No one wants to waste time especially when it comes to your business. If you don't want to be a time waster you need to learn how to find your niche. Wal-Mart, Amazon, and Target do not serve the same customer type. They each have their unique niche. As small business owners, we need to follow their example and serve a specific customer niche.
In our previous blog, we learned how to find the next trend or wave in your industry. But now we will learn how to separate your business from the crowd by finding a niche. Your company cannot be all things to all customers.
First
If you want to grow your quilt shop, you need a niche where you are catering to your top customers and their clones and the best way to find your best customers is to look at your current customers. Now rank your customers by who has spent the most money with you over the last 12 months. We want to list them by name. To help with that many POS systems have a report called “Top Customers" so you can pull that up. We rank them by spend because customers speak the truth with their wallets, not their words.
TIP
As a side note, if you are not collecting your customer’s basic information (name, email, phone number, address) and tying each transaction to a customer, I highly recommend that you start doing this right now, today. Gathering this information is the gold mine you have been looking for because of the insights you will gain from this data.
Second
Now that you have a list sorted by who pays you the most at the top of the page and those who pay you the least at the bottom put a checkmark or smiley face next to the top 50 percent of customers. Then, cross out the lowest 10 percent of your customers. These are your worst customers and should be cut. Then, circle or highlight the top 10 percent of your customers. These are your best customers, and these are the ones who will tell you everything you need to know about your niche.
Third
Once you separate your best customers, you know who to sell to and who not to sell to, which makes it easier for you to determine how to sell. Now ask yourself, “What do your best-est customers have in common, and what do they need most?”
If you can answer yes to the following three questions, then your quilt shop has a niche:
Is there a specific type of group/club your top customers are a part of?
Would you or your message make you an obvious speaker, presenter, or teacher?
If you found one hundred of the top influencers in your industry would they know each other? Would they want to know you and your business?
Again, if you answered yes to those three questions, then you have found a niche. If not, then keep digging until you can answer yes to those three questions.
Fourth
Now that you have identified your niche, the next step is to join those clubs/groups and participate. And by this I mean you should never miss a group gathering. This is, after all, where your top customers and their clones congregate. Why wouldn’t you be there? As you participate and serve your community, write a list of topics, angles, and arguments for how your quilt shop can help your niche community. You need to identify their problems, wants, needs, where they live, and who they follow to get inspiration for their projects. The goal is for you to be able to create a customer avatar that is a combination of your top customers.
Fifth and Last
Legally stalk the top influencers of your niche, follow them on their social media, and network with them. The social network that will be revealed as you do this is your gateway to being an industry authority and expert and attracting more customers.
Review
To recap, you need to find a niche and cater to that niche to grow your quilt shop. Start by reviewing your top customers and identify their congregation points, participate in those groups, and create a top customer avatar. Follow and network with the top influencers in the niche and community. As you follow these steps, you will find your niche that help you piece together Financial Freedom.
We are here to guide you, so please click on the link below to download my tool for finding your niche, and click the link to register for my next workshop, “How to avoid losing customers.”
On February 21st, I will be hosting a free workshop titled “How to avoid losing customers,” where we will discuss finding your niche and growing your quilt shop. I’d love to see you there, so please click the pic below to register today.
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