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BNI & The Power of One
BNI 809: Business Matters 118 - What Is My Niche?
00:18:31
In this week's Business Matters episode we answer your submitted topic. This week it is how do I find my niche in the market?
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- [00:28]
A
Welcome back to Business Matters, part of the and I Power of One podcast. Tim Roberts with me, Michael Martin.
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B
Good morning everybody.
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A
How's it going?
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B
Or whatever it is the time of day you're listening to this. It's going good. It's going good. I'm, I'm excited about good. Weather is nice and sunny today.
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A
It's sunny.
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B
We're recording rain for the next five days. But hey, today is sunny.
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A
Yeah, it's not warm yet.
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B
It's definitely not warm yet.
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A
I had like the ultimate just like tease. We had travel last year. We had the US national conference in Houston where it wasn't really super sunny, but it was warm. And then I went for two days to Aruba with Lindsay where it was 85 and sunny. And then I came back and it was snowing and I was like, and.
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B
This morning it's 25 and sunny.
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A
I was like, God damn tease.
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B
Spring in the Northeast.
- [01:18]
A
Yeah. So here we are with it though. We are back. We've got a show topic submitted and again, for anybody listening, if you have any kind of business topic you want to hear about, go to bnipowerofone.com leave it there. You can say it's for business matters if you want. Again, just like in the BNI ones. If you want to leave it anonymous, you can. You don't have to. So today's comes from Sanja in Port. I'm not gonna know how to say that name, but in British Columbia. Let's just put it's in British Columbia. And she is an HR consultant. So she wrote. My topic is about narrowing down your target market market and uncovering your unique expertise. I'm a new HR consultant, having worked as an internal HR leader mostly in the professional and financial service industries. Ultimately I can serve any business with employees, but realize that's too broad to start. I'm having a hard time figuring out my ideal target market. Is it professional service firms because I have understanding of their business? Is it female owned businesses because I have great experience working with family leaders. Is it industries that are more prolific in my region? Also as an HR generalist, am I just a jack of all trades? I can actually do almost anything from talent acquisition to comp analysis to program design and implementation to conducting serious workplace investigations. How can I leverage this general knowledge to something as a differentiator? And so this ties into bni obviously in terms of what they're going to focus on and teaching people for referrals and stuff. But bigger business I think is a good topic around people entering Entering, you know, the, the business market on their own, going from a professional setting to, to this and really, or for anybody really starting to ask themselves, like, how do I niche myself, how do I stand out, how am I different and how do I capture that opportunity?
- [03:12]
B
Yeah, I, I, I, I don't know if I think that comes secondarily. You have to have that, like, that's the whole what's your story thing, why are you in it, what do you want to get? But in terms of where to go, I don't know if any one of those is any better than the other. I think if you've identified where your strengths lie. So say you've done it in the financial, in this case, Sonia has an extensive background in the financial services industry. That may be where she wants to start because she can talk the lingo of people in the financial services industry and when she's meeting with, you know, leadership and decision makers about, you know, who's gonna do we need the service, don't we need the service, how does the service benefit us? She's probably most apt to be able to talk to them on a very organic level that comes across as sincere and I think that's the important thing. However, you know, that doesn't mean she can't leverage any of the other things she talked about. Like, you know, going to women owned businesses as a woman, as a generalist is a great idea, it's a great target market. I, I think she's got such an extensive background as an HR generalist that she probably just has to internally decide on one way to go and start there. And that doesn't mean that she's not going to be able to branch open fairly quickly to other things. You know, in terms of how to, what, what's, what's my niche? I think there's a couple things. One, what are your niche skills, your differentiator skills? And then what are your niche markets and differentiator markets? To me, I would think a good starting space for markets is going to be financial services because, you know, that's her background and there's a lot of financial. I know because I have, I've been in the financial services thing. I was in the mortgage business and I can tell you that a lot of those institutions are turning to external HR to manage a lot of functionality that used to be internal, mainly as a cost savings measure. But the consultants that I worked with tend to have had more best in class services than people that were on the inside because they have more access to things going on through all of their contacts that they can bring to the table. So that's one piece of leverage. But in terms of how do I package up my skills, I think it's like we talked a long time ago about how people interviewing for jobs should think about tailoring their resume and their discussion points based on who the client is. So I don't think you have. I don't think it's wise to develop a one size fits all pitch for yourself. I think you have to develop a pitch based on the client you're hoping to get or at least hoping to see.
- [06:06]
A
Yeah, I would go to. I don't think niching by product or by focus is necessarily the right play because I think she brings value to each one. The question is, where's the value that you bring overall? Like, why leave the profession you were in to go out on your own? Was there something missing that you could. That you see? Was it that you want to be able to help more and expand out? Like, if the idea was I can do more, I can help more, then, then that's your differentiator. Right. Than just being laser focused on. On one part. I think the part you talked about where when you have a different. If you have a diverse set of clientele, you bring more to the table, to each one, then, you know, I'm just stuck in this and this is all I know. And, and maybe, you know, you get limited in what you know because you're, you're not researching, learning, experiencing all the other facets to it. So I think the question really is, what is your value proposition to any one of them? And then like you said, then per Target, it's a slightly different marketing pitch. Right. It's not. Well, I've done this and, and I'm trying to shoehorn it into everything else.
