Who Is Your Patient / Client / Customer? (part 2)

One of the most important attributes of a successful health or beauty entrepreneur is the ability to focus on attracting a particular type of client and avoid attracting the wrong type of clients.

At first this may sound counter intuitive: shouldn't I just get as many clients as possible?

The answer is a resounding NO.

Instead you must choose your beachhead market - that is, the market you will choose to serve above all others. Once the beachhead is chosen, the key is to dominate that market. You're better off being known as the physio who everyone sees to fix their tennis elbow than the sports physio who treats every kind of injury under the sun. Even better if your interest and passion lies in the field of tennis elbow.

Avoid what everyone else in the industry is doing or the flavour of the month. Whilst the number of potential customers might be higher, the competition will be higher too which will make it difficult to stand out from the crowd.

This is especially important for those starting out. The first market you attack will be a significant learning experience for you, so you are better off learning in a smaller market where you can quickly get high exposure among the base of potential customers.

You want to start in a market where you have great ability to dominate in a relatively short time period; a narrow, focused market is the best way to do so.

Choose a single market to pursue; then, keep segmenting until you have a well-defined and homogeneous market opportunity that meets the three conditions of a market:

1. The customers within the market all buy similar products.
2. The customers within the market have a similar sales cycle and expect products to provide value in similar ways.
3. There is "word of mouth" between customers in the market, meaning they can serve as compelling and high-value references for each other in making purchases.

If you do this you should start to see your client numbers start to sky-rocket.

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