2 Niche Examples

So I think it'd be really handy to take you through some examples, not from architecture, but from other industries. When we go through the worksheet, we'll go through with more of an active focus, but I want to you give you a broader understanding of this thing about niching and breaking things down. Okay, so [inaudible 00:00:18] did a research and what they discovered, men under 35 spent on average $30, men between 45 and 60 spent on average $100. Okay, what are your thoughts there? Well your initial thoughts should be, well we should be targeting 45 to 60. And what that means is that rather than sending out a broad message to everybody who's looking at Valentine's Day, actually this was Valentine's Day, we should be targeting guys 45 to 60.

Now with that in mind, you might put your message in different places. And you might say a different thing. And the way you say it might be different. When you know that, if you're targeting the guys who spend $100. Now would that make a difference to your business if you were getting move of the 45 to 60 year olds coming in? Yes, not just a little difference, an exponential difference. Now it takes no more effort to communicate and say something to a 50 year old than it does to a 20 year old. You could say a message in the same amount of time, but it has an exponential difference.

Think of TV channels. Look at all the different types of TV categories and then the stations that have broken themselves up to be specialists in that industry. So for example, documentaries, National Geographic, History, Discovery, very niche channels. Very niche channels. [inaudible 00:01:47], this is a great little story. I don't know if you get [inaudible 00:01:50] in your country, but we certainly get it down here. And there's four different types of [inaudible 00:01:57] for pain relief. There's migraine pain, tension headache, back pain, period pain.

And there are four different packets. They look all kind of the same. What they discovered was that it exactly the same pills, they were just put in different packaging. Now they got in a little bit of trouble for this. But what they were doing was very smart. People want a specialist solution. People want a solution that has their problem on the outside of the box. Alright? And that's what people will go for. They'll go for a specialist solution. Particularly if they're paying a premium price. So [inaudible 00:02:30] had done this, but it's not much different from architecture, where if you were to say I'm a specialist in let's say heritage homes, when in actual fact you can do everything. But the people who've got a heritage home, want someone who's a specialist in heritage homes.

And while you are a specialist, you're also a specialist in other areas. They want to hear that you're a specialist. So think about how you package yourself. This is a funny one, and I'm sure there's not much difference between face cream, hand cream, leg cream and the other one that I saw on a billboard driving back to Wellington one day, breast cream. Now I'm sure there's just different shapes and different formats of the same sort of thing. It's usually to moisturize your body, isn't it? It is skin after all. But by coming up with a specialist product for different parts of your body, then they charge a premium and be more attractive to the people who just specifically feel they need breast cream.

I've got a special issue, my breasts are chafing, they're dry. So I guess I need the breast cream rather than the leg cream. That would not do. It's probably the same thing. It's probably like [inaudible 00:03:45], just different packaging. So when you really get the hang of this, if you're to take this example to the extreme, we could sell them a hamburger for a million dollars. All we've got to do is find someone who's stuck out in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. And if they don't eat your burger that you're selling for a million dollars, they'll die. Now they would pay a million dollars not to die. But it's a very narrow target market. So we don't have to go for a million dollars, we can go for something less. But you understand the concept.

When you niche down to being a very specific solution to a very specific someone, you'll be more attractive to them and they'll pay more. Let me break it down. Now I'll show you a couple of clients here who have been able to increase their fees by 300% just by being a more specific targeted solution to a specific group of people. So the first one, [Carrie Behema 00:04:39] was a private investigator. And she did everything like everyone else. She did fraud, missing person, infidelity, forensics. I said, "Are any of those more profitable than the others?" She said, "Infidelity." And I said, "in a man or woman?" She said, "Yeah." "Are a man or a woman more profitable?" She said, "Women." She said, "Women. If they think their partner's cheating, they don't care about the price, because often they're spending their husband's money anyway."

And I said, "Well why don't we target specifically women who think their partners having the fear? And let's try putting price up by 300%?" And she said, "Well that won't work. Of course, we put the price up 300% and made no difference at all." So that's insane, if you're selective, if you pick the right people, then they would pay exponentially more. That was her website. [Graham Wolkinson 00:05:33], a healthcare professional. So he treated everything. What treats, what do you do back in hips, jaw, stress, everything? Alright, of those, which is the best one for you? He said, "I believe I've got a specific expertise in the jaw." I said, "Okay, how would we break that up again? Chronic or acute?"

"Chronic. I take people's chronic jaw pain because it leads to so many other things in the body." Once again he was able to triple his fees. And it's not that he's ripping them off. Don't think that either. What he's doing is providing bigger packages, which will actually get the job done. Whereas before, people come in and they would come in for a few sessions and then they'd pay by the session and then they'd disappear. By him selling a package, which was 300% better, he knew, one, he could get a result for them. Well that's what he knew. And three, it was three times more expensive because it was a proper full treatment. People weren't pulling out halfway through. You've got to pay up front, which was even better as well.

This guy was a marketing consultant. He was a marketing guy. He was on one of my marketing programs. And he looked at all the different areas, he felt professional services was the best, very similar made. But he carved down to building, construction companies, small construction companies where it was a husband and wife team. And once again, he was able to triple his fees. So here's his book here. Here's his website, the couples business coach. Couples who work together in the building industry. It's a very specific niche, but you can imagine if you were a couple builder, or you were a couple pair, that you would feel that this guy would know insights that other people don't know.

So the point is, does one message work for all markets? Of course not. There's people who like John Wayne. And there's people who like Boy George. And they're not going to be the same. We have to separate them out. Boy George people on this side, John Wayne people over on this side. And then we talk to them in a different way. We might wear different clothes when we're talking to the Boy George people. Although they're both sort of wearing cowboy hats, it's not really the same. Who else does this? Well toothpastes, look at this, Colgate. In 47 clinical studies with 10,000 people it's proven, right? So Colgate is now the cutting line, it's the most advanced toothpastes for your superior oral health. So Colgate are all after the oral health market.

Oral health, they're putting lab coats on everyone. Now this is not Colgate, this is Closeup. These are four young people who are dating. And what they're doing is giving poep;le confidence when they're up close. The name of it is called Closeup. Right? Encounters co-staff products, registration use. It's a very different vibe, very different look and feel. The previous one was more of a person in lab coats. This one is about people kissing. Different market. So Closeup, it says here, targeting youth in the oral health care. With an edgy and youthful image that stays relevant to today. So a unique oral care brand for up close situation. Completely different vibe, completely different feel. But cleans different again, so these are the guys that want to win in the white teeth market.

Notice how she's wearing a white dress. There's white, and there's all this white light coming from behind the name. It cleans. White and shine. Now you could be a doctor. Now if you're selling to GP doctors, you could sell to GP's or surgeons. Have a think about those two different niches. GP's earn substantially less than surgeons. Now, if you were to go in there and sell you thing to them, you could sell the same thing, it would take the same amount of time and a surgeon would pay exponentially more. So it's this type of targeting in on the 80/20. It's about 20% of the buyers will spend 80% of the money. 80% will spend 20. You need to identify your 20%.

The cause, here's what happens if you do. If you can pull on a few more of those 20 percenters, that's what it looks like. It's only a little bit more in terms of clients, but it's a lot more in terms of income because those clients are the heavy hitters. Those are the vital few. And they're taking it, get extraordinary results without extraordinary effort. So what would happen if all you did was double your share of the 20%, maybe you've got one out of five clients who's a top 20 percenter. What if you got two of them? What difference would that make to you? So 80% of your market is not going to spend a lot necessarily. There'll be a vital few who will spend up large. You folks on the vital few, you can earn more and you can work less.