“We made it here without marketing. Now what?”
“We made it here without marketing. But now it’s time to focus.”
Founders often say this.
And here is impressive: millions in revenue, great clients, strong team.
But this is where the risk begins.
Many bring in external help. Could be an agency. A copywriter. A specialist in ads/lead gen/social media.
There's a promise: ‘We’ve done it a hundred times and can roll it out for you too'.
Hmmm.
I’ve lost count of how many founders spent up to 8K/month on marketing with little to zero ROI.
What's so interesting, is that when I look at their process?
No customer was ever interviewed.
What consultants like that actually do is pick a story that feels right.
It’s logical that founders fall for this. The deep research ChatGPT spat out looked great, no? The founders’ passion shines through. The story just makes sense.
And it resembles what others do, what investors expect and what’s trending on LinkedIN.
The result? It feels right. But it’s based on false clarity.
Shiny, logical messaging with no depth, no emotions and no commercial traction.
Strategic messaging requires peeling back. Not stacking assumptions, but mapping truths.
FREEBIE TIME. I made you a a 2-minute self-check to see if you suffer from false clarity.
Why positioning (not: more content) is the B2B growth lever you’re missing
Why most B2B tech companies burn money on marketing and how to stop
Most B2B companies don’t fail at execution.
They fall out of alignment.
They pour energy (and budget) into brand refreshes, SEO, LinkedIn content, and clever copy only to end up with:
Sales saying, “These leads are useless.”
Prospects asking, “So… what exactly do you do?”
Boards wondering, “What are the metrics? Why are we paying for zero-ROI?”
Sound familiar?
It’s not your tactics.
It’s not your team.
It’s not even your funnel.
It’s your positioning. Or more precisely: the lack of embodied positioning.
Wait. Isn’t positioning just a fancy word for messaging?
Not quite. Messaging is what you say. Positioning is what people feel before you’ve even opened your mouth.
It’s the lens through which your brand is perceived, prioritised and picked.
If that lens is clouded, everything else will be too: your content, your copy, your sales conversations. Even your hiring…
Truth bomb:
If your marketing is not grounded in how your audience sees you, no one in your market will feel clear on why you matter.
(This is why great marketing is based on perceptions)
Most founders assume the role of marketing is to convince.
But when you’re not anchored in your own worth, your audience won’t do the emotional labour of figuring it out for you.
And no, more content won’t help. It simply turns the fog up.
(Fog can be extremely loud!)
Let’s be clear: Positioning is not persuasion.
It’s perception.
Most founders believe marketing is about convincing people of their value.
But the truth is: if you’re not clear on what you see (your market, your customers, your value, your purpose) no one else will get it.
Positioning is the game of aligning with how your audience perceives the (and their) world. And being so logically and clearly a player that makes that world a better place, that you’re invited into it.
The hidden cost of skipping positioning
Here’s what most scale-ups burn through in the first 6–12 months:
💸 10K on marketing hires that don’t bring in new leads
💸 15K on ads that don’t convert
💸 30K on lead gen that leads nowhere
💸 Countless hours on sales training that doesn’t compound
Not because the execution was poor. But because it was built on assumption, not alignment.
It’s like building a remote patch of land in Spain for going 100% off-grid before testing if the water isn’t polluted, if the ground is fertile or thinking through how much land you need.
You might get lucky.
But more often, you’ll have setbacks. And they’re expensive to repair.
So… what does real positioning look like?
This is the exact sequence I walk every client through. And it shifts everything from the inside out.
1. Perception
What do you believe about your market, your customer, your edge?
→ This is your internal compass. If it's misaligned, everything downstream will be too.
2. Competition
What are you really up against? What or whom do you replace?
→ Not always a rival. Could be inertia or a “we’re figuring it out internally”
3. Audience
What actually matters to your most resonant buyers?
→ Go beyond demographics. Think long-term goals, obstacles, jobs-to-be-done and desires.
4. Product
How does your solution integrate into their life or system?
→ Your solution resolves issues deeper than your competition.
5. Messaging
How do we express this in language?
→ There’s a pattern in words your audience uses. You should use their words.
6. Copy
Only now do we write. And now… the words truly work.
→ Translate everything from above into copy that moves people towards action.
