Rob Kinsey attended one of my workshops on business development in Derbyshire, England. Rob is an artist who’s also passionate about motocross, having raced motorbikes, and remains involved in the motocross world. He came to my business development workshop to find out how he might diversify his work away from his passion of motocross art in order to ‘hedge his bets’. He wanted to have the ability to sell a greater variety of paintings to a wider range of clients.
By the end of the workshop he had changed his mind.
Instead of diversifying away from his passion, he decided to concentrate on it, painting exclusively motocross art and focusing on customers in that sport. Within a year, Rob was invited to exhibit his paintings at the international motocross championships in North America. There he was feted; he was in his element; he was amongst the most enthusiastic customers for his work. And he sold many paintings.
Tessa, a young graphic designer in London, whom I advised, was enthusiastic about designing websites that in her eyes were not only functional but also of high artistic merit. They were so artistic that other people commented (sometimes not wholly in a complimentary way) that they were ‘pretty’ websites. She told me that other business advisers had recommended that she must diversify. They said she must be able to turn our hands to all kinds of designs, not just ‘pretty websites’. She could understand what they meant but this advice nevertheless went against the grain. Deep inside her, it felt wrong.
My own advice was different.
Instead of diversifying and competing with thousands of other website designers, I suggested that she should focus on designs about which she was passionate and which were consistent with her own personal style of creativity. She should focus on her competitive advantage. She told me that this felt right and was happy to hear my distinctive advice. But working with your passions in itself does not win customers – we also need to address the question of how and from where she should win new clients.
A complete business formula needs to link a product speciality with customers who want that speciality.
So the next stage of my consultancy was to explore with her which particular types of customers might want her particular style of highly artistic website design.
Obviously, not all businesses want pretty websites, and nor should they. On the other hand, some businesses would definitely want her designs – she spoke of florists, hairdressers, clothing boutiques, beauty salons and other types of business. Coincidently, she said, these were the kinds of businesses she had dealt with so far. I wasn’t surprised. She was happy to work with them but felt that she needed a wider range of customers. Other people had said that she must diversify. That’s why she was asking me for marketing advice. She was, in effect, asking me how could she sell her particular style to all kinds of customers.
I changed the question to this: instead of trying to sell to everyone, how can we identify and win customers who want the kind of designs she excels at?
As a result, she approached the ‘right kind’ of customers for her work and built a business in those sectors. She didn’t try to do everything. She focused on what she could do well and the customers who wanted what she did well, deliberately and positively saying no to other kinds of businesses.
For both Rob and Tessa, there was no conflict in the end between their passion, marketing, and business success. Indeed, these elements were tightly connected within a marketing strategy that works for them and their chosen customers. They are not alone. They are not even unusual. Like many successful businesses they are true to their passions and work within a marketing strategy that connects their authentic selves with the right kind of customers.
Key Points
Connect your passions, personal style and difference to customers who want what you can uniquely offer. Don’t try to do everything. Focus on what you are best at and find the customers who want that thing.
What to do next
- Don’t diversify, specialise. What is your real passion and speciality? Which particular kind of customers want the speciality you are passionate about?
- Write down what you are passionate about, what you can specialise in, and what makes you different from your rivals. Then list the customer types who particularly want your speciality.
Bonus content
Download and read the Ideas in Action case study ‘An Artist with a Passion – and a Focus’
featuring motocross artist Rob Kinsey.
(PDF download)
