Ever feel like you're stuck in an endless cycle of sales calls, custom proposals, and clients who just aren't quite right for your business? This powerful episode tackles the question every service provider eventually faces: "How do I figure out who's the perfect customer for my business?"
Sweta Govani shares her journey from exhausting sales processes to a streamlined business where clients often purchase without a single call. The secret? Identifying the exact right customer segment for your unique skills and offers. Through her "Dream Project Method," Sweta reveals how one small $1,500 project became the foundation for her entire business model—and how you can use the same approach to transform yours.
At the heart of this strategy is a three-part framework for articulating your niche: defining who you serve and what problems you solve, clarifying your solution and how it works, and establishing why clients should choose you over their status quo. But the most powerful insight comes from Sweta's approach to discovering your ideal customer by analyzing past projects where you operated in your "zone of genius and happiness."
This isn't about randomly "niching down" or following someone else's blueprint. It's about building a business that genuinely excites you while attracting clients who value your specific expertise. Whether you're just starting out or looking to pivot an established business, this episode provides concrete steps to move from "anyone with a wallet" to "exactly the right people who light me up."
Ready to stop chasing bad-fit leads and start building a business on your terms? Listen now, and discover how getting specific about your ideal customer can be the most liberating business decision you'll ever make. Connect with Sweta on LinkedIn to continue the conversation!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Tiny Marketing.
This is Sarah Noelle Block, andthis is a podcast that helps
B2B service businesses do morewith less.
Learn lean, actionable, organicmarketing strategies you can
implement today.
No fluff, just powerful growthtactics that work.
Ready to scale smarter?
Hit that subscribe button andstart growing your business with
(00:20):
Tiny Marketing.
Hello, beauties, it is SarahNoelle Block, the host of the
tiny marketing show, and this isepisode 137.
It's going to look a little bitdifferent today because on
Monday I interviewed my guestexpert of the week, sweta Govani
, and the recording went awry.
(00:43):
We were completely unsyncedwhere we were talking over each
other.
So we ended up having a phoneconversation where she told me
all about her take on how todecide who the perfect, right
fit customer is for yourbusiness when you're just
starting out or you're pivoting.
(01:03):
So I loved everything she hadto say and I had a little
special request and it's nothingI've ever asked any other
expert to do on this show and Isaid this is just too brilliant.
Would you mind doing a soloepisode for tiny marketing and
I'll share your insights, yourecord it on your own and we'll
(01:26):
drop it on the show.
So that's what we're doingtoday.
So this is a solo episode bySweta Govani and I think you're
going to love it, so please letme know what you think of this
format, which is a little bitdifferent.
On Spotify or directly onBuzzsprout, you can leave
comments, so I'd love to hearfrom you, or you can always just
(01:47):
reply to my emails.
Love you, enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Hello, all right.
So today we are going to talkabout how can I, as a
solopreneur, figure out who theright customer is for my
business?
This is one of the most commonquestions that I get from my
peers who are startingbusinesses a few years behind me
, or maybe they're actuallyalready a couple of years into
(02:12):
their business and they're kindof figuring out okay, I've been
servicing a lot of differentclients, what do I do now?
How do I really figure out theright fit customer for my
business?
So that's what we're going totalk about.
I'm going to tell you a littlebit about my story.
I started my own business threeyears ago and I've transitioned
from honestly getting reallybad fit referrals, nonstop
(02:34):
proposals, contracts, salescalls to getting to a point
where I have a product ladder,multiple different offers.
I'm mostly selling honestlyjust through my LinkedIn content
and through the DMs or emails,and I'm at a point where, if I
do a sales call, it's going tobe because there's very specific
(02:54):
questions that someone has andwe're just making a go-no-go
decision really quickly.
And that has beentransformative for my business
but also, frankly, for my life,because didn't we all get into
business so that we can actuallyhave the luxury of using our
time the way that we'd like, andso this has been a total game
changer for me and I'm excitedto share with you all the
(03:17):
feedback that I used in order toland here, and hopefully this
will help those of you who are afew steps behind me and really
figuring out who the rightcustomer is for your audience,
for your business.
So let me tell you a little bitabout myself.
My business is called HappyPaying Customers, and that's
(03:42):
really honestly quitedescriptive.
This is what I do.
I help founders who are at theearliest stages of their
business really validate and dowith their business by actually
getting paying customers so thatthey can figure out if they are
building the right business andthen get on the right path to a
(04:03):
million or other meaningfulmilestone that they are looking
to achieve revenue-wise, andthen, of course, doing it on
their terms for the lifeperspective.
And I specifically partner withfounders who are
self-identifying themselves asunderestimated.
That's something that Iself-identify as I get really
(04:23):
excited about supporting otherswho are underestimated and are
building serious multimilliondollar businesses.
So this is who I am.
My name is Swetha Gavani andjust a couple of things about me
I'll share about my trackrecord so you know a little bit
about my background is that Istarted my business after 15
(04:46):
years doing marketing.
So that's really what mybackground is in mostly for
early stage tech startups, andI've helped many, many of the
businesses that I have workedwith across.