Look, i made you a visual ;)
The shift is real
Brands that walk this path don’t just sound better, they lead with a different energy. Some examples of our customers:
90+ qualified inbound leads without any ad spend
A sales deck everyone actually uses
Enterprise deals signed without sounding salesy
From “What do we say?” to “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”
40x more visibility and resonance in their space
Standing ovations in the boardroom (yes, really).
This isn’t fluff. It’s focused presence.
Curious where your positioning might be leaking energy?
Here are three gentle but powerful ways to find out:
Take the False Clarity Check → Find your blind spots in under 3 minutes
Download the Truth-Based Positioning Sheet → Sharpen your positioning with your team
📞 Book a Clarity Call → In 20 minutes, I’ll show you where your story is breaking down: [link]
Because your next wave of growth won’t come from more content. It’ll come from deeper clarity. The kind that aligns your team, attracts the right clients and turns your content into a catalyst.
Startups flooding your market with cheap offers could be your biggest opportunity
TL;DR in 7 minutes I'll share the how and why of premium positioning.
Hi, it's me again :)
Thank you for opening this email. I'm Desirée, research analyst with 20+ years in marketing. I lead Babelfish, helping tech founders transform their messaging from complex to easy to sell.
<- This is me recovering from a flu with killer-clown skills. It was un fun.
This week's truth bomb: the premium paradox
Something fascinating keeps emerging in my conversations with tech founders lately. It's a reality that honestly breaks my heart a bit, because I see brilliant companies struggling unnecessarily... They're trying to compete with 'cheap' players while offering premium solutions. It's like bringing a gourmet meal to a fast-food fight - you're playing entirely the wrong game!
These companies typically share three powerful characteristics (and trust me, I've interviewed enough of them to spot the pattern from a mile away):
An insanely strong and loyal customer base (once in, they typically don't leave - it's like Hotel California, but in a good way)
A highly developed and optimised solution and service level (the extra mile isn't extra, it's just where they live)
A deep passion for a specific approach (with enough success stories to fill a Netflix series)
The bigger picture: what's happening in the market
This shift in market dynamics isn't unique to tech. We're seeing it across the entire B2B landscape, from cybersecurity to HR tech. And here's where it gets juicy: while venture-backed companies flood markets with free or cheap solutions, they're actually creating an unprecedented opportunity for premium providers.
One founder's story particularly struck me. His sports tech company has spent 15 years perfecting the onboarding, service offering and systems for professional sports clubs.
Recently, venture-backed competitors with megalodon (ask my kids, it's a thing) marketing budgets are flooding the market, literally giving away hardware to capture market share.
This sucks, because in his words:
‘We can't install systems for free - I'd destroy our cash flow,’ he explained. ‘These companies package everything so well. It all looks fancy and polished. It’s affordable. But at the same time, buyers are actually selling their data’.
The hidden pattern (and the good news)
Plot twist: These founders aren't actually struggling with a pricing problem. They're fighting a value perception battle.
And that's actually fantastic news, because while you can't always control market prices, you can absolutely transform how your value is perceived. (That might be the most important line of this whole newsletter)
Think about buying coffee. There's a reason why some people consistently choose a €5.50 craft coffee over a €2 quick fix. They're not just buying coffee - they're investing in quality, expertise, and an experience. The same principle applies in tech, just with higher stakes and longer-term implications. And usually without the caffeine jitters.
Where this is heading
What I'm seeing on the horizon is even more fascinating: As markets get flooded with 'free' or cheap solutions, a clear divide is emerging. This divide isn't just about pricing - it's about fundamental business philosophy.
On one side, we have:
Venture-backed companies offering 'free' or cheap solutions
Quick-win focused implementations
Data monetisation business models
Short-term market share grabs
On the other side, we see:
Long-term partnership focused providers
Deep expertise and customisation
True data ownership and privacy
Sustainable business models
Here's what makes this so interesting: While the market appears to be moving toward 'free', we're actually seeing a parallel trend where companies are becoming more aware of the hidden costs of these solutions. They're starting to ask harder questions:
What happens to our data?
Who really owns our implementation?
What are the long-term dependencies?
How sustainable is this business model?
This is precisely where premium providers call the shots. The 'race to the bottom' in pricing is actually creating a 'race to the top' in value delivery.
Your current clients already understand this - they chose long-term value over short-term savings.
