Why Clients Don’t Buy Because They Understand You

Before you dive into this week’s Digest, here are two other articles I published last week worth exploring.

1. Origins of Positioning
2. The decade-long debate between Ritson and Sharp

Now, back to our scheduled programming.

Buyer Experience Design

From Order-Taker to Trusted Advisor

Why the gap between you and the work is smaller than you think — and why it’s the same gap.

You walk out of a meeting with a prospect, and you have no idea what they want. Worse, you are pretty sure they don’t either. And now you have to go write a proposal.

If you have felt that, this is for you.

I have felt it from every seat there is. Solo, trading my skills for money. Running an agency. And inside a firm with a logo everyone knows, coaching teams on the strategic and refuse-to-lose deals. The dials changed every time. The mechanism never did. Neither did the mistake.

So when you see the advice that floats past on LinkedIn every week, build awareness, get more visible, own an idea, post until they know your name, hold it lightly. It isn’t wrong. It’s just answering a smaller question than the one you’re actually facing. Getting known is not the same as getting in the room. And getting in the room is not the same as winning the work. Three different problems. Most advice solves the first and leaves you stranded on the other two.