Many of them generate more than$82 million in revenue.
This number's changed a littlebit, but now I'm at about 85, 86
or so founders that I've workedwith in my business in one way
(05:10):
or another through one of myoffers to really work on all the
things that I talked about atthe earliest stages of figuring
out their business, and I'lltalk a little bit more about
that as we go, as just anexample for you all to follow
along on.
And my favorite thing to do inmy free time is to travel, and
so this is from one of therecent trips with my hubby to
(05:31):
Austria, and this is just someof the founders that I have
worked with.
So, like I said, you know, bigthing for me was when I started
my business, I was introducingmyself and really honestly
focusing.
What I thought was focusedenough was as a marketing
consultant for early stage techstartups and I really honestly,
(05:55):
you know, started to promotemyself and put myself out there,
I kept getting all thesereactions like, oh, that's
interesting.
And in practice I would getreferrals from well-meaning
people that were not quite agood fit for my business.
And when I started to gothrough the sales process, I was
(06:16):
sitting there creating customproposals all the time and I was
going through kind of thatnormal consulting sales process.
You go through where you have acall, you try to scope it out,
you send them a proposal andthen you follow up and then some
percentage of them close.
But really you're spending somuch time in that sales process.
I was just burnt out by that.
(06:37):
It's not why I started mybusiness.
I don't have a sales background.
I don't really enjoy doingsales even though I do sales as
more of a problem-solving typeof angle and I'm really trying
to be as helpful in those salescalls rather than being salesy.
Even then it just felt like mybusiness.
There was no predictability.
I didn't know which of thoseproposals were really going to
(06:59):
close.
I was just getting exhausted byit.
So if that resonates with you,then you're asking the right
question.
So much of the answer for thatreally came from me, from really
figuring out who's the rightcustomer that I should even be
focusing on.
And again, like I said, whatthat resulted in for me was
(07:19):
being able to close really greatfit deals from just one sales
call or no sales call at all,and this number is actually from
a while ago.
I think my ratio has flipped alot.
I just haven't had time to runthe numbers, so I kept this
ratio from a while ago.
It's honestly.
Now I'm getting more and moredeals closed without even ever
(07:40):
having to jump on calls, and forme personally, that's a win.
That might not be your why.
Your why might be somethingelse, and that's really
important.
It's important for you tofigure that out, but what I'm
about to share should hopefullywork for you, no matter what.
Another one of my whys and I'llshare this with you all this is
a framework.
I did not create this.
(08:01):
This is a resource that wascreated by Nathan Berry, who is
the creator, founder, ofConvertKit, which is now Kit.
It's the email platform thatyou might be familiar with has
now more features than justemail.
It has now more features thanjust email, but this is sort of
this ladder of wealth that hehad created, and the concept
(08:24):
behind this is, for mepersonally, what really
resonated was I was reallycaught.
You know, one of the things thatI was looking for was how do I
go from consulting reallyfeeling like it's just a
part-time job to really turningit into a real business.
That was really a bigmotivation for me, is I really
wanted to think about how can Istart turning this into a real
(08:44):
business?
And the latter of all you knowwhat he really talks about is
you start off with, you know,kind of trading time for money
and that's where you have asalary job.
And honestly, that's kind ofwhat consulting felt like for me
when I got started.
He says the next step is youown your own services business.
(09:06):
Personally, I still feel like,depending on how you structure
it, it still kind of feels likeyou're trading time for money,
and that just didn't work for me.
And there are other.
There are ways to transition itso that it doesn't feel that
way, but I still think it feltthat way for the way that I was
headed.
I was doing kind of hourlycontracts, project-based scopes,
and then it gets to a pointwhere you can start productizing
your offers and for me that wasa big unlock.
(09:29):
I felt like if I could getreally clear on who it is that
I'm solving what problem forthat, picking that right
customer segment I could startproductizing my offers.
So they kind of went hand inhand, if I'm being honest.
And so that's where I actuallytransitioned away from doing
kind of fractional CMO services,for example, to moving into
(09:52):
something that I call the go tomarket booster, which is
basically my high touch kind ofcoaching, strategic advisory
service, where it's a flat ratesubscription that founders sign
up for and we're meeting once aweek or once every other week
and it's just still kind ofsounds like trading time for
money, except that it's notbecause it's dramatically more
(10:15):
and the founders are not reallykeeping tabs of hours and it's
just a much better offer.
But what's even better that thisallowed me to do was to create
other offers as well.
So that's my flagship kind ofhigh touch, high ticket offer.
But then I also have otheroffers that are definitely not
time for money, where I have amembership community that I'm
(10:39):
helping, you know, this kind ofspecific type of founders that I
work with.
And then I also have coursesthat I'm starting to release as
well.
I just released one officiallythat I'm starting to promote,
that had been soft launching fora while, so I already have
people who bought it and havegreat reviews from that, and
then I'm transitioning now overto other types that are also
(11:00):
going to be for other audiencesas well.