Their loyalty isn't just about your product or service. It's about your entire approach to solving their problems. When you truly understand
This is what that looks like in practice
My brilliant friends over at Secwatch were stuck in this exact situation. Premium solution, premium price, premium headache trying to compete with the cheaper cowboys that were flooding their market. Through our research, we completely transformed their approach. The result? Ad performance soared (+12%), business value jumped (+50% according to their accountant), and they stopped delivering a service that was high-cost, low-ROI. And here's the best part - they have now packaged their premium partnership to a subscription model that brings in monthly revenue.
We simply discovered their clients weren’t buying cybersecurity - they were buying peace of mind and partnership. We repackaged their services to reflect the little truths in how far and wide their partnership went. Once we repositioned around that, price became secondary.
Turning insight into action: your next steps
How can you apply this wisdom right now?
Find your own terms to compete with Your premium pricing isn't the problem. Your strategic narrative is. When you properly articulate the long-term value of your solution, price objections naturally dissolve because you understand exactly WHO to market to and WHAT they need.
Flip the script on marketing Instead of following playbooks and cookie-cutter strategies, look at your target audience. What is their position when they need a solution like yours? Where do they stand both demographically and in terms of worries, pains, symptoms? Which competitors do they consider and why? How do they look for a solution?
Align marketing and sales Not everyone will understand or appreciate premium value. That's okay, there’s market for everyone. You focus your energy on prospects who recognise the strings that come from quick wins. Build relationships and make sure to infuse your marketing with what you learn in the sales cycle and vice versa.
Truth Bombs from my own trenches - what I’m learning
Speaking of pricing and value, I've been deep in the process of evolving my own service offerings. And by 'deep in the process' I mean questioning my own truths as always and consciously looking for patterns in sales conversations. Aligning sales, marketing and delivery is starting to really pay off in terms of strategic decision making and optimising.
What's fascinating is how customer research consistently reveals that clients value the strategic clarity we provide far more than the tactical deliverables. One client, a very niche and nerdy software company (my favorite kind!), received a standing ovation from their board of advisors. Yes, an actual standing ovation. For a positioning strategy. These are the kinds of feedback that make me weak in the knees.
This insight leads me to restructure my FeedbackFuel service, focusing more explicitly on the strategic transformation it enables rather than just the research deliverables.
If you’re ready to work with me
Here's how I can help you:
Wisdom Workshop: In 90 minutes, uncover what's actually blocking your growth and get actionable recommendations from an independent nerd with 20 years of experience.
FeedbackFuel: Get the exact words and highly strategic and tactical insights that help you nail your messaging and get you deals.
Curious if this could work for you? Happy to chat: https://savvycal.com/desireekolman/connect
Your customers are telling you exactly how to grow your business. You’re just not listening.
You’re already having the conversations. You’re just not mining the gold.
TL;DR Every client conversation is a potential goldmine of insights that could transform your product, marketing, and sales. Many tech founders waste this potential by not structuring these conversations properly. Learn a practical framework to capture strategic insights from client interactions, including mapping knowledge gaps, designing conversation flows, and implementing findings systematically. Plus: actionable questions you can use to uncover valuable customer insights.
Hi, it’s me (and I ain’t no bot, no)
Welcome to my new headquarters! From now on I’ll operate from my new business name Babelfish Customer Clarity Ops. You most certainly have seen The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? It’s a good name.
To me, AI is starting to become a very limited show full of gradients, all-caps, emoji’s and perfectly formatted bullet lists (i used them too, mea culpa). That’s why you can trust that this newsletter always stays hand-written and hand-strategised.
Especially for you, Jason Donovan sang to Kylie as I sing to you.
This week's truth bomb (2-3 min read)
Last week, I spoke with three tech companies about customer experience. Each one had the same realisation: they were having dozens of client conversations every week... and apart from actually solving client issues on those calls, wasting the hidden potential in them.
Here's the pattern I keep seeing: Founders spend hours and hours each week in client calls, demos, onboarding calls and support sessions.
But they're missing the golden insights that these clients intrinsically carry.
Honestly, I don’t blame them. They:
Don't want to ‘waste client time’
Fear damaging carefully built relationships
Lack a systematic way to gather insights
Aren't sure what to ask or when to ask it
Are snowed under in the day-to-day (what to focus on!?!)
I decided to dedicate a full newsletter to this, because from my view every client conversation is a potential gold mine of insights that could transform your product, marketing, sales and your overall customer experience. You just need to know how to mine it.
