Productizing Service Based Businesses

July 01, 2025

by a searcher from Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School of Business in Austin, TX, USA

Has anyone had success with Productizing Service Based Businesses for a specific industry / segment to improve scalability and profit (either pre or post acquisition)? Some of the firms I'm working with are considering niches like Accounting for Veterinary or Legal Services for Adult Entertainers Trying to figure out if niching down is more likely to increase target audience appeal or constrict the potential client base

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Reply by a searcher
from Carnegie Mellon University in Chapel Hill, NC, USA

I’m a huge fan of niching down and have been for years. I productized services for IT Service providers and had good success there. It allowed us to market specifically into those niches. i.e. going to vertical specific events, advertise in vertical periodicals, leverage vertical testimonials, speak at vertical focused events, and built a reputation in that vertical to name a few. One thing to focus on is the TAM in the vertical and the need for the service. We spent a lot of time in the trenches gathering data to define the offering, In the end, it was simply executing the plan.

Reply by a professional
from University of Pennsylvania in Austin, TX, USA

Interesting idea, my advice is to be cautious of industries that are subject to vertical software rollup strategies (Toast, ServiceTitan, etc.) because it’ll be hard to compete with something that is specialized and bundled. Reminds of a similar conversation I was having recently about the advantages of direct mail for this highly specific niche targeting. Keep the standard offering the same, but spin up subbrands to appeal to industry specific clients.

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