This past weekend, my husband and I were in Winter Park, Colorado, for the Wells Fargo Cup -- an annual event that supports the National Sports Center for the Disabled.
We saw some mighty fine skiing -- by both the corporate teams (including Denver law firm Holme Roberts & Owen) and world-class disabled skiers. After the races on Saturday, we met an outgoing and highly competitive young woman who had broken her back snowboarding seven years ago. She is competing for the wheelchair Olympic ski team and played on the wheelchair women's basketball team that took the gold in Beijing. She could beat me down the mountain any day -- despite the disability that put her in a sit-ski.
How did she earn a gold medal in Beijing? By slicing and dicing the market of all sports into a niche in which she could be Number One. To succeed at marketing, lawyers, practice/industry groups and law firms must do the same. They cannot all be Number One at all things for all clients -- and only Number One will consistently get the call for new business. Law firms need to slice and dice the legal market into a niche in which they can be a dominant player.
It would be very difficult (if not impossible) for a small law firm to be a dominant player in international construction law, for example, but entirely possible for that same firm to dominate the niche of law firms providing construction law defense to commercial designers and builders in the rapidly developing northeast quadrant of Denver surrounding Denver International Airport.
In order to take home the gold, carefully define your sport -- and your market.