One client proved this recently. Their HR tool seemed like ‘just another survey platform’ until they started having structured conversations with clients.
What they discovered? They weren't in the survey business at all - they were creating a supersonic flywheel between data collection and policy decisions. This insight completely transformed their marketing and sales approach.
Deep Dive. What unstructured client conversations are costing you (3-4 min read)
Let's get real about what you're missing when you don't structure your client conversations properly. I don’t know about you but usually my readers are in one of two areas. Pre-seed/startups on the one hand. Scale-ups on the other.
One thing that ties both of those groups together, is the deep need to make a positive impact (as opposed to just make a positive profit).
Here’s areas that i typically see both groups waste potential:
Mission & impact drift:
Building a product that doesn't fulfill its true potential (leaving market share on the table)
Missing opportunities to create deeper client transformation (smarter upselling)
Solving surface problems instead of root causes (better lifetime value)
Overlooking chances to make a real difference in your industry (building authority)
Message & connection loss:
Speaking in features when clients care about transformation (conversion problems)
Missing the emotional core of your value proposition (traffic/pipeline problems)
Attracting clients who don't share your vision (resource issues)
Investing energy in the wrong stories and channels (oooh marketing budget wasted)
Relationship disconnects:
Working with clients who don't energise you (employee loyalty 😟)
Misunderstanding what truly matters to your ideal clients (leads ghosting you)
Missing chances to deepen client partnerships (upsells & crossells, ambassadors!)
Building a reputation for the wrong things (hearing the same price concerns)
This isn't just about optimisation or growth. It's about building something that matters, that truly serves the clients you want to work with. When you have the right conversations, you don't just improve metrics - you validate that you're building something meaningful, something that creates the change you want to see in your industry and attracting the right people for it: both employees and partners and leads.
Roadmap. How to set up strategic client conversations
Before you dive into specific questions, let's set up a system that ensures every conversation counts. Here's the framework that transforms casual chats into strategic gold:
1. Map your knowledge gaps The best way to get strategic responses is to ask strategic questions (duh!). But first, you need to know what you're really looking for:
Gather your marketing and sales geniuses
Map out what you know (and think you know)
Identify the assumptions you're making
List the decisions you need to validate
Document the patterns you want to test
2. Design the convo flow Strategic insights don't happen by accident. They need the right moment, the right people, and the right approach:
Identify natural touchpoints in your processes for these conversations
Pinpoint which team members have the strongest client relationships
Create clear criteria for selecting the right interviewees
Develop a narrative that makes clients WANT to share
Decide between formal interviews or casual check-ins
3. Build your implementation system Great insights are worthless if they die in a stuffy drawer. Before you start gathering wisdom, know how you'll use it:
Create a simple system for documenting insights
Assign clear owners for different types of findings
Set up regular reviews of what you're learning
Define how insights connect to decisions
Plan how you'll share wins back with (and thank!) participating clients
Think of this as your conversation compass. When you have these elements in place, every question you ask becomes more powerful because you know what you need to learn, what to ask and when to ask it and what you’ll do with what you discover.
Now that you have your framework, let's look at some example questions that will help you uncover these insights...
Example questions
I thought long and hard about enclosing actual questions because there’s obvious risks here - that you gather answers that don’t make any sense to your particular challenge. I decided to go forth and insert them anyway, because they could also just spark something that might be valuable to you.
Please don’t just go ahead and ask for the sake of asking. Please do your homework first.
Product conversations:
"What's the most unexpected way you've used our [product]?"
"If you had to explain our value to your CEO in one sentence, what would you say?"
"What problem were you trying to solve when you first looked for a solution like ours?"
Strategy conversations:
"How do you see your industry evolving in the next 2-3 years?"
"What's the biggest challenge you believe your competitors aren't seeing?"
"If budget wasn't a constraint, what would you change first about your current process?"
Implementation conversations:
"What's one thing you wish you'd known before implementing our solution?"
"How did you get internal buy-in for this change?"
"What's been the most surprising benefit of using our solution?"
Truth bombs from my own trenches
In my business I’m currently moving into territory that i deeply enjoy: partnering strategically. Building my ecosystem of business partners that can easily amplify my impact and vice versa is starting to look like a very promising and powerful path.