- [07:14]
B
Yeah, I, I think it, it starts, you know what? You know, don't try and be overly broad in an initial conversation because people who say I can do pretty much anything almost always get dismissed because oftentimes that's a shock to the person listening. It's like, why do you mean you can do anything?
- [07:30]
A
Yeah, I don't like the jack of all trades because that means, yeah, it's.
- [07:33]
B
Kind of a bad lead. But at least I would say start with what you know and from an industry perspective and then branch out from there. I think that's the point I was trying to get to. But if, if you're doing a critical analysis of your own skills, there's two really important things you have to Do One is be able to identify, articulate your strengths. The other is to identify and articulate your weaknesses. And we all have them. And the people who say, I can do anything, that that's just a, A false statement. But focus on, write the pros and cons. What am I really good at? And pick your top three things, I think, and center in that area. And then focus on a market that you already know as, especially if you're just starting out with your own consultancy or your own firm. And that way because you can talk to them. Industries and companies all have a unique culture and personality. So if you think that, you know what, even in financial services, banks are very different than credit unions culturally and operationally, although to the consumer they do roughly the same thing. But they're not mortgage companies and real estate companies all involved in financial services and purchases and things like that, but very different and even amongst each other. And that's why I think it's really important that if you're going after a sector, you, even within that sector, you have to identify, try and identify as best you can through. And networking is a great way to do it. What is their personality and culture so that you can kind of tailor your presentation or go through the list of all the things that you think you're really strong in. Okay, well, maybe I'm not going to say this. I might say this instead, based on who I spoke to, I might identify this. And that's my lead. The next time, instead of you, you might have three things. And number one, you always leave with number one. Well, maybe you're going to leave at number three and finish with number one on your typical list. I think that's important in terms of researching who your client is. But focus on the three things that you are absolutely the strongest in. Now, if you were super strong in certain things, you probably get recognized at some point. It's important to be able to say, hey, I was recognized as this. Even if it's within a company, it doesn't have to be a broad industry award or recognition. You know, if you got employee of the month, well, why did you get employee of the month? You got employee of the Year. Why did you get. If you were promoted to vice president, why were you promoted to vice president? That type of thing. You know, I started out as an HR generalist and I ended up running hr. Okay, well, what set you apart to be able to run a division as opposed to just be a staffer within a department? Those are things that people, especially the ones who are decision Makers, they want to hear because it's kind of how they live their lives. Because they're looking for, why, why am I going to promote this person? They're looking at talent, they're looking at capabilities, they're looking at skills, they're looking at weaknesses. So you got to kind of make sure you're kind of talking their language and don't try and BS them into it by saying, I can do anything.
- [10:42]
A
Well, I think in this field too, I mean, her job is not likely to go in and oversell herself. Her real job is to go in and find where their pain is and then attach her experience to pain. Right. It's like, what, what?
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B
And that's the research you have to the company because you'll find those things.
- [10:56]
A
Out and, or just in, in that initial interview too. Right? It's, you know, why are you looking to hire an HR consultant? And they'll, they'll open up like, we're having this issue, this issue, this issue. Or we're. And you could be like, well, based on my experiences where I, I can help you. Instead of coming in and be like, look at all the things I can do. And then being like, we need this. It's find what they need and tie it in. I don't think. And then let's just turn it to BNI real quick. I also don't think you got to niche yourself to this level. What's great from your BNI standpoint or any networking standpoint, but BNI particular is you've got a long list of things that you can target and you can utilize BNI to find bits for each one. And, and so what your key is when you go into your BNI meeting, you're doing your weekly presentation, you don't go in and go, I can do all of these things. You pick one laser focus that week and I would do it for a month. This month I'm focused on financial services firms and teach people how to, who do you need to talk to and how do they open the door for you? Then I would go into this week, I'm looking for female owned companies with X number of employees. Here's who I'm looking. Here's how you have this conversation. This week I'm looking into this one and spend a good month or six weeks on each one. And that's where you're going to build. Most of these HR consulting firms have a diverse clientele. Again, that's the value. So to be like, I'm only going to have one type of clientele I guess in theory could work, but I don't think would be the strategy I would implement.
