People

As I already mentioned, choose the people you want to serve.  It only brings anxiety and frustration when you deal with people you don’t get along with.  

Or someone who doesn’t align with you and your core business values.

Think about the friends you chose.  You wouldn’t spend time with somebody you don’t like would you? 

My guess your answer is ‘no’.   

Well the same goes for business. And your niche market.

You go into a market niche because you enjoy the work.  

You have empathy for the avatar in the niche market segment. Because you understand the problem they want to solve.  

Your passion, expertise and experience allow you to explain the problem, AND the solution clearer.  

By doing that, you position yourself as the expert and go-to person automatically.

In many cases, the people you begin to work with are past versions of you.  They are in an earlier stage.  

I’ve discovered in case after case that my clients who work with people who are “like themselves” are much happier and have less frustration.

Ask yourself this question; "WHO is the person I want to work with and benefits the most from my experience/knowledge?"

Which leads us to the Problem piece of this niche market equation;

After you decide WHO to help it’s time to search for a problem your chosen group of people are looking to solve.

I can’t stress this enough;

Your perfect niche market needs to be LOOKING for a solution to a problem they already have.  (Refer to the customer levels of awareness in the last lesson for a refresher)

Make it easy on yourself.  You don’t want to spend your time convincing someone they need to buy whatever it is you offer.

Don’t you agree that it’s so much easier to sell when someone is looking for what you have?

Let me give you an example.

Picture an alcoholic.

We know they have a drinking problem. But they don’t see it yet.

So you COULD spend time trying to make them “SEE” they’ve got a drinking problem. But that takes a lot of time, money and energy.

And it’s exhausting if you’re constantly trying to motivate someone.

It's much easier to help someone who comes knocking on your Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on their own isn’t it?

All this means is you look for a niche market where the customer already has a NEED/DESIRE inside of them they can’t fulfill. 

In the alcoholic's case, they need to come to accept they have a drinking problem on their own. Then they need to have a burning desire to STOP drinking.

The reasons for them coming to that conclusion could be anything.

The point is, that alcoholic now has an URGENCY to fix a problem.

Do you see what I mean?

And this goes for any market niche.

In his book 80/20 Marketing & Sales Perry Marshall says “look for someone with a bleeding neck”.  Pretty graphic I know...but it paints a clear picture right?

But that's not all.

The ideal problem is one you can fix easily. 

Remember, if you work with people who are in an earlier stage from where you are, you have the experience to get them results. 

Because you’ve already been through it. (Please don’t sell anything you have no experience in - that's ‘fraud’ the way I see it)

Consider this…

If it’s an easy win for you and the customer gets the result in a timely manner, that’s a killer combo, don’t you think?

Here’s the question to ask yourself;  “What is the EASIEST thing for me to help my niche market group with as it relates to their problem?”

 And that is why you need to have a passion for solving the problem.

.

.

.

Whew. 

Almost done. 

Let's keep movin'...

The 3rd niche market equation element:  Passion

Ok. Now we’re at part three of the niche market equation.  Passion.

And it always raises a few eyebrows.

But it’s actually quite as simple as this: you MUST have a passion to fix the problem.

Which means you would solve this problem even if you didn’t get paid for it.

Because it means more than money in your bank account.

I know how odd this sounds.

But think about it.

If you would do something free anyway, you don’t mind putting the time and effort in. You will probably overdeliver. That makes your customers happy. And when they’re happy, they gladly pay you.

And that makes you happy.

Do you see how this is all coming together?

Of course I don't suggest you work for free.

But for this p5-niche market equation to work, it’s vital we regard all these components.

For example - I could help heart-centred experts, course creators, and coaches with marketing and copy all day long. It’s easy for me. I love it. And marketing is something a lot of online business owners struggle with.

They have a passion to get their products and services in front of the people who need them. And they need to have the right marketing message and copy to do it. 

And I can get them fast results. So it's a win-win for everybody.

Part 4:  Path

Now the next step is to get in front of the right people. This is our “Path” to people.

You can choose the people with a specific problem. But if you have no way to get in front of them, it’s pretty hard to make sales.

So the path in this equation is about where you can reach your customers easily.  

It’s where they hang out.

These days, you can usually find your customers hanging out in social media groups like Facebook and LinkedIn. Or even online forums.

There are discussions going on all over the inter webs :-)

Take some time to source out a couple. And start hanging out with your market niche group.

A red flag is if you have no way of connecting with your niche market.  

Let’s say you found THE BEST  market niche.  You selected who you want to help, the problem you will solve and you have all the passion in the world.

If you try to find and connect with your niche market and there are no communities or groups specific to your market niche, that may mean you need to take a step back and reevaluate the niche market you chose.

Yea, it sucks.

But this is something I see far too often.

People show me evidence of the first 3 parts of the equation (people, problem and passion) but then ask “where do I find these people?”

If they don’t know - I sure don’t know :-)

Just one more thing about the path to customers;

I’ve been there too many times to count.

So there’s a reason for my equation madness :-)

The question to ask here is "where are the pathways to reach my market niche customers?"

Bottom line? 

Multiple paths to your customers is the optimal solution.

Finally we come to PAYMENT...

This last piece of the formula is self-explanatory.

We need to find a niche market who can pay for our product or service.

I know it sounds obvious.  

But I see far many people choose a niche - even using all the criteria I outlined for you …but the market doesn’t have any money.

All that effort to pick a market niche, get in front of them and offer a solution to an urgent problem…and you hear crickets.

Even though I’ve said over and over and over again we don’t get into a market niche for the sake of money, it’s still a critical piece of keeping your business up and running.

So this question is simple:

“Are the people I selected willing and able to pay me for my product or service?”

So if you add this all up...People + Problem + Passion + Path + Payment it equals Profit for you.