Helping Your Target Market: Stage 3
Stage three is really an extension of stage two. This stage requires that you know exactly who has the highest probability of helping you reach your goals and that you focus with laser intensity on this target market. These do not have to be the exact people who would buy your services. They could be a referral partner with the ability to send you dozens of new clients every year.
If it is a customer you target, it shouldn't be just any customer. It should be your perfect customer. Someone you'd enjoy working with, someone with the money and desire to buy your product or service and someone who is likely to connect you to other customers like them.
For example, if you own a sign company, you would do well to find ways to serve commercial property managers. These property managers constantly have new small businesses come into their buildings, small businesses that need a lot of new signs to get up and running. By focusing on helping these property managers, or other potential high volume referral sources, you’re greatly increasing the reach of your helpeting. For each person you help in this category, you’re getting exponentially more in return.
This may not initially sound others-focused. Were that true, it wouldn’t fit the principles of helpeting, but focusing your helpfulness isn't just good for you. Targeting certain people to help is better for them, too. When you're focused in who you help, you can become better at how you help. As we'll discuss later, how you help your target audience should be more in line with your specific talents so you're offering more value. This focus allows you to cut out all the extraneous noise that might detract from your ability to help others to the best of your ability.
Tying it all together
To review, stage one is to cut the fat, stage two involves becoming strategic and stage three is about honing in on your target market. Identify the stage you are at currently in your journey toward becoming famously helpful. How can you move to the next stage or, if you are in stage three, how can you better target your helpeting on those high quality referral sources? Write a list of people you can help in the stage you are currently in and in the stages ahead of or behind you. Write down at least one way you can help each of these people. Then do it.
This post was originally posted at Inkliss.com
