Don't niche down. Position yourself.

I’ve always heard it said, “Niche down!”

But that never felt right to me.

I mean, sure, niching down means you can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, and maybe that leads to a better customer fit and more sales. But what you actually want is the better fit with customers, regardless of whether or not that’s in a smaller pond.

So, instead of niching down, position yourself.

What you are trying to capture is a place in the mind of the customer (positioning), not a small pond to swim in (niching down).

(Of course, in the process of positioning yourself, you might niche down. But if that happens, that’s a side effect! It’s not the aim.)

What is positioning?

The first thing to understand is that your position isn’t yours. It exists in the mind of the customer. The second thing to understand is that in your customer’s mind, there is only ever one number one.

When I say “Kleenex”, you think tissue. It’s become almost synonymous because they own the position.

I imagine it’s the same in whatever space your product or service is trying to fit in: there are already players there, and unless it’s a new market, there’s already a leader.

So, if you want prospective customers to even think of you, you have to ask yourself: what makes you unique and better than what’s already out there?

• Is your product faster than the competition’s?
• Is it easier to use?
• Is it higher quality?
• Do you have a different way of solving a problem?
• Something else?

Positioning is about finding how you are the best at something in a given market, and telling prospective customers that.

Then, your customers will understand at a glance what your product or service does, and how it can help them.

The beautiful thing is that once you find your position, you can also re-position the competition! If your product is fast, theirs becomes the slow one. If yours is easy to use, theirs is the complex one.