Having conversations with companies that are highly complementary to me is so joyful. I’m starting to get better at this type of conversation too: i’m starting to recognise within the first ten minutes if this is yet another ‘abstract-will-never-get-to-an-actual-collab’ or an exploration that will lead to stronger bonds.
To me, this looks like a trend: it feels as if specialists are combining forces and recognising the true depth of the saying: ‘alone you can go fast, together you can go further’.
Does this resonate with you? What is your referral strategy?
I am currently thinking about my visual identity. It is a mess 🙂 or basically even non-existent. I know that there’s a tipping point between bootstrapping things and actually harming your brand. I’m aware, I’ve just been building product so crazily these last 6 months that i’ve let the focus on tying it together visually slip. Would love to hear your take on this. Is this nerdy long-read too nerdy? (It fits my personality lol)
If you're ready to work with me
Here's how I can help you:
Wisdom Workshop: In 90 minutes, uncover what's actually blocking your growth and get actionable recommendations from an independent nerd with 20 years of experience.
FeedbackFuel: Get the exact words and highly strategic and tactical insights that help you nail your messaging and get you deals.
Curious if this could work for you? Happy to chat: https://savvycal.com/desireekolman/connect
Try this foolproof, underrated strategy with crazy high ROI
TL;DR there's a simple, dead cheap way to reactivate 'failed' deals from the past. I deployed this with two clients and it got them crazy results.
Hi again, it's me
I noticed a pattern in all of the clients I've EVER worked wit, validated it with fellow entrepreneurs around me and in a recent project I delivered. No, two recent projects. Both were absurdly successful. I want you to do the exact same thing in your business.
In this newsletter:
Why 'failed' pipelines aren't actually failed
How to reactivate in the simplest and cheapest of ways
The exact framework that turned cold leads into hot prospects
This week's truth bomb
Most founders are focused on generating new leads. It's just more sexy to think about funnels, conversion and traffic - but it's also amplified by the gazillion playbooks and strategies you can find on social channels.
During recent Wisdom Workshops I keep uncovering the blind spot in sales opportunity: the 'failed' sales pipeline.
What the h3ll is happening in your CRM?
One of the founders that I spoke with had a full-force lead gen strategy. They had a strong and heavy focus on Sales Nav, targeting leads by job title and company size, crunching data.
I like that. It's brazing. If you master Sales Navigator and use it to target the right audience in the right way, it's a GOLDmine.
But the issue was that the same company had an issue with lead quality and the length of their sales cycle. People they spoke to were either not the decision-maker OR not ready to jump the wagon.
Of course, failed deals are a disappointment. Deal with them, then move on. Because failed deals are actually a huge opportunity too.
When I dug deeper, this is what I found:
More than 60% of failed deals never got proper follow-up
Around 30% weren't ready then (but might be now)
Roughly 10% had budget issues (that may have changed)
Think about it: market conditions change, budgets shift, and problems evolve. Yesterday's 'no' might be today's yes.
How to prep your 'failed' sales pipeline
If you'd want to look at your 'failed' sales pipeline, here's what I would do:
Analyze your sales conversations. Look for the exact words that your buyer used to describe the situation right before they started to look for a solution. This is how you find sales and marketing messaging that resonates with your audience.
Map these to your ideal client: how was their job, their role, their impact affected by that situation This is how you find your audience's motives, pain points and the urgency to say yes.
Link that back to your services: what is the hidden benefit of the features and specific approach you bring? This is how you find your product/market fit: WHY your solution is THE solution.
In simple words. You have to HOVER over your current approach, put the spotlight on the right elements and connect the dots. Hit that brake. Look for depth.
If you have no one in-house who can help you with this: HIRE SOMEONE WHO CAN before spending thousands on marketing or sales tactics that build on blind spots.
(Spoiler alert: it's costly)
How to reactivate said pipeline
If you got that first part right, I suggest you follow these steps to reactivate the people who previously said no to you OR ghosted you OR are just gathering dust on your mailing list:
Pull up your CRM and your subscriber list or any other source
Filter for leads from the past 24 months
Do a quick browse on LinkedIN, their website
Sort by probability, urgency, or deal size
Check their last touchpoint - was it email? a phone call? a demo?
Find their current office address
Send them a highly targeted letter with a goodie, in a box. MAKE IT FUN. Make it stand out.
