SelloWise
Learn/Authority in a niche
Brand · 3 min read

Own one problem. For one buyer.

'Sales leader' is not a niche. 'The person who unblocks handoffs between AEs and CS at Series-B SaaS' is a niche. Narrow enough that buyers can't forget you.

Chapter 01

The niche test

ost reps pick a niche that's really a category. Category is what your company sells. Niche is a slice small enough that you can be first-recall for one specific person on one specific bad day. Run every candidate niche through these three questions:

01

Can I name the person?

"Series-B RevOps lead at a vertical SaaS company between 50–200 employees." If you can't name the person, the niche is still too broad.

02

Do they have a shared pain?

One specific problem they all wake up thinking about — not five. Pick the one they'd pay a consultant $500/hr to fix.

03

Are they gathered somewhere?

A Slack, a LinkedIn hashtag, 4–5 podcasts they all listen to. If you can't find them in a room, you can't show up in the room.

“If your niche description would fit on a billboard and mean nothing specific to a stranger driving past — it's not a niche, it's marketing copy.”
The niche rule
Chapter 02

The 90-day plan

  • Pick
    Days 1–7
    Pick the niche. Write it down as a one-sentence 'I help X do Y so they can Z.'
  • Position
    Days 8–30
    Rewrite your LinkedIn headline and About to name that niche + that problem, word for word.
  • Publish
    Days 31–60
    Publish 2 posts a week. Every post names the niche or the problem in the first line.
  • Compound
    Days 61–90
    DM 5 people a week in the niche with a specific, useful thing — no ask. Watch inbound start.
Chapter 03

Frequently asked questions

Isn't a narrower niche fewer buyers?
Yes — and it's the point. 100 buyers who think you were built for them beats 10,000 who never notice you. You can always widen later; you can rarely un-broaden.
What if I sell to multiple ICPs?
You don't build authority to all of them at once. Pick the one worth owning, own it for 6 months, then add the next. The rep who tries to be famous to everyone is famous to no one.
How narrow is 'too narrow'?
If you can only think of 30 potential buyers in the world, too narrow. If you can think of 300–3,000, that's the sweet spot for a sales rep.
Do I need permission from marketing to niche down?
No. Your personal brand is your job. Marketing sells the product to the market; you sell yourself to the specific slice of that market you can dominate.

Post like someone who owns the niche.

SelloWise turns your niche + your calls into consistent posts that all say the same thing in different ways — the fastest way to become first-recall.

Keep readingWhy personal brand mattersThought leadership for reps
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