How to get creative when defining an audience for your agency offering

Recently, I explored the difference between positioning and proposition.

As a brief reminder, the former is the process by which you define what you do, how you do it and, most importantly, for who. The proposition is how you package this up. It’s an expression of the problems you solve, the tangible impact of your work and the experience you provide.

It therefore stands to reason that positioning comes before proposition. You cannot craft a highly relevant and enticing proposition if you don’t first define your ‘who’.

And by ‘who’, I mean being specific. When you claim to work with “businesses of all shapes and sizes, across all industries” it is nigh on impossible to craft a proposition that will appeal to all of them. I’ve never been on a dating website (I met my wife in a nightclub, the old-fashioned way). But I doubt the guy who says “I’ll go out for a drink with anyone” gets many takers.

Herein lies the problem. When you’re trying to speak to everyone in this way, you’re not actually talking to anyone in particular. So, whilst the intention is to be attractive to everyone, you end up not being particularly relevant or enticing to anybody.

So, if you accept the need to better define your ‘who’ (and be specific in doing so), how do you actually go about doing it? How do you start on the journey from generalist ( “we work with anyone”) to specialist ( “we only work with….”)?

Firstly, you’ve got to be willing to change. This means getting over your fear of missing out. That voice that says, “but if we say we only work with these clients, it means we can’t work with those ones” …yes, that one. Ignore it. The gains that come with focus far outweigh the drawbacks.

Secondly, don’t assume the market for agency services can only be broken down by recognised sector categories, such as retail, banking or travel. Defining your audience by sector might be the way to go. But beyond this, the market for agency services can be sliced and diced in numerous ways. This where you can get creative. When you look at clients, past and present, there are bound to be common traits or themes, for example:

Are your clients typically start-ups, challenger brands or businesses ‘on the wrong side of 50’ in need of a reboot?

Are your clients looking to achieve a similar goal? And I don’t mean sales or growth. That’s obvious. Is there something more specific, such as businesses looking to turnover their first million?

Are your clients facing similar challenges, such as getting new products to market or entering new territories?

What about brand attributes, such as luxury or leisure?

Do you find yourself working with certain job roles, such as founders, entrepreneurs or eCommerce managers?

Are your clients looking to engage a specific demographic, such as the under 30’s or over 60's?

Or, what about attitude, outlook or way of thinking? Are they innovators or disruptors, for example?

When you look beyond sectors, there are all kinds of possibilities. So, get your senior team get together, lock yourself in a room with coffee and Haribo, and consider the following:

When, how and why did we start the agency?

What was our motivation at the time?

When is our agency at its very best?

What work do we enjoy the most? Where do we get our energy?

When is our team at their most motivated and happiest?

What does our ideal client look like?

Thinking about all the clients we have ever worked with, where have we had the most success? What made these clients so great to work with?

How many of our clients would we happily fire tomorrow if we could? Why?

Of those that are left, are there any common themes of threads that tie them together?

These are by no means exhaustive. A well-run workshop will inevitably yield further questions and some healthy debate. But they should be enough to get things started.

Once you define your audience, the impact can be transformational. Clarity comes with focus. Try coming up with a sales and marketing plan with the aim of targeting everyone. Now try doing it when you’re targeting somebody very specific.

Try saying ‘no’ to a prospect when you have no framework to work from. Now try doing it when you are crystal clear in what your ideal client looks like.

Try charging a premium for your services when there is no discernible difference between your agency and the other ten around the corner. Now try doing it when you can demonstrate how your expert knowledge of a specific audience leads to better outcomes.

I’ve worked with a number of clients who have made the move from generalist to specialist; who have narrowed their focus. Never once have they regretted it. After all, the world doesn’t need another agency doing anything for anybody. But there is always a place for an agency solving a specific problem for a specific audience segment.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.