And so, when you really thinkabout what enabled me to do that
, it honestly just came down tohow do I pick that first right,
customer segment, right.
So I wanted to share with youall a specific kind of framework
that I use that really helpedme, right?
So one of the big things hereis one of the big things that
(11:25):
was really helpful for me wasthinking about three main
aspects of articulating yourniche.
Now, niche is a term thathonestly gets a bad rap.
Everybody thinks niching meansniching down.
I don't mean that by niche.
I just mean someone else shouldbe able to understand very
clearly what your business isand when they should be thinking
(11:47):
about you.
What are the situations inwhich they should be referring
business to you?
Or, if it's your targetaudience, they should be able to
see themselves and be thinking,oh, my God, you're reading my
mind, yes, yes, yes, this is forme right.
So that's what I mean byarticulating your niche and
there are kind of three maincomponents.
That honestly kind of appliesto every business in the world,
(12:07):
but we'll talk aboutspecifically for a consulting
business how I think about it,right?
So one is who.
So the who is whom do you solvewhat problem for?
Second is the what, which iswhat is your solution for that
problem and how does it work.
And then the third is why you?
So why should they pick youover their status quo?
(12:31):
And if you listen carefully,there's actually six components
to it.
Each of these componentsactually has two components.
So under who, you have the whom, which is actually the target
audience that you're going after.
The second is the problem thatyou're solving for them, the
what is kind of thinking aboutokay, well, what is your
solution for them and how doesit really work, right?
(12:51):
So those are the two parts, thewhat and the how, and then the
why.
You has two components again,which is what is kind of your
key differentiator, why are theypicking you?
But that differentiator doesn'treally mean anything on its own
if you're not able toarticulate what their status quo
is right.
So what is it that they'recurrently using, what have they
already tried and why is yoursolution better than them and,
(13:14):
if you think about it, this issomething that can apply to any
business in the world.
But I'll kind of tell you someof the ways that I thought about
it.
For my business that was reallyhelpful and I kind of think
about it.
Wait, if you're, depending onwhere you are in your journey, I
would say there are kind ofthree main steps that you can
follow, but the way that youapply them would vary.
So one would be you discoveryour niche right.
(13:36):
So you're kind of reallythinking about what is that
niche that would be a good fitfor you, and I'll give you some
prompts to think about.
Then the second is you kind oftry to articulate it, you put it
down on paper and then thethird step, which I love, which
I think most people skip, ismicrotesting it, figuring out
ways in which you can microtestit.
We don't have enough time todayto do all of it.
(13:56):
So for micro-testing, what I'lljust leave it with and say is
you're finding really small waysthat you can actually test it.
So if you have outreach thatyou're doing as your main
channel, then that might be oneway where you can micro test it,
by depending on, by kind oftweaking whom you reach out to
or what you say to them, right?
Or if you're doing, you know,hanging out in different
(14:18):
communities, maybe you have adifferent offer that you put up,
put in front of them, or youtry to change the way that you
present something at apresentation that you already
have coming up right.
You're kind of doing theselittle things to figure out how,
whether you're on the rightpath, right.
So discovering your niche, Iwould say, for me, has a couple
(14:38):
of components and one thing Iwould say overall that it comes
down to and if you're watchingthe video you'll see a list of
questions that I have here, butI'll just kind of name a couple
of things that I think areimportant Ultimately, it comes
down to we're building abusiness, we're entrepreneurs
because we want to actuallybuild a business.
We don't want to do a nine tofive, we want to do it on our
(14:59):
own terms.
So I like to think of it asanything else in the world.
We should always start off withwhat are my parameters, what is
the type of business that I'mtrying to build and what does
that actually look like?
What is my vision for successfor my own business.
This could be the number ofhours that you're working per
week.
This could be the type of workthat you're doing during those
(15:22):
hours.
This could be, you know, thetype of business that you're
building.
You know, like I said, for methis is where I think it's
important.
You know, for me it was reallyimportant to not have a business
where I'm just trading time formoney.
That might not be a big dealfor you, right?
You might not mind doing customproposals.
You might be in an industrywhere that is the norm and you
have to do that, right?
(15:42):
So there are different ways tothink about it, but for me,
those are the things that matter.
So, really, what matters to youmay not be the same that
matters to me, and that's fine.
We can have different thingsthat we care about, but it's
important to give yourself timeto think about what are all the
things that you care about.
And, of course, we have to kindof think about the fact that
when we're building our business, we may have to do things a
(16:03):
little bit differently.
I, of course, had to do that aswell.
When I got started, I took onsome clients that maybe weren't
a great fit, because, frankly, Idon't even know they weren't a
great fit.
Or I took on projects thatended up being absolute no-goes
for me now that maybe I didn'tknow, or maybe you know what, to
be honest, I needed to do, whatI needed to do when I started
my business.
So think about kind of whatyour ultimate vision is and then
(16:25):
what you might be able to kindof tolerate for now, if you have
to.
The second part and this is oneof my favorite ways to kind of
figure out the right customersegment to go after is to try to
pick one specific dream projectand I say one.
