This weekend my son participated in the state archery tournament for his school. He's a good shot and did a great job for his first time.
On his first round, he hit the center of the target with one of the five arrows. The center is 10 points. The other four arrows were above and below center in the 6, 7, and 8 point rings.
His second round nothing hit the center. And the arrows were randomly scattered around the target. His lowest shot was 3 points and his best was 6 (At least they all hit the target).
He walked back a little slower than after the first round.
I told him, "See that hole in the bullseye of the target. You hit that the first round. Aim for that on each shot this time. Remember, when you aim small you miss small."
The first shot of the third round hit the 10 point bullseye almost exactly where that first one was. The next 4 arrows were all close to the first with a couple of 9 points, an 8 point, and a 7 point shot.
Aim small, miss small is mentioned in American Sniper. The point is not to just aim at the animal, or the target. You want to find something smaller on your target to aim at. If you aim at a button on a shirt you're more likely to hit the body.
So what does Aim small miss small mean when you're selling? There are two places you want to keep this in mind.
Aim Small, Miss Small Marketing
Think about your target market. How small can you break your niche down?
Inside each niche is smaller subsets of that niche. They're not a niche. It's more like a fissure than a niche. It's a much smaller crack opening up into your market.
In this interview with Barry Moore, he explains how he wanted to find a micro-niche to target and then expand from there. He went after the market of ActiveCampaign users instead of targeting people who want marketing automation. That's a fissure compared to the niche of marketing automation.
Most people worry that they'll lose business by focusing too small. Stop it.
When your niche is a small fissure, your marketing becomes so accurate that your response rates jump through the roof. You're aimed at the center of the target and not just at any target.
As you continue to grow, you can expand to other fissures in that niche, hitting them in the bullseye with your marketing arrows. Soon people outside that fissure, but in the general niche, will start seeking you out because you've become known for being the expert in that niche.
Aim Small, Miss Small Selling
What about selling face-to-face or over the phone?
Hell yes you need to aim small, miss small. It's even more important here.
The old-school features and benefits presenting style is the manure used to fertilize all the horrible salespeople stories.
You need to find out what's important to your prospect. Specifically, how can you help them? What problems will you solve? What pain can you make go away? Etc.
As you pry out each piece of information, you're loading your quiver with arrows. And they're giving you the small dot on their heart to aim at.
Your job is to stay focused on that dot with each arrow you release. And when you do that, you aim small and miss small. And each arrow hits the target with precision.
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