How Many Services Should I Offer?

Smiling business employee with apron.When starting a business, so many people want to be all things to all people. That couldn’t be more dangerous idea. When you offer about 59 different services, people are incredibly unclear on what you do. They can’t figure it out, they have no idea what you do, and ultimately, they will not buy from you. Because they can’t figure out how.

The fear  people have in choosing to specialize, is that they’re afraid that people will not view what they do as fitting what they need, and they will get less business. This is the opposite of the truth. The more you specialize, the easier it is for people to understand what you do, therefore, it is more likely that people will buy from you, and by what you are actually good at. This helps you to have greater success stories,  more clients, and a better reputation in a chosen area of expertise.

I have counseled dozens of business owners over the years, and have urged every single one of them to specialize as much as possible. The more you specialize, the better it is. Can you think of any examples of companies that do too many things, and it is abundantly unclear on what they do? Of course you can. We all can. But if you take a look at the most successful companies in the world, it is crystal clear what they do, who they serve, and why you need to be your customer, assuming you are their target market.  If that example doesn’t grab you, try this on for size: when you need heart surgery, would you rather see a specialist where that’s all they do, or a general surgeon?  Point made.

Today’s take-away:  don’t make the mistake of trying to be all things to all people, or you will be nothing to no one.   (yeah yeah, it’s a double negative, but dammit, it sounds better)

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About the author : Vision Advertising

Vision Advertising is a full-service marketing agency enhancing the online brand presence of business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies across the US. We focus on providing custom marketing services to address unique client needs, customer profiles, and budgetary concerns, created in-house by our team of skilled marketing specialists. This author profile is used for deattributed posts or when content is posted to this blog without comment.