Now Specializing in EVERYTHING!

I got a great haircut yesterday. Visited an old-school barbershop, where they take the time to do it right.

Plus: guy talk, sports, and no stinky “product.”

In fact, I think I have now found my go-to haircut place.

But then the barber handed me a business card and I couldn’t help but be amused.

Ummm….No.

By definition, you cannot specialize in everything (technical term for word geeks: oxymoron).

Yet, how often do businesses commit this sin of expansiveness?

“Sure, we do that.” We can do that, too!” In trying to be all things to all people, we lose our differentiation. We obscure our message.

We become a forgettable, generalist, commodity provider. That’s a referral-death-sentence.

Here’s a radical thought – the 7+billion people on this planet are not all potential customers – right? In fact, only a niche subset of a subset of a subset of a subset is truly your target audience.

Define and aim at that bullseye. The ones whose business pain you can uniquely and effectively relieve. In fact, you may want to stop thinking about a generalized target audience, and paint a very detailed portrait of your bullseye audience – those potential clients in particular named roles or demographic slices that have very particular business pain, and the money to seek relief.

(this sports-oriented old-time barbershop, btw? They specialize in serving men and boys. Period. Hey – that’s half the population…a good enough marketplace!)

What do you specialize in? Get your focus crystal-clear. Get your message crystal-clear. Let your customers, your friends, and your referrers know exactly what you do and who you do it for.

P.S. That’s my dog Mystic. Black labs can be very smart marketers.