"We work with all kinds of businesses." It sounds like a strength. It's the line that quietly costs you the clients you actually want.
I hear it constantly, and I understand the logic. Narrowing feels like shrinking. If you say you're for one kind of client, surely you're closing the door on all the others. So founders keep it broad, keep their options open, and keep the net as wide as possible.
The net catches nothing, because nobody feels caught by it.
Specificity is how people recognise themselves
When you try to speak to everyone, you speak to no one in particular, and no one in particular feels spoken to. The message is so general it slides past everybody.
When you speak to someone specific, that person stops scrolling. They see their exact situation described and they think, this is about me. That recognition is the whole game. It's what turns a passive reader into someone who reaches out.
People don't choose the business that could help everyone. They choose the one that clearly understands them.
Narrow your message, not necessarily your business
Here's the part that unlocks it for most founders. Being specific in your message doesn't mean refusing everyone else's money.
You can speak directly to one kind of client and still serve others who come to you. The specificity is about who you lead with, who your marketing is built to attract, who feels like you were made for them. The right client self-selects because you spoke to them clearly. Others can still find you. They just aren't who you're optimising for.
Broad businesses are terrified of this. They think specificity turns away revenue. In practice it turns up the volume on the revenue you most want.
What "everyone" really signals
When a prospect reads that you help everyone, they don't think, great, they can definitely help me. They think, they don't specialise in my problem. Generalists get chosen for small, low-stakes work. The specific, high-value work goes to whoever looks like they understand it best.
So "we help everyone" doesn't widen your market. It pushes you toward the bottom of it.
The fix
Pick who you're best for. Build your message around them. Speak their language, name their problem, describe their situation more accurately than anyone else in your category bothers to.
You'll feel like you're narrowing. What you're actually doing is finally becoming the obvious choice for the people who matter most to your business.