A lot of small businesses make the mistake of thinking that their product or service is good for just about anyone. The logic is "why should I limit my market to a smaller segment of the whole and sacrifice a sale." The problem with that logic is that for most products and services you simply cannot expect consumers of vastly different segments to view you as valuable. Teens have a different lifestyle than single moms. Single moms have different needs than country club executives. Country Club executives have different likes and dislikes than bikers.

Targeting your sales to a smaller niche is a much better way to go. As a matter of fact, as counterintuitive as it may sound, the smaller the niche the better your sales.

Who do you suppose are your ideal clients? Answer that by asking yourself who would want your product or service? Where do they live? How old are they? What do they do? What else do they consume? Understand everything you can about them. This will help you to construct partners who are also trying to reach the same people. It will help you focus on exactly where and how to advertise. It will help you stop wasting time and effort trying to get people outside of your ideal client profile to buy your product or service. Most of them never will anyway.

If you spend your time talking only to people who are most likely to buy fom you, your sales will increase as a result.

Mike Shannon is the owner of Shamrock Business Coaching, a coaching practice that helps business owners increase profits. You can visit Shamrock Business Coaching on the web at: www.ShamrockCoaching.com