You could do maybe three, but Ireally would encourage you to
think of your dream dreamproject.
(16:46):
Now, if you're just gettingstarted, this could be the dream
project that you had at a youknow last company that you
worked at.
It could be actually theproject that you had at your
first job out of college and youkind of pivoted a bunch along
the way, but you still thinkfondly of that project.
It could be, you know, maybe aproject that you didn't even get
paid for.
Maybe you did something probono, maybe, you know maybe, a
(17:09):
project that you didn't even getpaid for Maybe you did
something pro bono.
Maybe you know, and nobodyknows, that it's about you being
able to articulate that dreamproject and really thinking
about okay, what was going onwith that project that was
really rewarding for me.
What about?
(17:31):
It felt like it was truly in myzone of genius and happiness,
right?
Why did I really find joy inthat?
What were some positivereactions that I received about
that project kind of surprisedme.
A really good hint I would sayfor this is you might have
received compliments, and youmust have.
You might have thought I can'tbelieve they think this is
something good.
It came so naturally to me,right?
That's a really good sign.
What was the exact work that youdid?
What were the parts that youloved?
(17:52):
What were the parts that youwould avoid if you could right,
and then start digging into whomdid you work on those projects
for right?
Who was the main point ofcontact?
What was the problem you weresolving?
So if you go back to that kindof formula, you're kind of using
this as a way to think back tothat.
(18:14):
Who part right?
This is the what.
Right this is the what.
The project is the what.
But you kind of use this fromyour own personal experience to
figure out the who.
So in my case, by the time I didthis exercise full disclosure I
already have a few customersand I sat down and there was one
project that stood out to me.
I absolutely adored workingwith that founder.
(18:36):
She was awesome, had a greatattitude, really was new to
marketing, scared of it, was aproduct manager, so really,
really smart, and there werejust all these characteristics
about her that started standingout to me.
There were all these problemstatements that started standing
out to me.
I would literally be on a callwith her just casually giving
her tips, and I could see herlight up right, she was learning
(18:58):
, she was applying it, she knewhow to get it done.
I could just see thetransformation and honestly, it
was a tiny project.
I think I made maybe $1,000,$1,500, something like that.
I've actually forgotten nowbecause it's at the beginning of
my business.
That became the seed for myentire business.
(19:19):
I was helping her validate heridea and I was helping her
figure out her early customers.
That's literally the entirepremise for my business today.
I promise it can be so powerfulwhen you really think about that
one little project that maybeyou didn't even make a lot of
money through, but that you feelwas truly in your zone of
(19:40):
genius and happiness.
This is my favorite way tofigure out who to focus on and
how to really find that earlycustomers or if you've actually,
like me, already have customersfind what you really want to
design more of your businessaround so that you can have a
business that, honestly, isfeeling very, very fulfilling to
(20:01):
you.
So this is what I'll leave youwith.
The best advice I have for youis try to pick that one project
and try to really think abouthow can I replicate this, how
can I get many more of this typeof project for this type of
customer?
That would be the best way tothink about it.
And, if you wanted some tips onkind of how to think about it,
(20:23):
a couple of things that you canstart mapping out.
When you think about the, whowould be thinking about things
like what is the maturity oftheir business?
What stage are they at?
You could think about theirrevenue, the number of employees
they have, whether they'veraised around recently.
You could think about thecategories.
So are they building certaintypes of businesses?
(20:43):
Do they have certain types ofmission?
Do they have certain types ofkind of values that align with
you.
What about certain types ofbusiness models?
What about a specific, you know, niche, specific
characteristics, like do theyhave certain types of
certifications?
Do they have certain types ofgo-to-market motions?
Do they, you know, tend to bein a specific subsector within
(21:05):
your industry?
Right, start to really thinkabout these really tangible ways
that you can think about thetype of business and the problem
statement that that businesswould be facing and really think
about separately, who's goingto be that point of contact that
you'll be working with, whoactually personally has the skin
(21:26):
in the game to solve thatproblem?
Right, we're not talking aboutreally kind of philosophical
issues, right?
We're talking about a realperson with real problems that
they're trying to solve, becausesolving that is going to make
their life better, it's going tomake their business better.
Right, it's going to really bethe person who's going to have a
(21:46):
reason to hire you and workwith you.
So that might be things likedemographics.
That might be because thedemographics might be in my case
, right was because that's whatI care about, it's aligned with
my mission.
But demographics may not matterto you and that's okay.
It might be their title ortheir seniority level.
It could be because the titleand seniority actually is tied
(22:07):
to the problem you're trying tosolve and they're the person
who's in charge of solving thatproblem, right?
It could be that they're partof a specific team or business
unit that generally tends toface this type of problems,
right?
So really think kind ofholistically about the type of
company and the right personthat you will be solving it for.
(22:28):
A lot of times, I see peoplethink of one or the other and it
just doesn't work.
You need both.
We need real humans at abusiness and you need to get
specific about that, and youneed to have a real type of
business that you're focusing on.
Now this is part of a muchlarger framework that I use to
think about it, with the whatand the why and then
microtesting.
