The more specific
you are with your
target customer, the
smaller the field of
competitors you will
come up against
serve, specifically their main health and
fitness goals, the challenges they are facing,
and their ideal customer experience. Your
initial instinct will be to market to a wide
range of clients in order to attract more
potential customers, but to differentiate
yourself you need to be brave and be more
specific: in doing so you will reduce the
volume of competitors. For example, when
you search for ‘personal trainer’ online, you
encounter an extensive list of search results.
If you adjust the search to ‘female personal
trainer’, you get a slightly smaller list. Then
adjust to ‘female personal trainer to lose
body fat’ and you again reduce the volume
of the results. The more specific you are with
your target customer, the smaller the field of
competitors you will come up against.
EXERCISE 1
Be brave and specific in responding
to the following questions about your
fitness business:
• What is the leading health/fitness
goal for your ideal client?
• What is the most difficult challenge
your ideal client faces in trying to
meet their goals?
• Describe the 5-star customer
experience your target client
hopes to find when working with
your business.
Secondly, you must be clear and specific
about the products and services you will
provide to your customers to best help them
achieve their goals, address their pain points
and upgrade their lives. In describing your
brand, dig deeply into exactly how you are
providing your service in a way that best
matches the needs and personality of your
target customer. If you are having trouble
expressing your brand in a language that
connects well with your target audience, the
writing exercises featured in Donald Miller’s
Building a Story Brand may prove helpful.
14 | NETWORK AUTUMN 2020
EXERCISE 2
• Using vivid detail and language
that speaks well to your target
customer, list the main products,
services, and tools that your
business provides.
STEP 2. Research your market and
competitors
Can you list your two leading competitors in
your market? If so, can you list the examples
where you are providing a better product
or service than they are? How about the
examples where your competitor’s customer
experience is actually better than yours? To
consistently rise above your competition as
the leading option in your market, you must
know each of these competing businesses
just as well as you know your own. Without
this knowledge, it will be impossible to
create a marketing strategy which truly
expresses the reasons why a customer
should choose your business over these
other leading options.
EXERCISE 3
• List the top two competitor
options your target client might
consider when shopping for a
business like yours.
Then, for each of these two
competitors, consider their customer
experience, their amenities, their
education and their overall product
offering while answering the following
two questions:
• What is the leading way in which they
are outperforming your business as
the leader in your market?
• What is the leading way that you
are outperforming them as the
leader in your market?