Niche markets are a funny thing. If you’ve watched my videos (click here), you know that I love niches and strongly encourage that you consider yours.
Having spent considerable time thinking through and experimenting with various niches over the years, I’ve learned to expect one thing when approaching a new niche: once you’re inside the niche, the opportunity isn’t always the one that you thought it would be.
From the outside, an opportunity looks crystal clear. You know what you’re after and you believe you know how to capitalize and create value. You prepare and plan and strategize and finally step inside the niche…and then, once in, you turn left. A-ha! Never saw that coming.
The key to breaking into a niche isn’t necessarily the process you use once inside. The key to a niche is most often the process of choosing your entry point.
Just commit to the niche and prepare to be surprised by what you find. When I started working with near-retirees a number of years ago, it seemed to me that doing proper asset allocation and offering long term care were the big ideas I needed to be expert at. Although those are wonderful and absolutely necessary to understand, the true opportunity was something else altogether. Now that I know, I can see the entry point into new relationships much more clearly.
My advice: don’t labor over the details of what you’ll do once inside a niche because you don’t yet know what the client truly needs. Instead, labor over how you’ll gain access and then ask questions and listen intently to learn first, then offer products, services, and strategies second.
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