The Opportunities You’re Not Seeing
Every company develops a unique way of evaluating its market.
Who their prospects and customers are.
What they need.
How to reach them.
What the competition looks like.
Over time, these assumptions become so familiar (comfortable) that they stop questioning them. It simply becomes the way they see their market. But then they wonder why growth isn’t there or why competitors seem to be finding the opportunities they’re not seeing.
Here’s the truth…
Your assumptions have become your blind spots.
The opportunities you’re not seeing aren’t invisible. They just happen to be outside the patterns you’ve fallen into. They’re in customer segments you’ve never considered, or channels you’ve dismissed. Maybe it’s an adjacent market never explored, or in problems you’ve defined too narrowly.
Where do these blind spots come from?
Customer definition. You’ve defined your target client (which is good!), so that’s who you pursue. But sometimes a significant growth opportunity might come from clients outside of your Ideal Client Profile, maybe adjacent segments you’ve never approached.
Solutions framing. You’ve outlined the specific problem that you solve for customers, so that’s what you market and sell. But there may be an entirely new growth path in providing solutions to new markets.
Channel assumptions. You know which channels work for reaching customers, so that’s where you invest. But emerging channels you’ve dismissed might be exactly where your next wave of customers can be found.
Competitive myopia. You watch your direct competitors closely, so you see what they see. But the real threat (or opportunity) might come from adjacent industries solving the same underlying problem in different ways.
What does seeing clearly look like?
Begin with the customer in mind. Rather than selling what you have, start with the customer in mind. What are their real problems? What underlying challenges do your best customers face? What other businesses/industries/markets have those same challenges? That’s where you may find your next opportunity.
Look adjacent. If you serve middle market companies, what would it take to serve enterprise firms? Or small businesses? If you’re in one location/geography, what would it take to expand into an adjacent one or one with similar properties?
Focus on the edges. Look at the edges and not the center. The customers who are slightly outside your sweet spot often signal where the market is headed. The company who isn’t a competitor now might be the biggest threat tomorrow.
Breaking blind spots requires deliberate and expansive thinking.
Question your assumptions.
Look adjacent.
Invest time in discovery instead of rote execution.
Every company has assumptions about customers and the competition, but not every company recognizes when those assumptions have become blind spots.
Be the leader who questions your assumptions and patterns. Who looks where others don’t (or won’t). Who finds ‘hidden’ opportunities that lie in plain sight.
That’s what separates organizations that grow from those that plateau.