We don't have time to get intoit, but I hope that this is
(22:50):
helpful for you in reallystarting to think about, for the
type of projects that you wantto be building your business
around, that you want to bedoing many, many more of who are
the right type of people forthat type of work.
So really think about all ofthis holistically together and
try to make all those puzzlepieces fit so you can build a
business where you're operatingin your zone of genius and
(23:13):
happiness and making meaningfulmoney doing that.
If you have any questions, feelfree to reach out to me on
LinkedIn.
Just mention this presentation,this talk, so that I know to
accept and I'll be happy to helpif I can.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
You love all things, tiny marketing, so that I know
to accept and I'll see you overin the club.
Welcome to Tiny Marketing.
This is Sarah Noelle Block, andthis is a podcast that helps
B2B service businesses do morewith less.
Learn lean, actionable, organicmarketing strategies you can
implement today.
No fluff, just powerful growthtactics that work.
Ready to scale smarter?
Hit that subscribe button andstart growing your business with
(00:20):
Tiny Marketing.
Hello, beauties, it is SarahNoelle Block, the host of the
tiny marketing show, and this isepisode 137.
It's going to look a little bitdifferent today because on
Monday I interviewed my guestexpert of the week, sweta Govani
, and the recording went awry.
(00:43):
We were completely unsyncedwhere we were talking over each
other.
So we ended up having a phoneconversation where she told me
all about her take on how todecide who the perfect, right
fit customer is for yourbusiness when you're just
starting out or you're pivoting.
(01:03):
So I loved everything she hadto say and I had a little
special request and it's nothingI've ever asked any other
expert to do on this show and Isaid this is just too brilliant.
Would you mind doing a soloepisode for tiny marketing and
I'll share your insights, yourecord it on your own and we'll
(01:26):
drop it on the show.
So that's what we're doingtoday.
So this is a solo episode bySweta Govani and I think you're
going to love it, so please letme know what you think of this
format, which is a little bitdifferent.
On Spotify or directly onBuzzsprout, you can leave
comments, so I'd love to hearfrom you, or you can always just
(01:47):
reply to my emails.
Love you, enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Hello, all right.
So today we are going to talkabout how can I, as a
solopreneur, figure out who theright customer is for my
business?
This is one of the most commonquestions that I get from my
peers who are startingbusinesses a few years behind me
, or maybe they're actuallyalready a couple of years into
(02:12):
their business and they're kindof figuring out okay, I've been
servicing a lot of differentclients, what do I do now?
How do I really figure out theright fit customer for my
business?
So that's what we're going totalk about.
I'm going to tell you a littlebit about my story.
I started my own business threeyears ago and I've transitioned
from honestly getting reallybad fit referrals, nonstop
(02:34):
proposals, contracts, salescalls to getting to a point
where I have a product ladder,multiple different offers.
I'm mostly selling honestlyjust through my LinkedIn content
and through the DMs or emails,and I'm at a point where, if I
do a sales call, it's going tobe because there's very specific
(02:54):
questions that someone has andwe're just making a go-no-go
decision really quickly.
And that has beentransformative for my business
but also, frankly, for my life,because didn't we all get into
business so that we can actuallyhave the luxury of using our
time the way that we'd like, andso this has been a total game
changer for me and I'm excitedto share with you all the
(03:17):
feedback that I used in order toland here, and hopefully this
will help those of you who are afew steps behind me and really
figuring out who the rightcustomer is for your audience,
for your business.
So let me tell you a little bitabout myself.
My business is called HappyPaying Customers, and that's
(03:42):
really honestly quitedescriptive.
This is what I do.
I help founders who are at theearliest stages of their
business really validate and dowith their business by actually
getting paying customers so thatthey can figure out if they are
building the right business andthen get on the right path to a
(04:03):
million or other meaningfulmilestone that they are looking
to achieve revenue-wise, andthen, of course, doing it on
their terms for the lifeperspective.
And I specifically partner withfounders who are
self-identifying themselves asunderestimated.
That's something that Iself-identify as I get really
(04:23):
excited about supporting otherswho are underestimated and are
building serious multimilliondollar businesses.
So this is who I am.
My name is Swetha Gavani andjust a couple of things about me
I'll share about my trackrecord so you know a little bit
about my background is that Istarted my business after 15
(04:46):
years doing marketing.
So that's really what mybackground is in mostly for
early stage tech startups, andI've helped many, many of the
businesses that I have workedwith across.
Many of them generate more than$82 million in revenue.
This number's changed a littlebit, but now I'm at about 85, 86
or so founders that I've workedwith in my business in one way
(05:10):
or another through one of myoffers to really work on all the
things that I talked about atthe earliest stages of figuring
out their business, and I'lltalk a little bit more about
that as we go, as just anexample for you all to follow
along on.
And my favorite thing to do inmy free time is to travel, and
so this is from one of therecent trips with my hubby to
(05:31):
Austria, and this is just someof the founders that I have
worked with.
So, like I said, you know, bigthing for me was when I started
my business, I was introducingmyself and really honestly
focusing.
