Oh, now you shine
A while back I talked about boxes, and picking one.
People HATE putting forward a 1-dimensional version of themselves.
Plus, a lot of small companies have a problem— they legitimately are 2 things.
That’s at least 2 dimensions!
Here’s how you tackle that— instead of a niche, you need a Halo niche.
That’s when you invent (or select) a niche where you do or sell something rare, exotic or complicated.
It has a halo around it. It’s better than a regular niche.
Here are two examples.
#1 AlanG, selecting 1 niche for its halo
Alan works with individual fractional, interim and regular CMOs. He advises them on the big problems they face, and how to solve them.
He also works as a CMO himself, for private equity (PE) firms. Which are all about the numbers, and performance.
Of those 2, the PE niche is the halo niche. If you’re an individual CMO, you’d see that Alan has worked a lots of PE firms and you’d figure he knows his stuff. Otherwise that demanding market wouldn’t want him. So…
#2, creating a Halo niche
Don’t already have a potential Halo niche?
The easiest solution is to pick something customers expect to pay more for, and inhabit it.
You’re not going to limit yourself to this rare, exotic, or complicated deliverable.
You’re just leading with it, whenever you market yourself.
Customers assume that if you can do X (your Halo thing), then you can do Y and Z — the bread and butter stuff that makes up most of everyone’s work.
So you still do the regular stuff, but you’re different from your competition, in a way that people understand and appreciate.
Cheers,
Dean
PS should we chat someday?
