When the positioning is right. But the proposition sucks.
You’ve done the hard bit. After years of trying to be all things to all people, you’ve made a strategic decision to narrow your focus.
With your positioning sorted, it’s time to turn your attention to the proposition.
Before we go on, just to clarify the difference between the two…
In agency land, we use the word ‘positioning’ but what we really mean is ‘strategy’; a conscious decision to do a specific thing, for a specific type of client. The proposition is how you articulate this in a relevant and compelling way, so it resonates with your newly defined ‘ideal client’.
I like to use the analogy of marriage; positioning is deciding who you are (hopefully) going to spend the rest of your life with. The proposition is how you pose the big question, in the hope your partner says ‘yes’.
But rather like a nervous, future groom dropping to one knee and then tripping up on his words, a sound positioning decision doesn’t always translate into a great agency proposition.
In my experience, this is typically down to…
1) A fear of alienating existing clients or scaring away prospects who are no longer the right fit (forgetting this is the whole point). Messaging is caught halfway between the old and new proposition.
2) A tendency to put services front and centre of the proposition at the expense of the agency’s problem-solving abilities.
3) The use of inward-looking (‘we’, ‘our’, ‘us’) and cliché-ridden language (‘results-focused, ‘transparent’ and ‘passionate’, to name just three examples).
For the purposes of this article, let’s explore how you can address the second point.
What do clients really care about?
Whether you do creative, design websites or run digital marketing campaigns, most clients don’t give a hoot about your services. Clients work with agencies because they want to get from A to B. But something is standing in their way.
Therefore, in my humble opinion, your proposition should lead with client aspirations and / or problems. It should succinctly talk about your expertise and solutions in this context. It should also be outcome-orientated, highlighting how you positively impact the people, companies and markets you serve.
With this in mind, a simple framework for crafting a snappy proposition might look something like this:
We work with…(audience)
…helping them to…(aspirations / problems)
…by delivering…(solutions)
…that provide...(outcomes)
Where that all-important second line is concerned, after working with a number of similar clients for some time, you will have seen the same problems crop up again and again. Indeed, these observations have shaped your positioning decision.
But what if you want to validate your thinking? Or, better still, deepen your understanding of the problems faced by your target audience, feeding that insight into your proposition?
The simple, but often overlooked, solution is to talk to your clients. When working with an agency on their proposition, client interviews are an integral part of my process. The conversations provide a platform for the agency’s client to do some naval gazing, often bringing to the fore underlying or unresolved issues – and even specific language – to incorporate into the agency’s proposition.
Leading questions I ask include…
- When you first approached AGENCY, what was the specific problem you were seeking to fix?
- In your opinion, what sets AGENCY apart? What are their strengths?
- What are your goals and how does AGENCY support you in meeting them?
- In trying to meet those goals, what has typically stood in your way (or is standing in your way right now)?
- What worries you about the future? Are you looking for anything new or different from your agency partners to address these challenges?
At a guess, I’ve conducted around 100 client interviews on behalf of agencies over the years. They never fail to reveal a new or unexpected piece of insight – aspirations, goals, challenges or underlying problems you don’t normally find in a brief or RFP. From experience, you only need to speak to four or five clients, although you’ll probably find these conversations more fruitful when you use a third party to conduct the interviews (uh um!).
So, having validated your assumptions or gathered new insight into the key problems faced by your clients, how can you use this to create a richer proposition?
Solutions before services
Clients need solutions to problems. Yet, as highlighted earlier, most agency propositions lead with services, most of which – in isolation – can’t address a thorny business problem. Furthermore, most services have become highly commoditised and are therefore subject to downward price pressure.
An alternative approach to leading with your services is to highlight the three or four key problems your clients face. You can then design a solution or ‘program’ that addresses each of these problems. A program differs from a service in that it combines your strategic thinking, problem-solving skills and several disciplines to address a client challenge, an approach that Tim Williams talks more about here.
With respect to your website, you can then extend the ‘problem’ element of your proposition, as in this example:
Notice how the three content areas across the middle aren’t promoting services as you’d find on a typical agency website. Instead, each box relates to an aspiration or problem: poor productivity, for example.
Details of the solution or ‘program’ – sold at a premium price point, by the way – are found by clicking through to dedicated pages describing the agency’s approach to solving each problem, supported by relevant case studies, testimonials and articles.
This is a very different approach to a shopping list of commoditised services. And reflective of how more discerning clients are looking to engage with agencies.
Rounding things up
Ultimately, clients need solutions to problems they are unable to fix themselves.
But few agencies I come across have defined what those problems are, let alone thought about how they can reimagine their service offering as a set of programs to address those problems.
Inspired by the likes of David C. Baker and Tim Williams, this is something I’ve been working on for my own business, so if you fancy chewing the fat on this, just shout.
P.S. The insight gathered from client interviews can also be used to create a number of simple buyer profiles, outlining the specific goals, problems and desired outcomes for each of the stakeholders involved in purchasing your services (or should I say ‘solutions). These allow salespeople to adjust their approach (questions, language, proposition, etc.) to the sales process accordingly.