What I thought was focusedenough was as a marketing
consultant for early stage techstartups and I really honestly,
(05:55):
you know, started to promotemyself and put myself out there,
I kept getting all thesereactions like, oh, that's
interesting.
And in practice I would getreferrals from well-meaning
people that were not quite agood fit for my business.
And when I started to gothrough the sales process, I was
(06:16):
sitting there creating customproposals all the time and I was
going through kind of thatnormal consulting sales process.
You go through where you have acall, you try to scope it out,
you send them a proposal andthen you follow up and then some
percentage of them close.
But really you're spending somuch time in that sales process.
I was just burnt out by that.
(06:37):
It's not why I started mybusiness.
I don't have a sales background.
I don't really enjoy doingsales even though I do sales as
more of a problem-solving typeof angle and I'm really trying
to be as helpful in those salescalls rather than being salesy.
Even then it just felt like mybusiness.
There was no predictability.
I didn't know which of thoseproposals were really going to
(06:59):
close.
I was just getting exhausted byit.
So if that resonates with you,then you're asking the right
question.
So much of the answer for thatreally came from me, from really
figuring out who's the rightcustomer that I should even be
focusing on.
And again, like I said, whatthat resulted in for me was
(07:19):
being able to close really greatfit deals from just one sales
call or no sales call at all,and this number is actually from
a while ago.
I think my ratio has flipped alot.
I just haven't had time to runthe numbers, so I kept this
ratio from a while ago.
It's honestly.
Now I'm getting more and moredeals closed without even ever
(07:40):
having to jump on calls, and forme personally, that's a win.
That might not be your why.
Your why might be somethingelse, and that's really
important.
It's important for you tofigure that out, but what I'm
about to share should hopefullywork for you, no matter what.
Another one of my whys and I'llshare this with you all this is
a framework.
I did not create this.
(08:01):
This is a resource that wascreated by Nathan Berry, who is
the creator, founder, ofConvertKit, which is now Kit.
It's the email platform thatyou might be familiar with has
now more features than justemail.
It has now more features thanjust email, but this is sort of
this ladder of wealth that hehad created, and the concept
(08:24):
behind this is, for mepersonally, what really
resonated was I was reallycaught.
You know, one of the things thatI was looking for was how do I
go from consulting reallyfeeling like it's just a
part-time job to really turningit into a real business.
That was really a bigmotivation for me, is I really
wanted to think about how can Istart turning this into a real
(08:44):
business?
And the latter of all you knowwhat he really talks about is
you start off with, you know,kind of trading time for money
and that's where you have asalary job.
And honestly, that's kind ofwhat consulting felt like for me
when I got started.
He says the next step is youown your own services business.
(09:06):
Personally, I still feel like,depending on how you structure
it, it still kind of feels likeyou're trading time for money,
and that just didn't work for me.
And there are other.
There are ways to transition itso that it doesn't feel that
way, but I still think it feltthat way for the way that I was
headed.
I was doing kind of hourlycontracts, project-based scopes,
and then it gets to a pointwhere you can start productizing
your offers and for me that wasa big unlock.
(09:29):
I felt like if I could getreally clear on who it is that
I'm solving what problem forthat, picking that right
customer segment I could startproductizing my offers.
So they kind of went hand inhand, if I'm being honest.
And so that's where I actuallytransitioned away from doing
kind of fractional CMO services,for example, to moving into
(09:52):
something that I call the go tomarket booster, which is
basically my high touch kind ofcoaching, strategic advisory
service, where it's a flat ratesubscription that founders sign
up for and we're meeting once aweek or once every other week
and it's just still kind ofsounds like trading time for
money, except that it's notbecause it's dramatically more
(10:15):
and the founders are not reallykeeping tabs of hours and it's
just a much better offer.
But what's even better that thisallowed me to do was to create
other offers as well.
So that's my flagship kind ofhigh touch, high ticket offer.
But then I also have otheroffers that are definitely not
time for money, where I have amembership community that I'm
(10:39):
helping, you know, this kind ofspecific type of founders that I
work with.
And then I also have coursesthat I'm starting to release as
well.
I just released one officiallythat I'm starting to promote,
that had been soft launching fora while, so I already have
people who bought it and havegreat reviews from that, and
then I'm transitioning now overto other types that are also
(11:00):
going to be for other audiencesas well.
And so, when you really thinkabout what enabled me to do that
, it honestly just came down tohow do I pick that first right,
customer segment, right.
So I wanted to share with youall a specific kind of framework
that I use that really helpedme, right?
So one of the big things hereis one of the big things that
(11:25):
was really helpful for me wasthinking about three main
aspects of articulating yourniche.
Now, niche is a term thathonestly gets a bad rap.
Everybody thinks niching meansniching down.
I don't mean that by niche.
I just mean someone else shouldbe able to understand very
clearly what your business isand when they should be thinking
(11:47):
about you.
What are the situations inwhich they should be referring
business to you?
Or, if it's your targetaudience, they should be able to
see themselves and be thinking,oh, my God, you're reading my
mind, yes, yes, yes, this is forme right.
