What’s Right For You
Being selective might seem like shutting the door to potential clients. But, a proper study will reveal that’s far from the truth.
Choosing specific verticals will ultimately allow you to build the right sales strategies in 2017. Specialization will help you close more clients and this is because your success stories will all be reverberating within the industry.
Also, don’t forget, specializing in a particular client industry gives you an edge.
There are several potential agencies out there and your client has to narrow them down. Your vertical depends on who you are. Specialization is all about defining who you are and what work you do the best.
Define your company, not the customers.
A fine example is Chuck Malcomson, founder of Screwpile Communications, specializing in medical & healthcare inbound marketing.
Chuck came to the marketing world with a background in medical device industry, started Screwpile Communications and focused on healthcare verticals. His expertize and work brought him clients from as far as Singapore.
Targeting your vertical and successfully closing sales has its challenges. We’ll be showing you later how you can find quality sales leads and identify sales triggers with great success.
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Mirror Mirror On The Wall
What’s best vertical of them all? No, you do not need to rhyme it. However, to find your verticals, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself and your team.
What is your passion? Is your industry or vertical linked to your passion?
Passion is a powerfully palpable tool in marketing and should be the first in the line of consideration while trying to identify verticals and creating effective sales strategies in 2017.
Passion will take you a long way and help you engage with industry players and infuse a contagious enthusiasm in your communication. This will help you win deal and influence people. To get this right, you need a team who understand and share the passion.
2017 will be about getting the right team. You’ll be responsible for hiring the right talents and firing the ones who don’t match your company profile.
At the end of this blog, you’ll see how job ads are no longer sufficient for recruiting and what you can do best to align recruitment with your sales strategies in 2017.
It’ll also show you how you can identify who will stand out, and fit your brand and work culture the best.
Are you really proficient in your vertical?
This one is easy and self-explained. Just be honest with yourself and ask “Am I good enough in this vertical?”
If you’re not good at something, there’s no point targeting that vertical. Do not tarnish your company reputation, rather focus on other verticals that might be beneficial.
Best sales strategies in 2017 will need to revolve around your best skills. This should be just one part of the criteria. Because even if you are good in a vertical, it might not always be a great vertical for you to invest in. I’ll come to it in a minute as to why.
Is your targeted vertical flush with cash?
You are passionate about an industry and have an in-depth knowledge of it, plus, you are good at it. But there’s more to consider.
The ROI. You are trying to run a business and investing time and money. So make sure your targeted vertical is willing and capable of paying for what you are offering.
If your price tag is out of budget for the typical client in the vertical, it’s best to backtrack and look at another industry.
Where to focus? Should you consider discipline or tactic?
Recent studies reveal that enterprise clients are now less interested in hiring an agency of record. Trends show that they are putting together services from different agencies with specific strengths.
Other factors to consider
Location. We know you can run your business from anywhere and can serve your clients irrespective of their geographical location. That said, there is great value in visiting clients face-to-face a few times a year, especially B2B enterprise clients.
High-Quality Content – Make sure your content is high quality, meaningful and tells the readers how and where you specialize.
Remember that your readers have already done their groundwork before their first contact with you. Best sales strategies in 2017 will lean heavily on content. So make sure this is not compromised. Conduct a deep analysis of the competitive landscape.
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Make sure to check out things like – how competitive the space is, who the players are, if there are any clear winners, what type of new competitions are likely to emerge, barriers to entry etc.
Also, check to see if your vertical market is undergoing some drastic or radical changes. This could be due to internal or external factors such as legislations (like Obama Care, Sarbanes-Oxley) or a world event.
If you’re looking for vertical markets to avoid competition and be the big fish in a smaller pond, then make sure to stay closely tuned to Google Trends, Twitter, and others to be in constant touch with industry change.
So to round up things
Ask these questions and take the above factors into consideration. This should help you to zero in on the sweet spots to target your verticals.
Think of it as the bowling alley. You pick a niche market to dominate your lead ‘pin’ (the vertical). Once you’ve nailed that one, move on to the adjacent pins. Finding your verticals in NOT limiting your options. It’s about setting up your company for the right clientele.
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