Are you ready to start attracting your ideal clients? Get ready to understand how positioning really works.
In today’s lesson, we’ll talk about the first step of the sales process: Positioning
And don’t worry, we won’t be talking all that marketing mumbo jumbo they teach in universities. We’ll keep things simple yet profound enough to shift paradigms.
In This Video You’ll Learn:
- A simplified yet powerful definition of what positioning is and how it works.
- How positioning affects your confidence.
- The three things you should be mindful of in every decision you make in your business.
There you have it. That’s how positioning works in a nutshell.
But now what? Where do you go from here?
Now its time to make the most important decision you’ll make in business.
The most important decision you’ll make in your business
Every freelancer starts out by making two major decisions:
- The decision of owning a business.
- The decision of the kind of business they want to own.
Over time, I’ve realized that just about every freelancer (including myself) struggles with defining the kind of business they want to own.
Once I learned how to define my business with clarity, it changed everything for me. I began attracting my ideal clients and selling 5-digit projects. I’m talking about $50,000+ types of projects!
Yeah, it surprised me too.
So, let’s talk about choosing (or solidifying) your niche.
Defining your business with a solid niche
The business world is like a giant pie big enough to feed us all. Think of your niche as your slice of that pie.
If you’re anything like me when I started my business, then you have a BIG appetite for business (not a bad thing). Your first instinct is to cut the biggest slice pie possible.
But niching doesn’t work that way. It’s actually the opposite.
The smaller your niche is, the quicker you’ll get to eat (literally!). And believe me, you want to eat as quickly and as often as you can.
In this case, small means specific (as opposed to staying general).
Having a niche means you’ve chosen what you do and whom you do it for.
Choosing breeds confidence, ownership, and sets the boundaries for every decision in your business. A niche guides your quest in positioning yourself to attract those ideal clients you’ve always wanted.
But how do you discover and choose a niche?
A 3-part framework that helps you discover potential niches
Let me share a 3-part framework that will help you discover potential niches.
Ask yourself these 3 questions:
- What am I good at?
- What do I enjoy?
- Who is willing to pay me for what I’m good at and what I enjoy?
When you brainstorm using this framework, make sure you jot down as many ideas as you can. There are no dumb ideas or wrong answers here.
1. What are you good at?
Think about past jobs you’ve had. What kind of skills did you leverage? What do people compliment you on?
If you struggle with brainstorming this question, ask an honest friend to help. Don’t ask your mom and dad–they think you’re good at everything, ha!
Include soft skills such as being a good listener, dressing with style, or even leadership qualities.
Think about areas of life that you’ve mastered such as personal finances, vacationing to the fullest, or being extra productive.
Seriously, list everything you’re good at.
2. What do you enjoy?
Think about hobbies, the subtle things you enjoy, and anything you would do for free.
I’m not talking about passion. I’m talking about enjoyment.
There’s a difference.
Passion has a way of blinding people with too strong of emotions. And overly emotional people tend to make bad decisions, emotional non-logical decisions. We don’t want that since positioning is about making the right decisions.
Enjoyment, on the other hand, is a much better long-term strategy. It gives room for failure, pivoting, and clarity.
Make a long list of things you enjoy enough to do daily because your business will be something you just might need to do daily–at least until you start selling high quality and high priced projects!
3. Who would pay you for what you’re good at and enjoy?
This is the part where you list the types of people and businesses you could work with.
Think about people you’ve worked with before. Who do you understand? Who can you relate to? Who do you enjoy being around?
Here’s a solid list of criteria I used when choosing a niche:
- They’re willing to pay good money–no cheapskates!
- You like them enough to befriend them outside of a work setting.
- Enough of them exist to keep you busy.
You can cook up your own set of criteria. For me, a criteria helped eliminate entire industries.
Choosing your niche
Once you’ve created your three lists of ideas, your potential niches can be found within the space in which your ideas intersect.
A solid niche is one where you can perform with skill, stay dedicated through enjoyment, and make money by serving a group of people or businesses.
You should be able to say the following:
“I [what you do] for [whom you do it for].”
For example: “I teach selling for introverted freelancers.”
We’ll talk more about refining that sentence tomorrow. But for now, don’t be scared to choose from you potential niches. There is really no unsafe answer since all potential niches can work.
Trust your gut. There’s always that one niche that jumps out more than the others. It usually for a good reason.
And don’t worry, you can always change your niche later. The important thing is to make a decision and roll with it.
Bottom line, don’t wait for people to choose you. This is your business. Your life. You get to choose what you do and for whom you do it for. So go and make it count.
Action Items:
- Choose or solidify your niche using the 3-part framework.
- Be a good friend: Do you know another introverted freelancer, consultant, or creative struggling with selling? Share this free course with them.