So that's what I mean byarticulating your niche and
there are kind of three maincomponents.
That honestly kind of appliesto every business in the world,
(12:07):
but we'll talk aboutspecifically for a consulting
business how I think about it,right?
So one is who.
So the who is whom do you solvewhat problem for?
Second is the what, which iswhat is your solution for that
problem and how does it work.
And then the third is why you?
So why should they pick youover their status quo?
(12:31):
And if you listen carefully,there's actually six components
to it.
Each of these componentsactually has two components.
So under who, you have the whom, which is actually the target
audience that you're going after.
The second is the problem thatyou're solving for them, the
what is kind of thinking aboutokay, well, what is your
solution for them and how doesit really work, right?
(12:51):
So those are the two parts, thewhat and the how, and then the
why.
You has two components again,which is what is kind of your
key differentiator, why are theypicking you?
But that differentiator doesn'treally mean anything on its own
if you're not able toarticulate what their status quo
is right.
So what is it that they'recurrently using, what have they
already tried and why is yoursolution better than them and,
(13:14):
if you think about it, this issomething that can apply to any
business in the world.
But I'll kind of tell you someof the ways that I thought about
it.
For my business that was reallyhelpful and I kind of think
about it.
Wait, if you're, depending onwhere you are in your journey, I
would say there are kind ofthree main steps that you can
follow, but the way that youapply them would vary.
So one would be you discoveryour niche right.
(13:36):
So you're kind of reallythinking about what is that
niche that would be a good fitfor you, and I'll give you some
prompts to think about.
Then the second is you kind oftry to articulate it, you put it
down on paper and then thethird step, which I love, which
I think most people skip, ismicrotesting it, figuring out
ways in which you can microtestit.
We don't have enough time todayto do all of it.
(13:56):
So for micro-testing, what I'lljust leave it with and say is
you're finding really small waysthat you can actually test it.
So if you have outreach thatyou're doing as your main
channel, then that might be oneway where you can micro test it,
by depending on, by kind oftweaking whom you reach out to
or what you say to them, right?
Or if you're doing, you know,hanging out in different
(14:18):
communities, maybe you have adifferent offer that you put up,
put in front of them, or youtry to change the way that you
present something at apresentation that you already
have coming up right.
You're kind of doing theselittle things to figure out how,
whether you're on the rightpath, right.
So discovering your niche, Iwould say, for me, has a couple
(14:38):
of components and one thing Iwould say overall that it comes
down to and if you're watchingthe video you'll see a list of
questions that I have here, butI'll just kind of name a couple
of things that I think areimportant Ultimately, it comes
down to we're building abusiness, we're entrepreneurs
because we want to actuallybuild a business.
We don't want to do a nine tofive, we want to do it on our
(14:59):
own terms.
So I like to think of it asanything else in the world.
We should always start off withwhat are my parameters, what is
the type of business that I'mtrying to build and what does
that actually look like?
What is my vision for successfor my own business.
This could be the number ofhours that you're working per
week.
This could be the type of workthat you're doing during those
(15:22):
hours.
This could be, you know, thetype of business that you're
building.
You know, like I said, for methis is where I think it's
important.
You know, for me it was reallyimportant to not have a business
where I'm just trading time formoney.
That might not be a big dealfor you, right?
You might not mind doing customproposals.
You might be in an industrywhere that is the norm and you
have to do that, right?
(15:42):
So there are different ways tothink about it, but for me,
those are the things that matter.
So, really, what matters to youmay not be the same that
matters to me, and that's fine.
We can have different thingsthat we care about, but it's
important to give yourself timeto think about what are all the
things that you care about.
And, of course, we have to kindof think about the fact that
when we're building our business, we may have to do things a
(16:03):
little bit differently.
I, of course, had to do that aswell.
When I got started, I took onsome clients that maybe weren't
a great fit, because, frankly, Idon't even know they weren't a
great fit.
Or I took on projects thatended up being absolute no-goes
for me now that maybe I didn'tknow, or maybe you know what, to
be honest, I needed to do, whatI needed to do when I started
my business.
So think about kind of whatyour ultimate vision is and then
(16:25):
what you might be able to kindof tolerate for now, if you have
to.
The second part and this is oneof my favorite ways to kind of
figure out the right customersegment to go after is to try to
pick one specific dream projectand I say one.
You could do maybe three, but Ireally would encourage you to
think of your dream dreamproject.
(16:46):
Now, if you're just gettingstarted, this could be the dream
project that you had at a youknow last company that you
worked at.
It could be actually theproject that you had at your
first job out of college and youkind of pivoted a bunch along
the way, but you still thinkfondly of that project.
It could be, you know, maybe aproject that you didn't even get
paid for.
Maybe you did something probono, maybe, you know maybe, a
(17:09):
project that you didn't even getpaid for Maybe you did
something pro bono.
Maybe you know, and nobodyknows, that it's about you being
able to articulate that dreamproject and really thinking
about okay, what was going onwith that project that was
really rewarding for me.
