When Being a Narrow-minded Fundamentalist Works

Jesus. Evolution. Abortion. Hot, volatile topics. Topics likely to upset even the mildest of situations.

But I’m not talking about creating a riot or a mob. Just want to get you thinking about 3 things:

1. What you love
2. What you do best
3. What makes you money

Master these fundamentals–and never waver from them–and you survive the current housing chokehold.

Narrow-mindedness and Marketing

According to Paul Eastwood, founder of Single Property Sites, Inc., “There is a relationship between a tightly-focused niche and increased sales.”

That’s not surprising.

Competing in a crowded, sluggish market makes it difficult to earn a living, let alone generate good leads. That means not only are there fewer people per agent to go around, but commissions and profits drop, too.

So what do you do?

Conventional business wisdom states that you make yourself unique. You stand out, go against the grain. You narrow your focus to a smaller, denser segment of the market, which might sound bizarre.

One way to narrow your focus is to create marketing personas. Another way is to follow the Parkinson’s law by rapidly disqualifying buyer leads.

But why would anyone in their right mind decide to “narrow” their market and work with fewer people? Good question.

The Paradox of the Narrow Market

The more successful you become with your small segment, the more exposure you gain, the more business you earn and the more money you make.

In essence, you’ve made this small segment so happy that they gush about you like a five-year-old after drinking a can of Coke.

This tight-knit group is your cult.

How to Narrow Your Market

One of the ways you could “narrow” your focus is with technology. Let me explain.

Let’s be simple for a moment and split the world in two: on one side we have those who hate technology. On the other side we have those who love technology. Do you see how I’ve just “narrowed” your playing field?

You can continue to do that.

Let’s split the technology camp into two: those who like to use technology and those who like other people to use technology.

Let’s split those who like other people who use technology: now we have those selling homes in the city versus the country.

Now those selling in the country might love technology. They might have a fit of joy–after a brief introduction, of course–if you walked into their house and said “I’m going to sell your house for more money in less time because of the powerful electronic marketing tools I use.”

That’s because you stand apart and satisfy their soft spot.

You can do the same if you narrow your market to working with the exact opposite group: people who were “relationship-oriented selling in the city and hate technology.”

Do you see what I mean?

And the cool thing is, once you narrow your focus down three or four levels, you can write it out and use it a lot like a mission statement.

As Seth Godin points out in his post needle in a haystack marketing, this works in the world of online search, too.

Do this and you’ll find yourself energetic, excited and potentially more successful–both in money and life.