How to specialize your advisory in a sector

Many advisory firms offer general advisory services to very diverse businesses, but in many cases it can be more lucrative to specialize. In this guide you’ll find information on how and why to specialize in a specific market niche.

Every business is a world

The work of advisory firms is considered a general profession because, after all, all businesses need to file their taxes and keep their accounting. You can treat all your clients equally, but if you choose this option you’ll be missing a great opportunity.

Each market niche has its characteristics, its clients, its ideas and its ways of operating. Each sector uses different terminology and has its own mechanisms.

In most cases, businesses choose a generic advisory because they have no alternative, but if you offer them an advisory specialized in their sector, which also speaks their language and understands them, you’ll gain their trust in a much simpler way.

In this guide we’ll talk about how you can specialize in a specific market niche and how to get the most out of it.

Advantages of specializing in a market niche

It may seem crazy to delimit your market and make it smaller, but the truth is there are good reasons to specialize:

Makes it easier for them to find you

Business owners search the Internet for a good advisory for their business. You can be in the top results for a specific market.

Differentiate yourself from the competition

There will be hundreds of advisory firms in your area, but if you specialize in, for example, advisory for stores, there will be much less competition.

Become an expert

Your advisory will stop being a general advisory like all the others. It will become an advisory with specific knowledge of a particular sector. This is very good for getting new clients.

Help you learn and grow

Every time you get a new client from your niche, you’ll gain more specific knowledge about the details of their market. This will help you improve your services and grow your business.

Easier to monitor

It’s much easier to stay up to date with the news of a specific sector than to stay up to date with all the news and changes of all economic sectors.

How to find a niche?

If you’ve been in business for a few years, you may already be specialized and haven’t realized it yet.

These 4 questions can help you detect your niche:

Who are your clients usually?

If you have two clients from a specific sector, this can be a starting point to specialize. For example:

• Healthcare sector clients: doctors, physiotherapists, dentists,…
• Franchises.
• Restaurants or hotels.
• Technology companies.
• Construction businesses.
• Food sector businesses.
• Livestock farms.
• New technologies.
• …

What is your experience?

Now you have an advisory but maybe in the past you worked in the agri-food industry sector, your parents had a farm or one of them is a lawyer. Any experience in a specific sector can be a good starting point.

What are you good at?

Or even what you like. Maybe you’re good at doing payrolls or moving businesses from traditional programs to online invoicing and accounting programs. Whatever your strong point is, exploit it. Start here.

Above all, you must get a market niche that can be profitable. Search until you find a sector that meets the requirements.

Many advisory firms offer general advisory services to very diverse businesses. But in many cases it can be more lucrative to specialize.

5 ways to develop your specialization

When you’ve already located your market niche, ask yourself how you could develop it. At this point marketing and branding will be very important.

1.Create a new specialized website

Creating a new website has a very reasonable cost nowadays. It’s a very good idea to modify your website to show that you’re specialized. This will impress your potential clients and help you reach them because your website content will be more related to their Internet searches.

2.Make your brand known

Promote your advisory on social networks to reach clients from the sector you’ve specialized in who are not in your immediate area of influence. For example, maybe there are few dentists in your area but if you use an online invoicing and accounting program and social networks, you can get clients from this sector throughout the country.

3.Create memorable content

If you want clients from a specific sector to find you, create specialized content in this sector and post it on your website (blog articles, ebooks, PDFs, guides like this one,…). Try to offer information that can be useful for your potential clients. This will make it easier for them to find you and even better, trust your company.

4.Stay on the crest of the wave

When you’ve already achieved a reputation in a specific sector, you must fight to stay on the crest of the wave. Follow market trends and news, as well as legislative developments. This will allow you to maintain your status but also detect new emerging sectors when they appear.

5.Don’t stick to just one sector

Specializing in a market niche is fantastic, but why stop here? You can expand your business into other businesses. Talk to your team and discover their specific knowledge of certain sectors. Let them help you expand your business into new markets.

Benefits for everyone

Specializing can give you a lot of specific knowledge about a particular sector and your clients’ needs. So when you specialize, you don’t just win, your clients win too.

As you learn more about your clients’ sector, the better you’ll be able to serve them. This will help keep them happy with your service and loyal. It will also help them recommend you to other companies in the sector.

So building a specialized advisory becomes a virtuous circle that helps you and your clients. Sometimes thinking small can help you grow much more.