What about?
(17:31):
It felt like it was truly in myzone of genius and happiness,
right?
Why did I really find joy inthat?
What were some positivereactions that I received about
that project kind of surprisedme.
A really good hint I would sayfor this is you might have
received compliments, and youmust have.
You might have thought I can'tbelieve they think this is
something good.
It came so naturally to me,right?
That's a really good sign.
What was the exact work that youdid?
What were the parts that youloved?
(17:52):
What were the parts that youwould avoid if you could right,
and then start digging into whomdid you work on those projects
for right?
Who was the main point ofcontact?
What was the problem you weresolving?
So if you go back to that kindof formula, you're kind of using
this as a way to think back tothat.
(18:14):
Who part right?
This is the what.
Right this is the what.
The project is the what.
But you kind of use this fromyour own personal experience to
figure out the who.
So in my case, by the time I didthis exercise full disclosure I
already have a few customersand I sat down and there was one
project that stood out to me.
I absolutely adored workingwith that founder.
(18:36):
She was awesome, had a greatattitude, really was new to
marketing, scared of it, was aproduct manager, so really,
really smart, and there werejust all these characteristics
about her that started standingout to me.
There were all these problemstatements that started standing
out to me.
I would literally be on a callwith her just casually giving
her tips, and I could see herlight up right, she was learning
(18:58):
, she was applying it, she knewhow to get it done.
I could just see thetransformation and honestly, it
was a tiny project.
I think I made maybe $1,000,$1,500, something like that.
I've actually forgotten nowbecause it's at the beginning of
my business.
That became the seed for myentire business.
(19:19):
I was helping her validate heridea and I was helping her
figure out her early customers.
That's literally the entirepremise for my business today.
I promise it can be so powerfulwhen you really think about that
one little project that maybeyou didn't even make a lot of
money through, but that you feelwas truly in your zone of
(19:40):
genius and happiness.
This is my favorite way tofigure out who to focus on and
how to really find that earlycustomers or if you've actually,
like me, already have customersfind what you really want to
design more of your businessaround so that you can have a
business that, honestly, isfeeling very, very fulfilling to
(20:01):
you.
So this is what I'll leave youwith.
The best advice I have for youis try to pick that one project
and try to really think abouthow can I replicate this, how
can I get many more of this typeof project for this type of
customer?
That would be the best way tothink about it.
And, if you wanted some tips onkind of how to think about it,
(20:23):
a couple of things that you canstart mapping out.
When you think about the, whowould be thinking about things
like what is the maturity oftheir business?
What stage are they at?
You could think about theirrevenue, the number of employees
they have, whether they'veraised around recently.
You could think about thecategories.
So are they building certaintypes of businesses?
(20:43):
Do they have certain types ofmission?
Do they have certain types ofkind of values that align with
you.
What about certain types ofbusiness models?
What about a specific, you know, niche, specific
characteristics, like do theyhave certain types of
certifications?
Do they have certain types ofgo-to-market motions?
Do they, you know, tend to bein a specific subsector within
(21:05):
your industry?
Right, start to really thinkabout these really tangible ways
that you can think about thetype of business and the problem
statement that that businesswould be facing and really think
about separately, who's goingto be that point of contact that
you'll be working with, whoactually personally has the skin
(21:26):
in the game to solve thatproblem?
Right, we're not talking aboutreally kind of philosophical
issues, right?
We're talking about a realperson with real problems that
they're trying to solve, becausesolving that is going to make
their life better, it's going tomake their business better.
Right, it's going to really bethe person who's going to have a
(21:46):
reason to hire you and workwith you.
So that might be things likedemographics.
That might be because thedemographics might be in my case
, right was because that's whatI care about, it's aligned with
my mission.
But demographics may not matterto you and that's okay.
It might be their title ortheir seniority level.
It could be because the titleand seniority actually is tied
(22:07):
to the problem you're trying tosolve and they're the person
who's in charge of solving thatproblem, right?
It could be that they're partof a specific team or business
unit that generally tends toface this type of problems,
right?
So really think kind ofholistically about the type of
company and the right personthat you will be solving it for.
(22:28):
A lot of times, I see peoplethink of one or the other and it
just doesn't work.
You need both.
We need real humans at abusiness and you need to get
specific about that, and youneed to have a real type of
business that you're focusing on.
Now this is part of a muchlarger framework that I use to
think about it, with the whatand the why and then
microtesting.
We don't have time to get intoit, but I hope that this is
(22:50):
helpful for you in reallystarting to think about, for the
type of projects that you wantto be building your business
around, that you want to bedoing many, many more of who are
the right type of people forthat type of work.
So really think about all ofthis holistically together and
try to make all those puzzlepieces fit so you can build a
business where you're operatingin your zone of genius and
(23:13):
happiness and making meaningfulmoney doing that.
If you have any questions, feelfree to reach out to me on
LinkedIn.
Just mention this presentation,this talk, so that I know to
accept and I'll be happy to helpif I can.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
You love all things, tiny marketing, so that I know
to accept and I'll see you overin the club.
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