INDEED, 5 STEPS TO NAIL YOUR PRIMARY AND SECONDARY NICHE

Work with your team on these steps, brainstorm as much as you can and you will come out at the end with a specific primary and secondary niche for your business. 

The Step-by-Step approach to Nail your Niche

Step 1: Make a list
The best place to begin this process is from your most successful stint. It can be top customers, projects or categories. Now ask these questions to yourself and your team for every single item listed:

• What was the problem?
• Why did they choose you to solve it?
• What are the results they expected?
• What was the scale of the deal (in terms of the financial aspect)?

In the end, on the scale of 1 to 10, rate how much you want to work on such a project again. 

Then, proceed to list the market opportunities. Here are a few things to list on:

• The easiest way you have made money
• The projects that have been the most successful for you
• Your strength 
• The traits or reasons why the customers hired you
• A few other areas where you can succeed but haven’t invested
• Best proof case
• Projects that created the biggest financial benefits for customers
• Proof of your project results that you are allowed to publish
• Your best chance at winning
• Best future opportunity
• Projects where you can get measurable results
• Most importantly, your passion

While you are at it, you can also make a ‘Stop Doing’ list that includes the projects that failed and customers or markets that didn’t work out.

Step 2: The Matrix
Once you have listed it all down, the next step is to rate or rank it across several factors. To begin with, start with these five aspects: Popular Pain, Tangible Results, Believable Solution, Identifiable Targets and Unique Genius.

With these aspects, you can narrow down your list to a few best options. It can be tedious, yes, but it’s okay if it’s not perfect. When you have a few down on the list, we will move to a more detailed matrix to find blind spots - the ‘Pain-Solution-Result’ matrix.

These are the eight main elements in this model.

• Niche - The opportunity or the use case discussed (like ‘mobile advertising’, ‘financial services’ or any company name).
• Popular Pain - The main problem of the customers that need to be solved (like ‘inaccurate results’, ‘high attrition or ‘high sales expenditure’).
• Power Person - The people you are aiming to help and the decision-makers.
• Specific Pain - The specific pain point that this ‘Power Person’ deals with every day; not the company as a whole but just this person. 
• Solution - The solution that will help them solve the pain and how you can position yourself in it. 
• Results - The outcome that the customers can expect from the solution in some tangible form.
• Proof - The different ways in which you can ‘show’ the customers about your solutions. It can be free trials, case studies, testimonials or stories.

As you fill the matrix, you will find out how much the pain is different from the solution. It’s okay to get frustrated when it takes more time. It’s important to get everything right as this could actually open up a whole new way of thinking and may even present some interesting observations.

Step 3: Choose
When you have a clear and in-depth insight about your business, it’s time to pick a primary opportunity to pursue. If you have more than one, make the other as the secondary opportunity. But don’t go more than that. That’s the whole point of picking the niche.

Step 4: Validate
If you are ready to start the process now, good for you! Before you begin, interview a couple of people from your target niche and get their honest versions to update the matrix. 

If you aren’t ready to begin, it’s okay. Sometimes, you may feel that there is something missing in the top niche you picked. See if there is some validation you need like license, regulations or research. If so, put effort into it first before moving on to the next step.

Step 5: Campaign to learn now and grow later
Are you ready to target the top niche?

Well, then you must now be capable enough to run a lead generation program around it. The first time you try won’t necessarily be the best. So, decide a timeframe for learning, say like a beta-testing phase, to learn and evolve.

Keep iterating your lead-gen program based on the prospects’ responses and refocus on the targets with pain points and results. Here’s what you should be doing:

• Defining the target list.
• Deciding on how to reach out.
• Preparing for the material you need when reaching out.
• Finally sending out that campaign.

The learnings are the most important aspect at this point. When you get good sales and know how to replicate it, keep doing them. When you have worked on it for quite some time, you can take in the overall picture and make better sense. If not, then you may want to revisit the matrix again.

Are you looking for help to Nail your Niche?
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Interesting: Learn the 5 main things Twilio did to become a Hyper-Growth company: Indeed, how Twilio nailed a billion dollar niche by walking in it's customers shoes.

This blog is excerpted from: ‘From Impossible to Inevitable: how hyper-growth companies create predictable revenue’ co-authored by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin.

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