Most of you have completely interchangeable points of view






This is a trademark:

More and more I've been thinking of your point of view as your intellectual trademark. Distinctive. Associated with you and your business. Quickly or immediately recognizable.

Most of you have completely interchangeable points of view. That might be fine.

You might work in a commoditized knowledge-space, and having a distinctive, unique way of seeing the problem might be threatening to that commodity system, reducing the opportunity that flows to you.

Or you might enjoy the social warmth of living closer to the center of the herd. Also fine.

But it might not be fine. You might struggle to answer your prospects when they explicitly or implicitly ask "why should we hire you?" Or you might struggle to publish anything that feels insightful.

Here are two pieces of writing about pricing expert services. The first one is the very first search result returned when I search duckduckgo.com for consulting more profitable pricing. The second one is from a book on the topic of pricing consulting services.

(I always credit sources, but want to keep this one secret for a bit in order to make a point. So the link to the source will be at the end of this email.)

Here's the second piece of writing:

To what degree is an intellectual trademark present in each of these two pieces of writing? The difference isn't subtle, is it?

The first piece of writing promises data on what does and does not work. A search of the entire article for the words "works", "doesn't", "does not", and "data" does not ever reveal the promised clarity on what does and doesn't work. Awfully close to the "well, it depends" answer to the question. Which might be good for the author's context -- a distinctive, unique, strongly-expressed point of view that takes a stand isn't right for every situation.

If it's right for your situation or you can see how a clearer, more arresting point of view might help you get where you want, my for-firms services can help:

  • Consulting that helps you specialize, define, and leverage a strong point of view: /consulting/
  • Coaching that gets the same results but with a coaching deliver model: /coaching/

-P

Notes:

Sales-ey Stuff

If you'd like coaching for yourself or your team to help apply the thinking I've shared above, please email me: philip@opportunitylabs.io

If you'd like to get notified when I publish new articles like this, there's an email list and this RSS feed.