(Influential Leadership) Be A Big Fish in a Small Pond

Niche marketing is all about making your product a big fish in a small pond, so that everyone fishing there wants to catch it. Why not apply that to your own career objectives?

 

Many people seem to fear niche-ing. They are afraid that if they don’t present themselves as qualified for a wide range of targets, they will miss out on some unspecified great opportunity. This fear prevents them from giving a more specific message that will get them a lot more attention and better opportunities – that could make them a big fish in a small pond!

 

You want to apply this to your personal leadership objectives, enlisting support for where you want to go next in your career.

 

For example, telling your most influential contacts that you want a “leadership role” is so broad a target that it becomes meaningless. Similarly if you already have a C-Level job, but desire to be a CEO, unless you can communicate exactly what sort of firm, or the key problems you could solve in that role, you aren’t going to impress anyone.

 

When you niche yourself, you fine tune people’s attention. Your message becomes more interesting, stands out from the ‘noise’ of all the more general messages they’ve heard, and they become more likely to remember you and to think of you when an opportunity arises.

 

For example, which statement would you find more memorable?

 

“I have a track record of successfully managing diverse information technology projects.”

or

“I deliver multi-million dollar IT infrastructure projects on time and within budget.”

 

The first positions you in the giant lake with all of the other IT project managers. The second moves you downstream to where fishermen are trying to hook the fish who can successfully deliver multi-million dollar IT infrastructure projects.

 

Many would object, saying:

 

“But I can do other types of IT projects as well, and I’ll miss out on those!”

 

Perhaps you will more than make up for it by being considered for many more IT infrastructure projects – of the sort in which you are most interested. And you may actually get a discussion going about many other IT projects as well, just because your contacts are more engaged by your message, and more likely to initiate a conversation that can lead to uncovering those other possibilities.

 

Another excuse often given for not niche-ing:

 

“There are so many places I could take my skills; I don’t want to limit myself.”

 

That sounds reasonable on the surface, but few of us care about someone who COULD do anything. I want the BEST POSSIBLE PERSON to solve my very specific problems. I want the big fish!

 

I don’t have generic issues. I have very specific issues that are very real and personal to me. I want to talk to someone with the expertise to help me with those, not the general expertise that might suggest that perhaps they could also help me with my issues.

 

How can you morph into the big fish in the small pond?

 

1. Chose a pond in which you want to be the big fish.

 

2. Explore the issues in that pond. Do a deep dive, reading everything you can about them, talking with networking contacts, reading what they read and learning to how they think.

 

3. Come up with a series of Marketing Headlines that address the key issues in that pond, obviously ones on which you can deliver.

 

4. Attend conferences, networking events, courses, etc. where who people swim in that pond would be found.

 

5. Get close to everyone you can in and around that pond. Arrange one-on-one meetings and engage them in deep conversations to uncover what most concerns them, and to make sure they clearly understand the package you bring to the table.

 

6. Work to be on everyone’s radar, so that you become the big fish they seek!