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Many
companies today market and sell their products and services on a
"catch-as-catch-can" basis. Their prospects include a few people that showed an
interest at a trade show, a person met on a trip, some people who you met at a
seminar. etc. This is opportunistic selling - and usually does not pay off.
Focus on the other hand, is a concentrated effort on a particular industry,
market or audience.
The analogy of the cake and the icing comes to
mind; it is important to know what is the icing and what is the cake. The cake
is the solid part of your sales and customer base, the icing is the part from
here and there that happens by now and then.
Many companies are
frightened of focusing their efforts since they interpret that to mean they
must give up other types of possible sales for something that might or might
not pay off. Not true! In almost every case where a company has focused on a
particular audience, market, industry or target group, the strength that can be
brought forth to support those efforts is tremendous.
For example,
there are many companies today that we all know for their focused roles, e.g.,
USAA, an insurance company focused on military personnel; Rubbermaid, focused
on kitchen and houseware products from rubber and plastic; Levi Strauss,
focused on denim products, who opened another brand name, Dockers, to feature
khaki clothing.
If your focus is the cake, that is, your main
business, the icing can be any other business outside of that realm. It doesn't
mean that the focus is all that you can market, it just means that your major
efforts should go in the direction of supporting it.
Another benefit
from focus is that you become known for that particular product or service.
There is no question that the companies listed in the Yellow Pages under a
specific category could all be listed under many more than one category.
However, they have chosen to be known for the category under which they are
listed. That is their specialty, that is where their strength lies, that is
where their experience is, and it is from there that they can produce
testimonials.
Focus is not the easiest thing to achieve. If a client
or potential client asks you to name your greatest competency, the first thing
that runs through your head is "I don't want to leave anything out. How many
things can I mention? Will a laundry list of capabilities get noticed? Or is it
better to mention one thing that will be remembered."
Our whole life
is a series of focused concerns. We have to focus when we enter college and
attempt to choose a career. We have to focus within that career to zero-in on a
particular aspect. We even focus on that aspect to carve out an area on which
we can build a reputation, e.g., from medical field - to doctor - to
pediatrician - to pediatric heart specialist; in business from marketing,
within marketing specializing in technology, within technology, specializing in
aerospace.
These examples illustrate the many ways we focus our whole
lives, but sometimes when we need to focus the most, we aren't able to do it.
Remember, water dripping on a rock can make a hole in the rock, a magnifying
glass focusing the sun's rays can start a fire. Focus is a very powerful tool
if used properly. It is the one thing that can set you and your business a
notch above the competition. |
Fax: (617) 557-4593