- [12:19]
B
Yeah, you have, but you have to start. My point was you have to start somewhere. So pick the thing you're strongest in and go for that and then it'll branch out. And I think one of the nice things about, like you say, if you kind of hone down the, the target, whether it's target for a month or for a quarter, however you want to do it, and you come across as credible as you're explaining, right. Why you're relevant to that target, you'll inevitably get people walking up saying, hey, that was great. Do you also do this, right? Or can you also do that? So then you're making notes about, oh, okay, you know, I've got a lead over here. And then if you start seeing similarities, you might identify the needs just by people asking if you can do this. And then it may shift your whole stance because if you notice a trend line of questions people are asking, can you do this or do you have experience with this? And you see that there's a trend now you know that there's a need, right? Because it sounds like people have a common thread of needs. So you can kind of, you know, okay, how do I tell my story now? Do I have the skills to do, fill that need? Can I be legitimate about that need? And maybe you need to go and hire somebody else and build your business with staffing for someone who's specific to that area if you can't do it organically or legitimately. So I, I, I just think, yeah, picking a, picking a smaller area to focus on will inevitably just help you open it wide up as opposed to just going wide. You know, we talk about the spaghetti on the wall and hoping something sticks.
- [13:45]
A
It's, it's bad, the same thing. And being, I would tell you, like, if you, the more you say you can do, the less you're going to get because you're just confusing it. Jack of all trades, again, to me means ace of none. So just figure that out. But I think the other key is to really, and I'm hoping you've already done it, but maybe you haven't is again, why did you make this leap? Like, why did you make this change? What did you see that was missing in the market that you're going to be able to bring to the market? That's the value. And then that adds, you know, that will be valuable to a wide range of potential clients.
- [14:19]
B
And I'll say this, one of the Most frequent questions I asked and I heard was that, well, why did you make the jump? Because I want to know, are you committed?
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A
Right.
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B
So if I'm looking for an outside servicer, I'm asking why they went from the.
- [14:35]
A
But that's a different. Different sales. Right. So in your case, it's, hey, I made the jump because I realized I can offer what my skills are at a cheaper cost to more people than just being hamstrung in one area. That's the sale for the big firm, but for the small one, it's, I am doing this because I can bring you the experience you can't otherwise afford. Right, Right. And so the value proposition can be similar but pitched differently to each one of these targets.
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B
Correct?
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A
Right.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I'm. I'm doing this because I'm bringing a lot of value. And as a female, I can help other female business owners based on my experience and what I've seen and learned in this. Like, each one has a different part, but that you really have to understand, like that's the ultimate value proposition to each different client is why am I hiring you? You're hiring me because you're going to get all my experience for less cost. You're hiring me because you're going to get all my experience and I'm going to bring added value from this. You hire internally. They may not be up to date on everything that's going across industries. They might know what's just in yours, but you need to know what's across all these ones and blah, blah, blah. So they really figure out that pitch. Yeah, that's how I would do it. Yeah.
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B
Yep. And, and I. But you know, kind of like the jack of all trades, ace of none is don't try to be all things to all people. It just needs to solve their needs.
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A
It's. Find their need. Don't let them try to figure out your. Like, it's like you don't want the client to try to figure out how they can use you. You want to teach them how you fix their need. Right. That's what sales is, is Everybody has the sales is a solving of a problem. So this is. Right. Find their problem and then tell them how you can solve it. Don't go and be like, I have all these things. Where's your problem? I don't know. Get out.
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B
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and that's the importance of tying it into something like bni. That's the, that's the importance of networking and having a solid networking strategy because you're talking to people, you know, you're. You're going to develop their lingo. You're going to understand how they think about things, and then you'll learn which questions to ask. And, you know, and you know, in the beginning, you may need to take some clients because you have to from a financial perspective, and there's nothing wrong with that. You will learn something along the way, even if it's not in your bailiwick. So you'll be saying yes up front, but the longer it goes and the better networking you do, you know, you're also going to learn whether or not are you talking to the right person in that organization or, you know, maybe you don't want that client.
- [16:59]
A
Right.
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B
You know, and that's okay. A great position to be in is to be like, yeah, I'm not taking any more clients. That's a great spot to be in.
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A
Yeah. Or be very selective in the ones you are. Yeah, 100. But you got to get there. Everybody wants that. But it's just like anything else. We'll talk, maybe.
- [17:18]
B
I hope Sonia, like, writes us back and lets us know what she does. It would be nice that some of these people that we've answered, if we can get feedback, like, did. What did you end up doing? That would be awesome. Yeah, we can share those stories, too. We'd like to know.
- [17:31]
A
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Feedback. We want it. We want this to be interactive. And the best place to do it is through bnipower of1.com you can email right through there. You can connect right through there. We love testimonials and ratings on each podcast. Those obviously help, but the communication, the questions, those kind of things is. Is what makes it more fun, I think, for both sides, more valuable for both sides. So definitely follow up and definitely continue to submit those questions. There again, great opportunity just to have general business stuff outside of just networking. We always tie B and I into everything. This is a little bit different. So. All right, Michael, good advice, and we'll be back soon.
- [18:12]
B
Bye, everybody.