My wife and I are big Olympics and Winter Olympics fans. We love all the drama, the storylines, the underdogs winning unexpectedly, the favorites crashing and burning, and keeping up with the medal count and cheering on the good ol’ red, white, and blue.
But every time I watch the Olympics–Summer or Winter–it reminds me of that old intro they used to do for the show The Wide World of Sports (this was on non-stop when I was a kid), where they showed all these people winning and holding up their gold medals…
And then they showed a bunch of people falling or crashing (the one of the ski jumper sliding off the side of the ramp and falling what looked like several stories always got me).
And the voiceover on top of all of that footage ended with the line, “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”
We certainly saw our share of both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in this past winter’s Winter Olympics.
And when it comes to the agony, Ilia Malinin has to top the list.
The young American figure skater–aka “the Quad God” for the fact that he often does seven quad jumps when many others only attempt one or two–was billed as the next great skater to take the Olympics by storm. People basically had him pencilled in for the gold before the event even started.
And then they got to the finals and he fell. Not once, but twice.
And instead of being #1 in the world, he finished eighth.
I can only imagine putting years of your life into practicing for a single event, rising through the ranks, winning world championships…only to blow it at the very end of the Olympic journey.
And–weird as it might sound–this reminds me of a lot of educational consultants.
Let me explain…
Expertise Doesn’t Automatically Add Up to Good Market / Offer Fit
Before a consultant even becomes a consultant, they’ve usually put 10-15 years in as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and/or curriculum director.
They’ve honed their craft. They’ve developed expertise. They’ve become so good at some aspect of teaching that others begin asking them to share how they do it.
And at that point, they decide, “You know what? Instead of just sharing in my building or across my own district, I can make a bigger impact by starting my own consulting business.”
And so they do.
And it’s at that point–when they’re formulating what they’re going to do in their consulting work and putting up a website to let the world know about it–that they screw it all up by making the wrong offer.
You see, just because you want to speak on a particular topic doesn’t mean that there’s a hungry market of people out there who want that offer.
Just because the people in your own district loved you and ate up everything you shared with them doesn’t mean that there’s a broader market out there wanting to learn from you.
And even if there IS a hungry market for your topic, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t 1,000 other educational consultants out there already providing the same thing you want to provide.
Which means that it’s crucial that you do your homework and do things correctly here at the beginning (or, if you’ve already been consulting for a while but not achieving the success you want, that you go back and do these things now).
That’s exactly why I shared those three key elements of positioning in my post last week:
- Your Persuasive Persona–You need to identify a specific stance toward your market that’s attractive to the people you want to work with–preferably a stance that’s unique in your field.
- Your Ideal Client Avatar–You need to identify in great detail the exact people you want to serve. You need to know their problems, their dreams, and the transformation they want to make (with your help).
- Competitor Analysis–And you need to know what other consultants in your field are already offering to your Ideal Clients.
And if you’ve put in the work to nail down these three elements, you have everything you need to create a compelling Core Offer that people will want, an offer that fills a need in the marketplace.
Achieving Market / Offer Fit
Here’s how you take all that information and combine it for the perfect market / offer fit…
Look at the intersection of these three elements. If it helps, think of it like a three-circle Venn diagram:
Your Core Offer to your audience should:
- Speak to your Ideal Client avatar, helping them to solve a problem that they desperately want to solve.
- Allow you to portray yourself (your Persuasive Persona) in such a way that your Ideal Clients will be attracted to you.
- Be something unique–either in its content, its quality, and/or the process of its delivery–compared to the offers of all the other consultants who are operating in your niche.
It’s only by nailing down these three elements that you can identify the opportunity that sits at their intersection.
But it can be tricky…
- If you offer something that your Ideal Clients don’t want or need, you won’t have any buyers.
- If you come across as the same as all the other consultants in your field, the right people won’t be attracted to your offer.
- If you offer something that your Ideal Client Avatar wants, but that’s the same as what every other consultant in your field is offering, you’ll never break through against the competition.
So, you need to get this right.
If you haven’t sufficiently differentiated yourself from the other consultants operating in the same space, you’ll get lost in the crowd.
But if you take the time, put in the effort, do your homework, and really think this through, you’ll end up with a Core Offer that’s attractive to the right people, that’s one of a kind in your field, and that delivers a transformation your audience wants.
Do that, and you’ll quickly rise to the top of your field.
In my next post, I’ll loop back to a topic I talked about in some recent posts–Mission, Promise, and Primary Role–and situate them into this discussion of nailing down a winning position in your consulting niche.
Till then…
To Your Success,
Willy
P.S.–Does all this talk about markets and niches and positioning make your head spin?
I don’t blame you. It can be a lot.
That’s why I offer two different ways to help you with all of this:
- If you just want help specifically with positioning (or repositioning) your consulting business, I offer my Magnetic Marketing Makeover service. In this “done with you” service, we co-create the new messaging you need to differentiate yourself from your competitors. It’s only $997, and I can’t think of a better way to invest in your business, as your positioning is absolutely foundational to your success.
- Of, if you want a more comprehensive solution to your business’s challenges, we can roll all of this positioning work into our comprehensive 1-on-1 Business Coaching service, where we work on the biggest needs in growing your business over a six-month period.
If either of those options sound like what you need, just click the link to set up a call…
