NICHE MARKETING
(March/April 2003 Issue)

An essential element of a career counseling private practice is expanding your "circle of influence." What's a circle of influence? Think of your contact network as a dart board with concentric rings. You're the Bulls Eye!, and in a circle right around you are

1) your primary contacts: people who have used your services directly, or know your work from direct experience and people who interact with you with some regularity. In the next circle are

2) your acquaintances: people who know of you; people who have heard you speak or have read your writings. The outer circle is made up of

3) friendly-strangers: people who know of you, but you don't know them. Your connection with them is circumstantial.

That's your circle of influence. Your consulting, training, speaking, ideas, etc. influence that "circle" of people. You don't control these people, but you do influence them.

Increasing your circle of influence is part of a successful private practice. Note how this aspect of a private practice is somewhat different than a business.

In a business of career counseling, typically you advertise in the media, strangers call you, your salespeople talk to them and convert some to customers. By contrast, in private practice you advertise by word-of-mouth, warm referrals call you, you yourself talk to them and convert some to customers (clients), and put the rest on your mailing list.

So, while your business needs to have a good reputation, and needs to have good references and write-ups at the BBB, still it doesn't recruit customers mainly from its circle of influence. It gets them by marketing, advertising and sales. So, it doesn't need a wide circle of influence for referrals, just strategic advertising and marketing.

One way to widen your circle of influence is to become known as "The Person Who Fixes Careers if You're a _____ [Fill in the blank: nurse, student, lawyer, parishioner, etc.]" amongst a defined group of people (nurses, students, , parishioners, etc.). That's positioning. So, if it's commonly known among teachers in your area that you're a career-fixer for teachers, you've positioned yourself in that niche.

My definition of positioning is: Communications designed to make yourself known in a clearly defined group of people as THE person wazzu to talk to regarding career issues. The group in which you'll be well known as a career-fixer is called a "niche." Birds of a feather flock together, as the saying goes. Your name should come up whenever "career" comes up in that flock [niche]. The 80/20 rule will operate here. Once you are known to 20% of a group as the resource for career problems, the other 80% will fall in line. So, pick a group that you want to deal with, and with whom you have credibility. Here are some examples:

A lawyer-turned-career-consultant specializes in working with lawyers. She writes for the law bulletin, she speaks at law meetings, she is active in the bar association. Does that mean she gets only lawyer? No. She gets all kinds of people clients, but a good number of lawyers come to her instead of a "generic" career counselor because she's known in that niche as the career resource. When lawyers meet non-lawyers in need of career help--she gets those referrals, too.

Another career consultant chose Toastmasters, Ministers, and Leads Clubs as his niches. In choosing Toastmasters, he was building on a good reputation he had already established. He had earned his DTM [Distinguished Toastmaster] credentials which gave him a certain stature and credibility in that community. That credibility transferred to his ability as a career counselor. Ministers and Lead Clubs were also people he knew and so he systematically made his presence known in those communities.

When you pick your niches, follow these guidelines: 1) they need to total about 1000 or more people; 2) they are best if you already have established credibility and respect in that group or profession (not necessarily as a career counselor); 3) the niches must be easy to locate: mailing lists, meetings, etc. For instance the niche of single parents is more difficult to reach than therapists because therapists "flock together" more; single parents have little structured ongoing communication with each other.

Once you have the group selected, use self-promotion techniques to make yourself known. Free or low-cost workshops, "guinea pig freebies" if you're just starting out, articles in the niche's newsletter, or any other way you can establish your visibility and credibility in an area. Get testimonial letters from members of the target niche; do freebies if needed to get these. Finally, maintain continual communications with the members of this niche--and you can use a favorite technique of mine for this: OBECs.

If you'd like a full treatise on OBECs and how to do them, email me a request, mention "OBECs" specifically, and I'll send you the instructions. Bottom line... they're OutBound Educational Calls. You take the initiative to contact people in the niche and at the end of the phone call they feel honored (not lawyers bothered) that you called, plus they remember you and know that you're a career-fixer.

Niches can last for years and years. I participated in a personal growth training once called the "New Warrior" training. Afterwards I offered to do a free evening-long training called the "gutsy careers workshop" to the follow-up groups. I've done about 40 of those (that's about 4 a year). Ten years later, if you complain to a "warrior" about your career, it's very likely the person you're complaining to will say, "Have you talked with Jack Chapman?"

I encourage you to look around your circle of influence. Find a place where you have credibility as a member of that niche, and expand your influence in that group to where 20% or more know that you're the career problem solver in the group.

Wishing you satisfaction and success in your career.

Jack Chapman is author of:
Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute
He is a career consultant in private practice and runs ongoing support and training teleconference sessions for career consultants in private practice.
He can be reached at 847-251-4727 or jkchapman@aol.com.