I have a box to tick. Will you help me tick it?

I learned a valuable lesson in my first year of consultancy. It helped me steer my business in a whole new direction. The direction I wanted to follow.

Ask yourself, are you in business to fulfil a need? Is the lifeblood of your business the bottom-of-the-funnel question ‘will you provide me with the service I’ve decided I require?’

That’s what I started out doing.

I provided a service, yet I labelled myself a consultant. Why? All I was, really, was a do-er. I helped businesses tick a box. I fulfilled a role. It wasn’t a position I was particularly comfortable with. But, when you’re starting out, it is a case of finding out what’s right for you. You learn from mistakes.

I just wanted to position highly on Google for terms such as ‘Digital Marketing Consultant’. That’s where I believed I’d win work. I was fortunate that I did. I was fortunate that I knew how to pitch my role. My content conveyed empathy. I had been a business owner myself for the prior 5 years before starting my consulting business. I got the message I needed to send.

The problem was I pitched my wares to the wrong audience. The audience I attracted were business owners who’d already decided the service they needed. They simply needed an outsourced solution to provide that service.

In the practice of PPC and SEO I have a knack. It’s not a knack I can document, or necessarily teach. It’s just a method that I’ve invested time and energy to refine over the years. It was a knack that helped build my business in the early days. A starting point. My clients saw good results. Results that ticked the box. Results that allowed me to extend my client work from one-off pieces to monthly retainers. I was, however, missing a challenge.

That challenge was the ability to question my client. To ask ‘what are you looking to achieve?’, ‘have you considered doing this?’, ‘why are you thinking about doing this in the first place?’. I was simply fulfilling a role.

So, my business evolved. Now, I build relationships by asking questions. To challenge convention and present alternatives.

It’s where I want to be. It’s where I’ll truly thrive.

In his book Zero to One, Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel asks a phenomenally powerful question:

‘What important truth do very few people agree with you on?’

Just think about that for a moment.

It starts to help you develop the notion that your niche market is a community built upon a particular mindset. Not a demographic, but a mindset.

If you have the audacity to create your business based upon a perceived truth that few will agree with, you can bet that the minority (fellow believers) will be true advocates of your thinking. You’ll lead.

Consider the statement ‘you get what you pay for’. Many of us attach this truth to our own business. It’s why we have premium products and position our prices (with confidence) above our competitors. it’s a statement many of us believe that we believe. Some businesses embrace their truth (Lidl, EasyJet, Travelodge). Their role is to offer a service based upon efficiencies. Scaling back the luxury and providing the bare necessities we require. An efficiency based upon grander scale economics. To suffice (the product) and surprise (the price).

The idea I’m putting forward is to create your proposition around your belief. If few are believers, your role is to challenge. It’s what the immensely successful have done very well. They break convention.

Are you here to help tick boxes?

When you introduce your company as a supplier of x based in y, that’s exactly what you’re telling me. An accounting fim in Huddersfield. A tea supplier in Cardiff. A design company in Edinburgh.

Take care how you label your business. It defines the proposition you’re offering. This isn’t about being bold or brash, it’s about positioning. Letting your audience know that you are either there to tick a box or to challenge convention.

Take care how you create content for your business. Offering forward ‘5 top tips to be just like everybody else’ may create business for you. Is it the business that you desire? Do you want to fulfil a duty? When the phone rings, who is asking the questions, you or your prospect?

Take care how you present your business in the social world. I talked about this with my co-host, Mark Masters, on this week’s podcast. Are you there (on Twitter, on Facebook, on LinkedIn) to fulfil a duty, to tick a box yourself, or are you there to engage and ignite conversation with your ability to ask questions and challenge ideas?

Be wary of the message you send

There is a clear route to success if your duty is to tick the box. There’s no detriment pursuing that journey. You advertise and you win attention. You send the message that you are the obvious choice. You’re priced to sell and you get your head down and work. It is an appealing proposition.

Is it the message you want to deliver?

If it isn’t you do need to take a step back. To take a cliched walk down the path of your customer.

  • See how that price-led headline impacts upon the tone of your message
  • Consider the impact the ‘today only’ 25% discount has on future opportunities
  • Rethink how your ‘must read’ email proposition really sits with your reader

The one investment we can no longer make is time. It’s always time. We simply don’t have enough time.

The funds are usually there. The funds to invest in Paid Search and Social advertising. They always appeal as a simple and speedy solution to reach our audience. It’s why we focus our efforts on the narrow end of the funnel.

The people at the top. The people outside the funnel going about their jobs unaware of the problem your business solves. That’s where the real challenge is. That’s where we need to focus our time. To take a step back and consider how we market our businesses to those who aren’t (yet) aware.

That’s where we need to think about what we create (as marketers) and invest our time, rather than where we spend our money.

In order to sway opinion and challenge convention we need to consider how we create opportunities to reach a whole new targeted audience. Those that share mindset, they’re simply not, yet aware. To share your important truth.

Nobody wants to spend money on health insurance. We do now more than ever. Why? We’ve bought into an important truth.

Nobody wants to spend twice as much money on a new laptop. We do now more than ever. Why? Apple sold us an important truth.

Nobody wants to wander for miles around a maze of products. We do now more than ever. Why? IKEA sold us an important truth.

It’s figuring out what those truths are that helps elevate business away from the tick-box fulfilment process.

Many businesses set their foundation on offering a one-stop shop for boxes to be ticked. Few sell their important truth. Do you?


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Ian Rhodes

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First employee of an ecommerce startup back in 1998. I've been using building and growing ecommerce brands ever since (including my own). Get weekly growth lessons from my own work delivered to your inbox below.

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