Follow up in a few days
My clients had raving success with this. One of them got 2 high-ticket clients with an order value of 60k per lead from one campaign that cost him less than a 1000 euros. Another got 8 good quality leads before even launching her campaign (she dropped a few mysterious lines in her newsletter and BOOM - leads).
From my trenches
Getting marketing and sales right is SO rewarding. Because filling up pipeline fixes most of the issues that keep your business stuck. Even a capacity issue can be fixed with good messaging: the better you are at explaining your value, the easier it is to attract the right people.
In my own business, I'm continuously analyzing the effectiveness of my sales, my marketing, my lead quality, my hidden opportunity too.
What I've noticed is patterns. When I hover over my business I can see patterns. Patterns I can influence by pivoting.
From issues with my offer (which i fixed by looking at patterns) I moved on to an issue with my lead quality (which i fixed by looking at the patterns). Then my challenge was in sales (which I am fixing by looking at the patterns).
I love issues with sales. They are the easiest to fix. You have traction. You have the language. Sales problems are a good thing to have :) You get better at sales with every 'failed' sales conversation.
That's why the strategy that you read in this newsletter has such phenomenal ROI.
This week's final words
Don't skip the sales pipeline. Make sure to market to those that you know needed you in the past - and connect with them again.
If you're ready to work with me
Here's how I can help you:
Wisdom Workshop: let me tailgate your terror. I'll show you exactly what the issue is in your current marketing and sales. Deep insights and recommendations included.
FeedbackFuel: Get the exact messaging framework, fully developed persona and content strategy that resonates with your target audience.
Curious if this could work for you? Let's chat!
Take care of yourselves!
-Desirée
Flashy features aren’t enough. This is how you build a moat.
Preview: Investors and employees AND leads want it
TL;DR in this long and hand-crafted e-mail the why and the how of a moat, with highly actionable insights that you can instantly deploy in your business
Hi, it’s me (and I ain’t no bot, no)
Welcome to my new headquarters! From now on I’ll operate from my new business name Babelfish Customer Clarity Ops. You most certainly have seen The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? It’s a good name.
To me, AI is starting to become a very limited show full of gradients, all-caps, emoji’s and perfectly formatted bullet lists (i used them too, mea culpa). That’s why you can trust that this newsletter always stays hand-written and hand-strategised.
Especially for you, Jason Donovan sang to Kylie as I sing to you.
This week's truth bomb
I speak to a lot of founders who have that special something: success, scalability and the spark of uniqueness that i LOVE. The trouble is, I always have to dig deep to find it, because most founders don’t walk around showing it off.
It’s never on LinkedIN - because there it feels daunting to truly stand out for a lot of people.
No, it’s always on their website, sometimes 8 layers deep: an unfair advantage. Something seemingly small, in words, where the business’s beginning thread of their true unfair advantage shines through.
When you find a detail like that, you can start untangling the unfair advantage.
It’s like a treasure hunt. You start and you find golden nugget after golden nugget. Following that trail of nuggets ALWAYS leads to your unfair advantage. That specific area in which no one can beat you, because what you bring is so ingrained in your business, your vision, your approach.
For example, one website I looked at had it screaming at me deep in their calendly form:
It seems so small. Yet when I read it I see a stark contradiction with the rest of the website, which felt generic and ‘bland’. Here speaks the founder. I can even see him typing on his keyboard. It’s authentic, it’s open, it’s very, very genuine.
So I decided to dig deeper. There was more (there's always more). Look at this:
This is a reference to their company name. It screams backstory, it screams fun stuff, it screams brand voice and what to expect in terms of cheerful drinks that might get a bit out of hand on Friday night ;)
When I looked at the rest of their website, I saw a lot of beautiful words that were 100% generic and vague. Things like:
I understand what this means. They’re words I know. Yet here’s the issue:
It does NOT convey any true value-add. There’s no edge. There’s no oomph. There’s nothing that makes them stand out in their market.
Anyone could start a business right now and put those same lines on their website.
The baseline of what i’m saying is:
Features of the product are not going to cut it. You need a moat.
What the hell is a moat?
A moat is nothing new (like many concepts in marketing, by the way). If you are into stocks, you know what a moat is. Literally speaking it is a deep canal around your castle. It gives your people inside safety from troops incoming who want to take your crown, your jewels, your power.
This is not medieval times. Yet you still need a moat.
