Who do you work for? "What do you do?"
Before we dive into marketing and sales strategies, we need to lay some ground work. To lay all your gear and material out before starting to paint, so to say. To bring down the possibilities down from "everything" to a more manageable number.
You probably work for numerous different types of clients. You probably also do different things for them.
So, when someone asks you "What do you do?", you say: "It depends." It depends on who you work for. And what depends even more, is how you communicate with these different types of clients.
Why
Let's get a clear overview by brain dumping who exactly your clients and potential clients are. And what it is you do and offer.
Doing this will allow us later to pick the best combinations of product & market. What can you do that creates the biggest impact or value?
And thus, allowing you to let go of some of those combinations that you might be able to do, but that simply create less value.
Because, when we start making choices and become more specific in your marketing set-up and sales tactics, it helps to clearly understand who it is you speaking to. And thus also, who you're deciding it isn't for.
This is scary. Especially from a place of scarcity. But, please remember, that you'll be all the more valuable to the ones you do choose for.
The exercise
Take a large piece of paper and start brainstorming all the different types of (past and potential) clients you can think of. On a separate piece of paper, think of all the things you have to offer.
Let's split hairs. So, don't just write down the superficial titles of these types of clients (like NGOs, big corporates, families, etc). But, split them up as granular as possible. What different types of small business have you or could you work for?
- How big are they?
- What phase of their existence?
- What challenges do they face?
- What context do they operate in?
- Where are they located?
And for you product, don't just name the different product categories (design, video, workshops, etc). But also split these up into sub-flavours, as tiny as possible.
- What do you deliver?
- How do you package it?
- What is it for?
- What does it help the client do? What effect does it have?
- What impact does it have on the larger stakeholder field?
You could easily go on until you've god hundreds of these. But make sure you've got at least 20 different ones (of products and of markets).
Pick your Favorites
Listed all the different types of clients and product offerings? Yes? Great!
Now, who are your favourite clients? If you could dream, who would love to work for most?
And, what things do you like to create most? What would you like to become world-class at?
In picking these, you can hedge you bets and pick a broad array. You can also try to pick in a way that they supplement each other in a smart way.
Share your top 5 of each.
