How can you identify your consulting niche?

Given the incredible pace of change today, the real question consultants need to frequently ask themselves is: “how do I stay relevant and impactful?” Practically this means learning to continually evolve as a professional, staying on top of the latest developments and defining what opportunities this creates for them as consultants and for their clients. Whereas early in my career there was an emphasis on defining and capitalizing on my own brand and niche, consultants today need to be prepared to continuously learn and transform their own capabilities to best deliver value to their clients.

Forget all the next points. Are you excited when you wake up about helping the relevant team or person with the problem they have? Forget the money, positioning etc. if it excites you and your client everything else will follow!

I have found it helpful to think about the intersect between what I am good at (really good at), what do I love both doing and learning, and what problems are people trying to solve. Where these intersect is your niche. I believe that it is easy to get swayed by one or two of these dimensions, but you can only be truly successful if you find the sweet spot between the three. If not, you may have great demand but with no personal joy. Or, worse, investment into something only you are passionate about.

I believe every person is unique and we need to understand what our gift is. Once we know that, we should master our gift before we start sharing it with others.   My gift is the power to act! I decide and take massive actions fast. I realized that my gift is to help people take action!   I learned from my actions, my failures, and successes.   With my two decades of experience in taking massive action, I am in a position to help people get out of their comfort zone and make a decision.

Think more like a partner than a consultant, build high trust relationships, understand the people and the business and help the business solve their biggest problems, be the third eye that adds value through unique perspective and insight. Be seen as the person that Helps people succeed and put humans at the centre of change to empower and enable, through empathy and compassion. All initiatives should be done with them not to them engage, align and connect that takes the business to another level of performance. Coach and elevate capability, skills and practical experience through genuine investment in continuous improvement. Cheers GD

First of all is to define where I can add value to my costumers and where I want to be… imagine what do you want your clients recongnize from your products or service. Once you do so, is easier to become a real solution for them, cause you will be focus to get it done.

One of the best, and simplest, pieces of advice I received from a coach was to answer these two questions: What do I/will I, do? Who do I/will I do it for? After all of your research, the answers should be clear.

I don't see it this way. You may be in a position of being on the verge of a new market. I think a better question is how do iscake what I just learned in question 1. Resolving conventional wisdom Cognitive dissonance points is important to me. For example, conventional view is that Flow is fluffy. I love challenging that.

Stay ahead by staying informed. Understanding people's needs and looking for future professional trends can be the best way to find a new niche.

It's one thing to find the target customers, and there's plenty of other answers for this. It's another to work out how you reach those customers. For example, my target customers are large organizations, most of whom have procurement frameworks which mean they would never contract directly with my small consultancy. So I market to large consultancies, offering a skill needed in small amounts for each end customer, and they buy my services and sell them on.

1. Target Audience Analysis: Understand their pain points, needs, and preferences to tailor your consulting services effectively. 2. Competitor Analysis: Study existing consultants or firms operating in your niche. Analyze their strengths, weaknesses, and service offerings to identify opportunities for differentiation. 3. Networking and Feedback: Engage with professionals in your target industry to gather insights and feedback. 4. Pilot Projects: Consider undertaking pilot projects or offering pro bono services within your niche to test the waters and gain practical experience. 5. Refine and Iterate: Based on the feedback and insights gathered, refine your niche positioning and service offerings.

I found it invaluable to have a coach who could guide me through the mechanisms of marketing and developing my products further. She wasn’t an expert in my niche but understood its need, relevance and scope sufficiently to add value to my coaching.

You don't know what customers want - the world is changing. If you are convinced that your idea is important, and you are very good at it, then go out and tell people about it. It might not be what currently sells - but it might be what is going to sell!

After we had been going a few years we paid an external marketing consultant to talk to our clients and find out from them what they really valued. The feedback was different to what we had expected! It worked really well for us to refine our niche using this feedback - and meant we could increase our prices!

Some people love doing new things. Some people love being told what to do. Neither make good consultants. You must be able to come up with a new idea (or refine an existing idea), and then continue to get better and better, and develop a reputation over time. If you keep changing, then people don't have time to find what you are good at. If you do what you are told, they have employees for that.

Prototyping as a validation methodology, traditionally applied from the product perspective (MVP), can be seen from a new perspective and applied to the market share (MTA – minimum target audience) that we intend to capture. Are we tailoring our product/service to meet the identified needs and expectations of our ideal customer niche, or are we shaping our ideal customer niche based on the strengths of our product or service? The distinction in this “angle” of analysis is crucial for effective market validation. While minimizing the likelihood of error is significant, it should not stifle innovation. The question remains: can we achieve this balance?

Become known for something valuable to a wide audience. That allows you to market broadly at first, while you are discovering your real genius. Maintain a learning mindset; read, listen and attend workshops to continue to build your tools and confidence. Soon enough, your clients will be referring you to their trusted peers who will be eager to hire you!

Refining is an essential aspect of longevity. You should never compromise in your morals and reason for existence however, the comes a time when no more refining will work and its time to end the season.

Don't be discouraged if this doesn't feel natural and smooth at first. It won't. And definitely don't wait until you've drafted the perfect language to start sharing it with others. Start saying it out, to everyone you can. Over time your pitch will become more refined and comfortable. But it doesn't happen without practice.

Passion is key to communication. Bore your friends with your ideas, and if they are bored, then your communication needs an update. Get honest feedback - they won't be able to tell you what to improve but you'll know if it doesn't fire them up. If you really like relational databases, and communicate enthusiastically, and keep up with the latest developments, then someone is going to buy your time at a good price. If you think people are going to pay a premium for an average service delivered without enthusiasm then ask if you would pay for it.

If we define our added value, design and produce it “perfectly”, but we are not able to communicate it effectively, your efforts will be useless. Is not only what you believe about your products or service, but the perception our costumers have about it.

Your communication should be as genuine as a heartfelt conversation with a friend. It's not about bombarding them with information but engaging them with authenticity, it's about connecting with people. Be the guide that shows them how you can solve their problems, address their needs, and bring about positive change.

A natural tendency is to use criteria which will allow you to include as many prospects as is possible in a sampling of a target market. . Consider that a large population may not serve you nor would you want it to as you must have the capacity to manage the demand. While assessing potential market size and growth forecast is already covered. Do not ignore the dynamics of ethnicity, gender, age, regulatory constraints, and disposable income, employment rates (cash to buy your offering), and level of education. These may seem to be off the table or embedded in the high level analytics already covered but it hurts nothing to specifically call out these and bring them forward to evaluate your true opportunity.

I am curious about the use of the term ‘niche’. A niche for me is a place or recess with clearly defined terms edges. Where you see yourself fitting neatly. I love the frame of passion, values and skills alignment to the service of others, but try not to put walls around definition. For me there is a ‘sweet spot’ when I talk to potential clients. It develops from finding a meeting of purpose, values and contribution. I have found great clients from places that would be well outside what I might consider my niche. It is in these unexpected connections that I develop my most fertile learning experiences.

It's a confluence or intersection of 1) what you are great at (where will you add the maximum value, what are your differentiators), 2) what you are really passionate about (you are digging a hole for yourself, it better be a happy place), and 3) where the opportunities lie (someone should be willing to pay for it). While looking at these three, consider various vectors - sector/industry, business processes, human processes, OD, organization design and effectiveness, leadership development, coaching. Talking to significant others around you helps, they can tell you more about yourself and where/how you can impact others than you would think.

Focus on your strengths and this will determine your niche. Turn your challenges into opportunities to strengthen your skill set. Adapt to change a d division your areas of expertise. Build on this by associating yourself with those who compliment your skill set.