In every market there’s a go-to provider – normally, that’s the biggest provider on the market. So, how do you become the go-to-provider and absolutely dominate your market? The answer is to focus.
It’s hard to gain traction in a big market
Imagine you hold 6% of your market – certainly the market is big enough for you to succeed. But if you flap around in this whole market, then you’re an invisible small player. On the other hand, if you can find a market small enough, then you can dominate it.
Here’s the switch: you hold the same 6% you did before, but you’re now getting that 6% from a slice of the market that is only 10% of the total market. In other words, to that 10% slice or segment, you are the 60% provider. You are the biggest game in town for them. You might be nobody for the other 90%, but for that 10%, you’re the gorilla.
Compare the pair
Here are two examples of the same company flapping around and then owning their market:
So the first company has a market of 5,000, and they’re currently serving only 200 companies. They own about 4% of the market.
The second example is that same company 12 to 24 months later. They now serve 300 companies, so they’ve grown by 50%—good on them! But along with that growth, they’ve narrowed their current market focus to only 1,000 companies. Those 300 served companies from the smaller market of one thousand means that they are 30% of that market.
Narrow your focus to a small market
I can’t say how much market share you need to have in your market to be dominant. In some markets you can have as little as 10% to clearly be the biggest in town. In other markets there could be only two providers, so you’d need to have 60% to be dominant.
Work out what dominance looks like in your market and find a market small enough to own.
Dominate your market
But you need to choose your focus really carefully. And it needs to be a combined agreement from Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Operations so that focus happens across your entire organisation. That’s the job of Funnel Plan. If you have a Funnel Plan already, you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, go to Funnelplan.com and get one there.
I hope you got lots of value out of today’s Funnel Vision Blog. We’ll have a new blog next week, same time, and same place. Until then, may your funnel be full and always flowing.
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Our thanks, this week to:
- Jane Tyquin for blog production
- John Ang for video production
- Hugh Macfarlane for scripting and presenting this week’s show
