What the Bad Guys Get Right
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” recently aired an episode on management consulting firm Mckinsey & Company. The episode, which is funny and worth a watch, can be summed up in one quote from the show: “Essentially, McKinsey is a firm that projects a huge amount of confidence to sell a frequently unremarkable product at sky-high prices…”.
Oliver dives into McKinsey’s relationship with prisons, the makers of OxyContin, Russian defense contractors, the Saudi Arabian government… you can just watch the episode.
Controversy aside, McKinsey continues to grow and be a preferred outside partner for many large organizations. The consulting firm knows who they are and they know who their clients are, and there’s something to be said for that.
It reminded me of some thinking shared by Jason Zweig at the Wall Street Journal:
There are three ways to make a living:
Lie to people who want to be lied to, and you’ll get rich.
Tell the truth to those who want the truth, and you’ll make a living.
Tell the truth to those who want to be lied to, and you’ll go broke.
Some version of this applies to many fields, and I think it holds true at the small and medium size agency level too.
The fastest way to win or lose an opportunity is by how you’re telling your story. It has to match your client’s expectations, otherwise you’ve already lost.
Wow people who want to be wowed.
Be straight with people who want to hear it straight.
I’ve been in rooms where we tried to wow the people who wanted to hear it straight.
It did not go well.
In new business conversations we can’t expect to know exactly what our clients’ expectations are. So it’s up to us to position ourselves so those conversations only happen with potential clients who have a great chance to close.
Positioning in Practice
Last month, I got an email from the “Assistant to the Deputy of Arts & Sciences in Nigeria”. This guy has $30 million dollars he needs help delivering to a charitable fund and the only way he can do it is by transferring the money to my account, then to the charity from there. He’ll let me keep $1 million just for helping out - lucky me.
I deleted the email immediately, of course, it sounded ridiculous. But that ridiculousness is purposeful and part of the positioning in this scam. The worst case scenario for these scammers is to spend a lot of effort trying to manipulate someone who doesn’t eventually give them their banking information. In order to make sure they’re getting to that audience, they need their cover story to only appeal to the most gullible people.
Remember, “lie to people who want to be lied to…”
For you and your agency, there should be no surprises with what you offer and how you talk about your services. Your sales message and marketing message need to be aligned. That expectation setting starts before you even have a conversation. Most potential clients will visit your website, see what you’re posting on Linkedin, and try to understand what you’re all about before they start talking to you.
If that initial conversation doesn’t feel like a good use of your time - it’s likely your own fault. There’s a lack of alignment between what you’re saying to a client live and what they’re seeing through other channels.
Generating revenue for agencies is a game of risk. Buy down that risk by positioning your firm for right-fit clients early and often. Your new business conversations will get better and more deals will close.
