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Today’s issue is a quick one

Hey there - it's Brian 👋

500 applications?! 🤯

We broke a new record.

FIVE HUNDRED people applied for our latest marketing role.

We built a process to filter through all 500 and get the best fit.

Geez 1/500 is a 0.2% acceptance rate.

Anyway.

Seeing this taught us to niche down even harder.

Just to focus on the client needs where we get mind blowing results.

You might be afraid to niche down because you’re saying no to customers.

I get that.

But saying “no” to customers who “kind of like you” and only saying yes to customers who love you is incredible:
➟ Your margins get better
➟ Your delivery gets better
➟ Client acquisition gets better (More word of mouth. Better testimonials. Your message is more refined etc etc)

And hey if you’ve really exhausted the market (I doubt it) but if you have, it’s easier to start niche, build massive traction, then expand further down the road.

When we focused our roles:
➟ We watched our gross margins go up almost 10%
➟ Our delivery got 30% faster
➟ Our customer satisfaction went up*

*Not sure the percent, but I get on all the offboarding calls and I’m seeing MORE clients ecstatic every time.

Anyway what does it really mean to niche down?

It just means you only say “yes” to the customers that love you. Say no to the customers that are luke warm.

Focus on fewer customers.

When you talk to the same type of customer every day, you understand their pain better than they do.

So you can speak to their pain more specifically in sales/marketing.

➟ Ads.
➟ Landing pages.
➟ Social media etc etc.

You know more specifically where they spend time on the internet (think: lower CAC).

And you customize your solution to solve their problem better than anyone.

Want a real example? What did we do to niche down for TalentHQ?

1) We focused only on the few roles we can find better than anyone:
We cut any roles that were “just okay“ at filling.

2) Qualified those roles better.
Fewer roles means we could build more intensive pilot projects.

We see those roles all day so it’s easier to tell who’s good.

3) Built distribution just for those roles
This means we:

➟ Built partnerships with local influencers.
➟ Negotiated distribution agreements with local job boards.
➟ Targeted ads to specific Latam cities best for each role

(Ha! My name, Brian O’Connor, sounds so gringo but I’m secretly Ecuadorian so I film these ads in Spanish.)

So focus your business to deliver the best solution on the planet

The more focused you are, the better the solution you can make for your customer.

➟ Better client acquisition.
➟ Better delivery.
➟ Higher prices.
➟ Better margin.
➟ Happier customers.

It’s a win.

See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
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TalentHQ

P.S. For my friends - what’s going on with Brian?

I’m back in Boston.

If you don’t count Puerto Rico I’ll only be in the US for 3 weeks this year!

Here for a few weeks for my friend’s wedding. Then back to Latin America to find talent for our clients.

Ecuador —> Colombia —> Argentina.

🙋 Vote: How did we do?