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Kevin C. Whelan

Marketing Strategy Advisor and Mentor

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June 16, 2021

Should you take on clients outside of your niche?

Very occasionally, a prospect will come along who doesn’t fit into one of my two niches (coworking spaces or marketing consultants).

Despite being booked solid the past year and a half, I will occasionally take on work outside of my areas of specialization鈥攅specially if I think I can help.

But I do have some standards about who I’ll let in.

The big ones are:

  1. Am I interested in this project?
  2. Do I connect with the person I’m speaking to?
  3. Do they have a reasonable budget?
  4. Do they have a niche/are they differentiated enough?

This fourth one is a big one.

If they’re in a niche or have a distinct differentiator, I’ll consider the project.

If not, I’ll check to see if they’re open to finding a tighter position to help them stand out to the right people.

One of the hardest things to do as a marketing consultant is helping those who are not sufficiently focused or differentiated.

Marketing to a sea of generalities is a recipe for disaster鈥攁nd I don’t want to be on that ship when it hits the shore.

If the prospect’s business is interesting, I connect with them personally to a degree, it pays well, and they currently are or are willing to make hard choices to become a “Category of One”, then I’ll consider them.

Otherwise, there’s no good reason to do so鈥攅specially when I’m busy.

And thankfully, I’m always pretty busy. 馃檪

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PREVIOUS ARTICLEGood design and marketing
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