In 1925, a rookie copywriter named John Caples had to sell something hard to sell: A mail-order piano course. He was barely a year into his job at the agency Ruthrauff & Ryan. The U.S. School of Music had knocked on their door. They wanted a campaign for their new self-study instrument courses. Caples needed…
Category: How Consultancies Win
How Weak Positioning Traps Consulting Firms in a Vicious Cycle (And The Only Way Out)
Weak positioning causes a vicious cycle for every firm. It goes like this: You lack clarity around your ideal client profile, the specific problem you solve for them, and how you solve it differently. That causes you to have generic messaging. That causes your website, content, and ads to get ignored. That causes buyers to…
Why Marketing 10 Services Hurts Your Sales (And How To Prioritize One)
Boutique consulting firms make most of their revenue from a single service. But that core service gets only a tiny share of their messaging. You know why? Because they fear losing out. “What if somebody is looking for our other offers?” “What if we miss an opportunity?” So they list 10 services on their websites.…
5 Ways B2B Buyer Behavior Has Changed (And Why It Matters For Your Firm)
Some boutique consulting firms are still doing marketing like it’s 2010: They rely on their partners’ networks for new business. They post some random content. And they occasionally hire an agency to do mass outreach campaigns. These tactics worked fine 15 years ago. But the world has changed since then. Going through a pandemic. The…
How Starving Prospects Build Thriving Firms (And 3 Signals To Find Yours)
Copywriting legend Gary Halbert goes to prison for tax fraud. The conditions are harsh. He doesn’t know if he’ll survive in Boron Prison for long. So he writes letters to his son to teach him everything he knows about copywriting and marketing. And later his letters became the famous book: The Boron Letters. In one…
Negativity Bias: Why Cheap Marketing Pushes Away More Buyers Than It Attracts
I don’t know how it was for you. But when I prepared for university exams, three wrong answers erased one correct answer. When it comes to marketing, it’s worse. One negative association cancels out three positives. Because people have a negativity bias. Negative things have a stronger and longer-lasting impact on emotions and memory than…
How B2B Buyers Choose Which Problem To Fix (And How To Make Yours The Priority)
Every business has dozens of problems at any given time. Even thriving ones. A new regulation comes up and you have to comply. You have to hire but can’t find the right candidate. Or your clients churn and you have to find out why. Being in business means dealing with problems. It’s the same for…
Why Nike Can Get Away With ‘Just Do It’ and Your Consulting Firm Can’t
The biggest mistake in consulting firms’ messaging is copying consumer brands. I know. Who doesn’t want to be inspirational like Nike? Who doesn’t want to influence buyers with a strong mission like Patagonia’s? But think about it. These are consumer brands. They sell commoditized products. A jacket is a jacket. No matter what brand you…
Why A Winning Consulting Positioning Demands Weaknesses (And How To Embrace Them)
In 1970, Listerine’s marketing department was feeling the heat. P&G had launched a new mouthwash brand as a competitor a few years before. They called it Scope. And they attacked Listerine’s obvious weakness — taste. Listerine burned like medicine. Consumers knew it. So Scope entered the market using taste as its differentiator. They claimed a…
The Objection Funnel: Why Credibility Can’t Replace Clarity in Consulting Firms’ Messaging
Most marketers think social proof sells. But it doesn’t. It reassures. And this difference changes how to do messaging right. Imagine going to a consulting firm’s website. You’d like to figure out what they do. But you struggle. Because first, you read an aspirational mission statement that means nothing. Then they bombard you with social…
