Different Differentiators
If you walk into a Trader Joe’s you’re likely to find an end-cap filled with remarkably low-priced wine. And even if you’ve never bought it, I’m guessing you’ve heard of it - Two Buck Chuck.
Charles Shaw wine (that’s Chuck, to you) isn’t the only bottle under $5, but it’s by far the most famous. In fact, it’s probably one of the most recognizable wine brands, period. And that’s because they’re known for something. In their case, it's the price. To borrow from David C. Baker’s waterfall of differentiation, they have a clear path to relevancy:
Category: Beverage
Specialization: Wine
Secondary Differentiation: Ridiculously Low Price
Now, unless you’re planning to bill $2/hour, I don’t recommend 'Ridiculously Low Price' as your point of difference. But we could substitute other things in here for Two Buck Chuck like its distribution at Trader Joe’s or its wide lineup. In reality, it’s a confluence of these differentiators that really make it stand out in its category. Similarly, your agency’s differentiator could be a lot of things. But by definition it needs to be something that very few other firms have. And it really should be something very few other firms would even be willing to have - just like Chuck’s $2 price point.
Here are three examples:
How You Get Paid
There are a lot of ways to rethink how you get paid. Maybe it’s performance-based compensation tied to client metrics. Maybe it’s a revenue share or an equity + cash model for startup clients. Or maybe it's simple but rare: total pricing transparency - 'We take on five clients a year, each on a $500k annual contract’. Whatever the format, the point is: few firms will do this.
The Research You Conduct
Do you have information about your client’s target market that no other firms have (or would need to do extensive research to gather?). This isn’t scoped into paid work, this is research your firm conducts on an ongoing basis because you know it’s going to be beneficial to your quality of work and your client’s end result. This doesn’t replace any scoped research, in all likelihood it just makes that research more targeted and effective. It further positions you as an expert in a given field and deepens your team’s knowledge of the space you play in. This kind of research isn’t billable. It’s expensive, time-consuming, and it requires vision. Which is exactly why most firms don’t do it.
How Your Clients Interact With Each Other
You may also be able to differentiate by how you connect clients to likeminded peers. By partnering with you they not only get great work but they may be added to a private Slack channel with fellow industry CMOs, or maybe you create peer-review pods where non-competing clients provide feedback on work in progress. Or maybe you create a semi-structured intel-sharing group where clients anonymously share what tools they’re ditching, what vendors underdelivered, and what tactics are outperforming. The key here is to keep this value-add, no selling allowed.
These are just three broad ideas for differentiation - some of which are already being employed by firms today. But the important thing to remember is that you need to have something. If you can’t meaningfully distinguish yourself from another firm or option, the new business game for your agency is going to be very hard to play.
