Yesterday I wrote about creating smaller value opportunities in an effort to generate new business. Today I wanted to look at another idea, mining associated client verticals to create new or incremental revenue.
Mining Associated Verticals
It may be that your client patch consists of a certain category or industry vertical. It may also be that you are responsible for managing an overall revenue target for a section or program. Whichever it is, there comes a time, either through downturn or lack of product, when all those clients who are a natural fit are tapped out.
Associated verticals are those categories of clients that somehow rely on or are relied on by your existing client base. I’ll give you an example.
Let’s use a James Bond film as an example. When you think of something like a Bond film, there are always extensions – there is a vodka, there are cars (Ford in this case) and there is always a watch (Omega) – straight off the bat, three associated client verticals to tap into. Your sell would be positioned around promoting their product and their association with the film.
Similarly when you think automotive, there are a whole range of associated verticals – fuel, cleaning, car insurance.
Exercise
Here’s an exercise for you. Take your client list and divide it up into categories / industries. Grab a giant sheet of paper (I still like to work in analogue) and put each industry in the middle of it. From there, put every associated type of product around it.
What you should find is a number of common categories will fall out. Take these common categories and focus on them as they represent a much larger opportunity. Start listing specific clients in these categories as your targets and working on what your sell to each is – why they should use your medium, what benefits do they have by promoting their association with another of your clients.
Not every client category will work, but you should come out of it with a decent number of leads.
Would love to hear how this works for you.
