow your business in a way that,
that allows you to lean on your

strengths and not your weaknesses.

So that's the question I have for you
today is what trade offs are you making?

How are you being specific about either
what you do or who you do it for?

And that might be the difference
between running a successful

consulting business or not.

And if you're not finding traction,
either in attracting or speaking to

your target market, or you're not
finding traction in the problem that

you solve, it might be one of these
two things are either too broad or

too specific, or both of them are too
specific, or both of them are too broad.

So you play with those
levers and dials and yeah.

Go and look at your individual services.

Maybe you have a, you know, a specific
target market and then maybe have

a bunch of different offerings.

And there were even a broader target
market, but very specific sub offerings.

Or vice versa.

You know, I help.

I'm an accountant, but I also
specialize in X, Y and Zed industries.

For example, that would be
an example of a broader.

Positioning and a more
specific target market.

So I hope this helps.

There's no perfect answer.

I wish there was, hopefully
this is getting you thinking.

Uh, are you too broadly positioned
about who you're serving

or how you're serving them?

That's the question or
are you too specific?

Bye for now.