Five Steps To Expanding A Niche
A niche is a group of clients who have a common profession or common interest. Common professions are business owners and medical professionals. We have coached FAs who have a niche in "people who enjoy photography" and another who had a niche with deep water fisherman or baseball. When like to spend time with our coaching clients helping them define the one or two areas they have a affinity towards. These can include where you worked before becoming an advisor, interests you may have or a cause you are helping with. Saying your niche is "wealthy, retired people living in Chicago" isn't specific enough to be a niche. However if were to add "and are interested in sailing" that would give you a niche.
FAs usually enjoy the niches within their practice when they are aware of them. They come to understand what is important to that niche by being exposed to it, experiencing it themselves or making it part of their lifestyle. If you are an avid dog lover you might get involved in the American Kennel Association and have a trainer show your dog. You will meet other wealthy people who are doing the same thing. If you have a niche doesn’t it make sense to add more clients to something you have already developed? Of course it does! The good news is that expanding a niche is a simple process.
Here are five steps to adding to an existing niche:
1. You tell a client that is in the niche, let’s use a business owner, that you need his advice and would like a few minutes of his time. When you meet/speak with the owner you tell him/her you would like to add more business owners to your practice. You tell him why:
- They are easy to deal with.
- They understand risk.
- They are used to making decisions.
- They take your advice.
(These are examples. Use the reasons that you like dealing with business owners.)
2. You then say, “Does it make sense to you to add more business owners to my practice?” More than likely, he/she will say yes.
3. That is when you ask the key question: “If you were me, how would you go about adding more business owners to my practice?”
4. Then you keep quiet and listen. Let the business owner in this case tell you how to get in front of other business owners.
5. If business owner has no ideas you say, “Thanks for thinking about it. Never forget, I am never too busy to help people like you.” The worst outcome is that you have planted the seed that you would like to have more business owners in your practice.
One other thought on your niche. Almost every niche has a publication specific to that niche. Many of the publications are free. To make the point, there is a publication called Pit and Quarry for quarry owners. There is a publication for physicians. Go to www.modernmedicine.com to sign up for the free digital magazine. How about looking at www.freetrademagazines.com to see a lot of niche publications? If you have a niche, you will be more effective in that niche if you can talk the language of that niche. That publication specific to that niche will teach you that “language”.
Our coaching programs will take you where you want to go: to balance in your life, accelerated business growth and ecstatic clients! http://www.supernovamemb.wpengine.com