Your brand is your moat. Your unique selling proposition including proof points such as social proof, case studies and other assets that no one in the whole wide world can copy, these together form your moat. It is your competitive edge, your sustainable unfair advantage.
Now the founder that i spoke with, knew all of this. This specific founder had an impressive career with advertising agencies and with Apple. The guy knew he needed to start digging his moat. He new everything about competitive edges and what it helps you to do in your market.
The brilliant thing was that he had secured big names who hired his company. So everything he needs to start digging that moat is there, BEGGING to be revealed.
Happy buzzing customers are your entry point into moat’ing - is that a word? It should be.
Let me get this clear. Great names that chose you are great, but not enough of a moat.
Because here’s the deal:
you don’t own your customer base
you can’t predict external factors such as the market or competition
Investors know this. They are looking for opportunities that are safe for them.
They want answers to these questions:
How easily can competitors copy your solution?
What specific market advantage do you own?
How sustainable is your differentiation?
Hence, the moat. A moat protects you from things you can’t control by adding a layer of safety around what you’ve built. If investors can't find the moat or don’t believe you can dig one, you'll have a hard time getting funded.
Leads know this. The moat is exactly what convinces your target audience to say yes to you and not to some hipster cowboy who is still wet behind the ears, finds some absurdly simple way to fake his way to your target audience and steals your frigging market.
Employees know this. Employer branding is a thing of the past when you have a moat. You’ll be a magnet for good people - like Google once was.
You want to start digging your moat.
The starting point for your own moat
If you want a moat, make sure to:
know your target audience better than the back of your hand, including objections they have to overcome and motives for choosing you over the competition
deeply understand who your true and REAL competitors are (spoiler: it’s not always another company or the company that YOU have top of mind!) and what it is that you do better, differently or with more panache
have your product/market fit figured out, so that you are always ahead of any newcomer or market change
That, my dear reader, is the beginning of your moat. It makes you undeniably stronger with your market presence.
Something you can do rightaway
To find your moat you could of course turn to ChatGPT and ask 'what is my moat?' or 'what are our differentiators'? But you'll never get that precious time back and the answer will be so frigging bland that it will make count dracula look like he is from Bali.
So I suggest you do the following instead:
make a list of your 5 top clients
gather your team and ask them: why did they specifically chose us?
brainstorm for 30 minutes, then let them go prosper somewhere else
call up those clients and figure out what the most quantifiable, the most surprising and the most qualifiable result is of them working with you (yes those are three different things)
connect those dots back to your messaging and sales
From my own trenches
I don't see myself as someone who would like to get funding soon but I do like the idea of scaling and simplifying. The interesting thing is that you need to simplify in order to scale. So yes - I'm simplifying. Basically building a moat ;)
This means a few things:
my business name is no longer Desirée Kolman, but Babelfish Customer Clarity. There’s also a logo and a brand new website.
I will slowly but steadily change the newsletter to better match your needs and wants, dear reader. This new format right here is part of the transition. I hope you like it. Send me your praise or your hate. I can handle the heat.
As I said: this is all hand-crafted. I can safely say I've organised and embedded AI deeply into my processes but have completely lost faith in it ever being able to create content that matches my personality, vision and crazy high standards (once a copywriter…). I DO use it extensively for coming up with ideas, hooks and connecting dots all the way back from nitty-gritty details in sales or client conversations.
Final words
I'm crawling back into my girl cave now where I like to drink hot bevs and read books that make me laugh out loud. That feat is currently limited to Richard Feynman and Terry Pratchett so don't be a partypooper now and share with me any author who makes you roll with laughter. Pretty please? Otherwise i’ll have to gear up Netflix again and watch silly things like Nailed It. Help me avoid that.
If you're ready to work with me
Here’s how I can help you:
Wisdom Workshop: Stop losing thousands a month on marketing that doesn't convert. In 90 minutes, uncover what's actually blocking your growth and get actionable recommendations from an independent nerd with 20 years of experience. One client generated 8 qualified leads from a single email after our session.
FeedbackFuel: Get the exact words and highly strategic and tactical insights that help you nail your messaging and get you deals. Recent result: ‘I had overlooked that one thing about my target audience for all these years’. This was a parameter that will help him target salesqualified leads with one filter click on Sales Navigator.
Curious if this could work for you? Let's chat: https://savvycal.com/desireekolman/connect
Take care of yourselves, and each other (name that show!)
-Desirée