“It’s not good to have all your eggs in one basket” is a saying that speaks well to the business risk of relying on too few assets for a disproportionate amount of your income.
Too much from too few leaves you vulnerable to the negative effects of unexpected economic and competitive events.
![]()
Five steps will help you develop valuable diversity.
Too much from too few leaves you vulnerable to the negative effects of unexpected economic and competitive events.
Five steps will help you develop valuable diversity.
1) Target customers where your wallet share is low. These are customers whose spending on your service or product comprises a low percentage of their overall spending in your particular business sector.
 | It’s your share of your target customer’s total business that’s the relevant metric, not your share of a mass market…. |
2) Sell current product applications provided to your most popular customer groups to other customers who don’t currently use your products in the same way.
Use existing marketing materials in the sales process to maximize return on investment.
3) Develop new applications for your current products based on the wants and desires of your high-value customers.
New application success depends on the clarity and “intimacy” of the customer requirements you identify. Emphasize the value derived from your products, not the technology used to deliver it.
4) If you are tempted to pursue new customers for your products, employ the “fast and easy” approach . Identify those who have good revenue potential and are easy to pitch to and quick to buy. Business risk is increased by going after new customers who pose difficulty and consume too many of your resources as you try to sell to them.
Traditional strategic planning methodology is all screwed up. First, it is woefully inadequate in terms of creating unique competitive advantage. The tools to define ... |
5) For the longer term, develop new products to satisfy unmet customer demand.
This usually involves new technologies that are more difficult to adopt and take longer to assimilate.
But don’t be too diverse.
Provide what your customers care about, and be the sole provider
 About Author  | You don’t want merely to be the best of the best…. Roy Osing (@royosing) is a former President and CMO with over 33 years of leadership experience covering all the major business functions including business strategy, marketing, sales, customer service and people development. He is a blogger, content marketer, educator, coach, adviser and the author of the book series Be Different or Be Deadn’t want merely to be the best of the best…. |