Quit Claiming the Opposite of What Nobody Else is Claiming

My obituary will probably go something like this:

Though he was a husband and father and grandfather, you’d never know it because all he talked about was positioning. He was obsessed with understanding all the nuances of it, and you could find him in front of a computer screen, hours a day, lamenting the stupid things he read on firm’s websites. We will not miss him.

Sad, really, but I’ve fully embraced this path and I will stick to it until the end, so help me God.

The Things People Claim

We just finished a sold-out seminar where we walked sixteen firms through a mini Total Business Reset for two days, and a big portion of that was spent on their positioning. Three fourths of the attendees had nailed it, but there are always questions like this:

• I know everyone says that their strategy is great, but ours really is.
• Our team is really great. The best around. I know everyone else says the same thing, but we really mean it.
• We have a process—a proven one, actually—that we use with every client, and it leads to quicker and more reliable results. We even named it.

Okay, with that in mind, I want to explain why that stuff just doesn’t matter. Or at least “matter all that much.”

Stop It Already

I have another article in the works, out very soon, so I’ll just give you a preview here: these kinds of things kind of matter, but not to prospects. They have no means of verifying any of these claims until they are a client, and then it’s too late. In other words, these characteristics of your firm are how you keep clients and not how you attract them.

But putting that aside, I’d like you to consider this instead:

Staking your claims of "specialness" on something for which nobody is claiming the opposite just doesn’t mean anything.

Here’s what I mean. Say you’re in deep negotiations with a prospective new client. Their ears perked up when you about your process, and so in one last test before they sign the contract, they call up the other agency they are talking to about the same project. “Hey, this other firm we are talking to says that they have a process. They are really proud of it and talk about how it makes all the difference in the world. We just wanted to know if you have a process, too? And if it’s a good one?”

And here’s one thing you’ll never hear from that other firm. “Oh, shit. I was hoping you weren’t going to ask that. No, we don’t, to be honest. We used to have one in the past, but it kind of slowed things down and added some cost, and so we decided to drop it. We hope that won’t be a deal breaker for you.”

Or try this silly example on. The same firm, nearly ready to close a deal, keeps talking about how “the secret to our success is our people,” implying that no other firm has their kind of people and thus really can’t compete. Really? Your people are that different?

Condensing This

If nobody is claiming the opposite, quit pretending that it makes some massive difference. At the moment I’m sitting in the lobby of an RV repair facility in Lebanon, TN, and just for yucks, I typed “marketing firm near me” into a browser. Here are some of the statements pulled from this one random firm:

• We work for brands that refuse to settle.
• We are industry leading.
• We are award-winning.
• Our proprietary framework for paid media guides every single ad dollar.
• World class digital partners who deliver real growth.
• Performance first.
• Senior operators.
• Trusted by brands from startup to category leaders.

None of this means anything, people. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. It’s just noise, because nobody is claiming the opposite, and in fact everybody is claiming the same thing.

This firm’s website, and possibly yours, is just a big magnet for opportunity without any uniquely defined expertise.

Another Tombstone

Back to what’ll be written on this industry’s tombstone: “The marketing field: the most undifferentiated firms in the world, helping you differentiate your company and message. You really should have hired us.”