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Create your niche in the customer’s comfort zone

November 2, 2005 By Joe Rawlinson

Sage advice counsels us to focus our business on a niche market. The more focused your product or service, the better you can find, serve and sell to prospects.

Not only should you focus on a niche, but you need to build that niche where your customers are most comfortable. Take a look at the doubts, fears, and concerns your potential customers face everyday. What do they like? What annoys them? What do they hate doing? Reduce those problem points and you’ve found opportunity.

Armed with some knowledge about your customer’s emotional reaction to situations, you can tailor your business to overcome their challenges and help make their lives easier. In short, you need to set up shop in the customer’s comfort zone. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Price Negotiations

One of the most loathsome parts of buying a new car is haggling with the salesman to get the best price. No matter how much research you do or how much the dealer concedes to you, you always feel like you still got ripped off.

When we bought our last car, we were turned off by one arrogant dealership and headed to CarMax. CarMax, like Saturn, doesn’t haggle on price. The price you see on the car is what you pay.

We had done our research on the web and knew the price we saw on our Mazda Tribute was a good one. We headed to CarMax and a few hours later drove away in our new set of wheels.

CarMax and Saturn have created their niche in the customer’s comfort zone. They realized that lots of people don’t want to haggle with car dealerships and eliminated that obstacle. The result: relaxed customers that are more willing to buy.

Customer Based Time and Location

We have a Blockbuster video down the street from us. However, several months ago we signed up for online DVD renter Netflix and have been very happy.

Netflix sends DVDs via the mail to your home. They don’t have late fees and have a larger selection of movies than your local video store. Netflix knew that a pain point for most people is having to drive to the video store to pick up and drop off movies. They knew people forget to return a movie promptly.

Netflix has done quite well for its shareholders by looking at the doubts, fears, and concerns of their customers and alleviating those headaches. Their business model has been envied by competitors and is now being mimicked at every turn.

Find the Comfort Zone

Your business will be successful if you can effectively climb into your customer’s comfort zone. Take an honest look at and pinpoint those parts of your customer’s traditional interaction with you that need improvement. Think about your consumer experiences and see what annoys you. Turn that annoyance around and you could drive your business to great heights.

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