If You Want to Scale Faster, Choose a Niche and Excel in It

Forget competition, embrace differentiation: a proven strategy for growth.

When I founded my tech company, I spent the first several years solely focused on acquiring clients and generating revenue. It was a hustle that I enjoyed and excelled at. Finding prospects, conducting sales meetings, developing proposals, and closing deals. I enjoyed the challenge and the thrill.

Over time, I had to bring on other people to help market and sell our services. It forced us to become more focused and systemized. I had to figure out what we were selling, to whom, and what the real benefits of our solutions were. This compelled us to rethink our strategy. I realized that until that point, I was just chasing money and trying to nip at the heels of our bigger competitors.

What I quickly realized was that I was never going to really compete with the big dogs by trying to go head-to-head. It was easy to find a few scraps here and there, but it would be a brutal and bloody process. Instead, I realized that we needed to offer something different, something that couldn't be reduced to a price war.

After reading dozens of books, taking several courses, and even hiring several consultants, we crafted a unique position in the market tailored to specific core customers. This allowed us to refine our operations and services and to create a unique selling position. We no longer had to compete on price, and we dramatically reduced the sales lead time and increased our success rate.

Now, as a strategic coach, I've worked with dozens of companies on positioning, operations, and sales. Here are some key aspects I focus on to help teams craft a unique market position and accelerate growth.

1. Clarify your purpose.

I always start by clarifying why we're even in business. This helps remind us of the reason we do the work and sets a north star for guiding the rest of the work we need to do. I like a simple formula that clarifies who we serve, what we provide them, and the benefits they get from our products/services.

The trick here is to define this in such a way that it's narrow and focused, yet expansive enough to be pursued over decades. A good long-term purpose will help you make decisions on every other part of the business. If it's too broad, it lacks direction; if it's too narrow or short-term, it fails to inspire innovation.

2. Understand your core customer.

Too many companies I speak to say they can do anything for anyone. While they might have a broad range of skills and capabilities beneficial to many businesses or customers, trying to be everything to everyone just doesn't work. You need to clarify who you serve and why to create an effective strategy.

When defining your core customer, I like to focus on four key things: demographics, which provide insights into their profile and whereabouts; psychographics, which tells you their core values and what topics and content will resonate with them; needs and fears, which clarify why they are buying and what your solution will do for them; and buying triggers, which tell you when they are likely in the mood to start a sales conversation.

3. Identify all competitors.

Once the core customer is defined, it's essential to identify competitors. Once we have this list, we can look at each competitor's unique attributes and how they are approaching the market. The trick here is to look deeper than price. Some competitors may excel in quality, others in service, and some in ease of implementation.

Be sure to consider direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are other solutions similar to yours that a prospect would consider in comparison to you. Indirect competitors are solutions that solve the problem but in very different ways. This might include building a solution in-house or even just coping better and living with the problem. Knowing all of the options a prospect has is crucial.

4. Find your white space.

Once you have the competitive landscape mapped out, you can plot everyone on the various criteria that your customers use to make a purchase decision. I like visualizing this in a chart so you can see the areas that have a lot of competition and, hopefully, a few areas where nobody seems to be excelling.

The goal here is to find some white space where you can craft a differentiated position and stand out in the market. This might be by selecting one or two areas that are completely open or combining a few attributes in a valuable way that's unique in the market.

5. Innovate key activities.

After you've found a new market position, you can start looking at your operations and delivery. While there are many things you need to do well as a business to be successful, find eight to 12 key activities that will directly drive your success in your new niche. Focus your efforts and innovation on these areas. Everything else should just be "good enough." The goal here is to put more wood behind fewer arrows.

The key to strategy is to focus your efforts and energy. Without a clear strategy, spreading too thin and pursuing too many targets is inevitable. Strategy is about choices and aligning everyone in the organization around a core set of key decisions about who you are and what you do. Getting these questions right and making real commitments will accelerate your growth and success. Continuing to chase everything with a dollar sign will quickly leave you exhausted and likely going in circles.