Being specific gets you more business?
People may think that their potential client base is wide and while it may be, if people aren't able to focus on an area to look out for then they are likely to miss potential opportunities to refer you.
Its something I've experienced myself – taxhelp.uk.com specialises in helping self-employed people, and the head office is in Surrey – so people instantly know who we help and where we give a face to face service. Interestingly, I do get people asking for other services that I don't offer – but with an extensive network of connections I can usually recommend someone suitable to help them.
I also had a great experience of how powerful being specific is, last weekend. I attended a European networking conference at the Hilton in Glasgow. Several of the presenters asked for specific referrals at the end of their presentations. Despite being 400 miles away from home, I was able to connect three of them to people I know. Had they just said what they do in general terms, and not been very specific, then they wouldn't have achieved the results.