Nurturing Your Niche - Part 1

Are your customers confused about who you are? If so, then your advertising is costing you too much and your margins are too narrow. If they don't know what it is that makes you unique, then they are shopping you against somebody else (usually for price). If you know your uniqueness, then you can define your niche and nurture it for increased sales and profit. But how can you nurture a niche if you don't really understand what it is?

Market niche is something that must be defined then consistently monitored and adapted. You must apply the "value dynamic" to compare your products and services to the needs and wants of your customer. "Value" is made up of seven related yet unique items - service, response, variety, knowledge, quality, price and guarantee. Note that price is only one item on this list. Always support value instead of defending or discounting price. In essence, the whole idea behind "niche marketing" is what are people willing to drive out of their way for to get to YOU!

IDENTIFY YOUR PRIMARY NICHE

Is your niche the service and quality of your product? Is it the knowledge of your support staff and the timeliness of your response to your customer's needs? Ideally, successful businesses have what I call "primary" and "secondary" niches. In other words, if people are going to drive 60 miles, for example, to get to you because you have a tremendous variety of what they want or you know how to best help them analyze their needs related to powersport items, that is your primary niche.

Recently, I visited a boat dealer to talk to him about a boat that could hold up to 12 people. He immediately started asking me questions about how I would be using the boat (skiing or pleasure), where my family boats most often, how frequently do we spend time on the water, etc. I went there for that very reason; I had heard that this guy knows how to help you determine your need. He nurtured his niche by putting into action, "We know how to help you!" That is critical today to powersport dealers because a piece of equipment, whether it is a boat, snowmobile or ATV, provides a solution to an application. You need to know the specific needs of your customer. In my case, the lake we ski on has lot of "big boat" traffic, so he helped me to see we would need something that wouldn't be dwarfed in the water. He explained these things to me, thereby helping me to define my own need. In addition, when he got the needed information from me, he led me to a boat and said, "This is a great example of what we call a 'Minnetonka' boat." WOW! He helped me to visualize my family in that boat on the lake where we spend a lot of our time together. Very simply he just defined his niche to me and validated why I drove a half-hour out of my way to get to his dealership.

Keep in mind, the whole concept of niche marketing is how you define in the minds of your customers the one thing they will go out of their way to get to you for. If that niche is a great deal on price then you better be prepared to have the greatest "deal" in the world. If that niche is service then you really do have to provide the best service. You will soon bury your business if you advertise service and selection and then give it all away on discount pricing.

QUESTIONS THAT IDENTIFY YOUR NICHE

If you need help in defining and identifying your niche, take 6 to 10 of your best customers to a catered lunch and have them discuss what they like about your dealership and why and also, what they wish you'd do differently. Then, for a real dose of reality, ask your associates what the customers say to them. Following is a sample of questions that can help you identify your niche:

1. What makes me different from my competitors?
2. If I cease to exist, why would my customers miss me?
3. What do my customers ask for that I don't have?
4. What need do I fill for my customers that no one else does?
5. Who are my best customers and why?

If your business if suffering from a lack of niche identity, you'd better fix it fast; don't expect the customer to do it for you. Understand that 56% of consumers don't know what makes you different and 27% don't care. Only the 17% whom we call the "premium customer" know that you're different. We've got to be better at nurturing our market niche, or in other words, our uniqueness, not our similarities.

ARTICLE TAGLINE FOR THOM WINNINGER

Visit Thom's website at http://www.winninger.com

Sales Training Articles