Specialize, Specialize, Specialize!

Sometimes I think the hardest advice to follow is that which you give yourself. I have a wealth of experience in sales and I also spent quite a bit of time working in advertising. Whatever sales environment I worked in I always liked to understand the field. When I was selling HR solutions I needed to understand HR, when I sold Payroll I rather sadly needed to understand payroll. When I say understand, what I mean is have a basic grasp of the workings of that particular industry. Who the players were, how the systems worked and all the other technical stuff involved. Often I didn’t really need to know but I felt better prepared to deal with what questions may come my way.

 

This desire to learn meant that when I was in advertising I used to read lots of books on that subject and also marketing so that I could offer the best advice to my customers when applicable.

 

One such piece of advice that I used to repeat ad nauseum was ‘Don’t try and be all things to all men’ In other words, target your market and stick with it. When you become a specialist you are far more likely to attract the kind of customers that you want because everybody would prefer to deal with somebody that specializes in their field rather than a jack-of-all-trades. If you need brain surgery would you rather your family doctor do it or a Neuro-surgeon? Exactly!

 

So did I take my own advice when I moved to the US? Er, no actually I didn’t.

 

Instead of telling people I was a life coach, which is what I am qualified as. I told them I was a personal and business coach. In fact that is what it said on the top of my website until earlier this week.

 

The fact is, that although I have a lot of experience in business, having been involved in start up business’s of my own as well as helping other people with theirs. I’m not really a business coach. I feel confident that I can help small businesses because I know I have done it many times, but it is not what I am best at.

 

I am best at coaching individuals and that is what I enjoy doing the most. So from now in when anybody ask me I will say I am a Life Coach, not a Business Coach or an Executive Coach but a good old fashioned honest to goodness life coach.
 

Enjoyed this post? Please share it!

Digg it | Stumble it |

 

Post a Comment

Name

Mail (will not be published)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail