Ever hear the term “scatter shot”? Or “shot gun approach”? While few of us would admit to such a lapse of common sense, the reality is that most small businesses engage in Scatter shot Marketing. The symptoms of this disorder include:

• constantly trying to figure out who to call on
• the reinvention of the prospecting process every week
• high numbers of single touches to random people
• poor closing ratios

Scattershot is the opposite of Concentration. Bullets are flying but there’s no telling which will lodge in someone’s cortex. I think the military calls it “Spray and Pray”. Maybe I’m crazy but, if I’m investing in marketing activities, I’d like a little better odds.

Concentrating your marketing AND sales on a defined target (a list of people who fit your idea of a “best customer”) greatly increases the odds that your efforts are going to deliver new customers.

The rule of concentration can be applied many places in the business. Choosing a specialty is a form of concentration.  It is the opposite of “do anything for anybody”. You can gain competitive advantages by specialization: by industries, or by focusing on a set of capabilities, type of customer, geography – whatever. Specialization works because it implies that you have special knowledge or a deeper understanding in your specialty – and this can be a huge sales differentiator.

Look for opportunities to concentrate your efforts. You may be surprised at how many chances you have to get laser focused on your core business and message.