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