This document discusses the importance of having a clear point of view (POV) for professional services firms and other brands to differentiate themselves from competitors. It provides a positioning framework and explains that generic messages about quality, service, etc. are not differentiators if others use them too. The document advocates finding a unique POV by understanding the target audience and why they choose a brand. Examples are given of musicians like David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen who built strong brands through consistency in their clear POVs as the "Futuristic Iconoclast" and "Blue Collar Rebel" respectively. Having a POV provides guide rails and permission to be innovative while staying aligned with audience expectations.

1. Ryan Schulz
@ryan_schulz

2. Genre Bending
Finding Your Differentiator

3. Professional services firms
seem to be persistently in the
middle of an identity crisis.

6. Everyone goes to market
with what are essentially the
same core messages.

7. Why?

8. Survey Time

9. How many of you use one or
more of these core messages?
q Quality Work Product
q Superior Client Service
q Trust and Integrity
q Results Driven
q Collaborative
q Innovative

10. These Are Not Differentiators
If no one else claims the opposite, it’s not a differentiator.
§ Poor quality
§ Shoddy client service
§ Shiftiness
§ Process and profit driven
§ Selfish
§ Stuck in the past

11. Let’s Kill the Status Quo
These are not differentiating messages. They are reasons
to believe in a bigger story.
§ Poor quality
§ Shoddy client service
§ Shiftiness
§ Process and profit driven
§ Selfish
§ Stuck in the pastX

12. Abbreviated List of Sameness
§ Quality Work Product
§ Superior Client Service
§ Trust and Integrity
§ Results Driven
§ Collaborative
§ Innovative

13. If these aren’t differentiators,
where do they belong?

14. A Positioning Framework
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Key Benefit
Reasons to Believe
For _______________
who are looking for
__________________
there is ____________,
the _______________
because only ________
is _________________.
The segment for whom the
positioning is focused on.
The category of services in
the competitive set.
What the brand delivers to
the market that is credible,
differentiated, and relevant.
Activities, technologies,
and capabilities that prove the
brand is capable of delivering.

15. For _______________
who are looking for
__________________
there is ____________,
the _______________
because only ________
is _________________.
A Positioning Framework
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Key Benefit
Reasons to believe
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Key Benefit
Reasons to Believe
The segment for whom the
positioning is focused on.
The category of services in
the competitive set.
What the brand delivers to the
market that is credible,
differentiated, and relevant.
Activities, technologies, and
capabilities that prove the
brand is capable of delivering.

16. For _______________
who are looking for
__________________
there is ____________,
the _______________
because only ________
is _________________.
A Positioning Framework
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Key Benefit
Reasons to believe
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Key Benefit
Reasons to Believe
The segment for whom the
positioning is focused on.
The category of services in
the competitive set.
What the brand delivers to the
market that is credible,
differentiated, and relevant.
Activities, technologies, and
capabilities that prove the
brand is capable of delivering.

17. Differentiation is key to client
identification and developing real
loyalty…

18. and, it’s a whole lot easier to tell a story about.
Differentiation is key to client
identification and developing real
loyalty…

19. “Professional services firms are
essentially all alike. Clients hire
professionals not firms.”
- Some Executive

20. “Professional services firms are
essentially all alike. Clients hire
professionals not firms.”
- Some Executive

21. Finding Fresh Ground
§ Makes audiences pay just a little more attention
§ Gives people a little hook to hang their memory on
§ Provides audiences an actual plotline
§ Gives you a better rationale for your pricing structure
§ Creates a framework to organize your offerings around
§ Gives context to your reasons to believe

22. The path to differentiation.

23. You need a point of view.

24. Q: What does having a point
of view have to do with
differentiation?

25. A: Everything.

26. Three Steps to Understanding Your POV
1 2 3

27. Three Steps to Understanding Your POV
1 2 3
1. Know what you sell.

28. Know What You Sell
§ It’s not your practice areas.
§ It’s not industry expertise.
§ It’s not innovation.
§ It’s not collaboration.
“Glamour is what I sell,
it’s my stock and trade.”
- Marlene Dietrich

29. You Sell a Feeling
§ Confidence
§ Security
§ Bandwidth
§ Perspective
§ Focus
§ Salvation
§ Advantage
§ Etc.
“Glamour is what I sell,
it’s my stock and trade.”
- Marlene Dietrich

30. Three Steps to Understanding Your POV
1 2 3
2. Know your audience.

31. Know Your Audience
§ Not their names
§ Not how much they spend
§ Not what they do
§ Not where they live

32. Surprise Your Audience
§ Know what drives them.
§ Know what your work
does for them.
§ Know how they feel
when they are successful.
§ Know them as people.

33. Three Steps to Understanding Your POV
1 2 3
3. Try to understand why
they chose you.

34. Understand Why They Picked You
§ This is always changing.
§ Be ready to adapt.
§ Ask them why.
§ Be realistic about the
answer.

35. Three Steps to Understanding Your POV
1 2 3BONUS: Be disciplined

36. What is your point of view?

37. The Obsessed PerfectionistThe Informed Optimist
The Blue-Sky StrategistThe Premium Pragmatist

38. What? + Who? + Why? =
Your POV

39. Music sits at the center of
Art and Commerce.

40. Art
Requires a clear
point of view.

41. Commerce
Requires making
money.

42. Art Commerce
Requires a clear
point of view.
Requires making
money.

43. Art Commerce
The Music Industry
Requires a clear
point of view.
Requires making
money.

44. “Professional services firms are
essentially all alike. Clients hire
professionals not firms.”
- Some Executive

45. “Musicians are essentially all alike.
Audiences just want a tune they can
tap their foot to.”
- Some Music Executive

46. Full Screen Image
Common Traits of Most Music
You listen to it.
Made of notes
and/or rhythms.
It’s meant to
provoke a feeling.
It’s played for
pleasure.

47. What if music existed in
that sea of sameness?

48. “I am a full-service musician offering
a wide variety of songs that are both
complex and totally jammin’. I consistently
collaborate with a wide variety of innovative
musicians playing both regional and global
tunes for audiences everywhere and nowhere.”
- Some failed musician

50. Lame.

52. Major Themes in Art
§ Global or Local Culture
§ Politics or Economics
§ Identity/Personhood
§ Time
§ Love
§ Revenge
§ Beauty
§ Power

53. It’s all about
building brand equity.

54. How Do They Build Brand Equity?
§ They have a unique POV.
§ They know where and when to invest.
§ They know the impacts of that investment.
§ They have a keen understanding of their audience
and how those audiences might react.

55. Positioning Framework
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Key Benefit
Reasons to believe
For _______________
who are looking for
__________________
there is ____________,
the _______________
because only ________
is _________________.
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Key Benefit
Reasons to believe
The segment for whom the
positioning is focused on.
The category of services in
the competitive set.
What the brand delivers to the
market that is credible,
differentiated, and relevant.
Activities, technologies, and
capabilities that prove the
brand is capable of delivering.
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Reasons to Believe
Key Benefit

56. Positioning Framework
For _______________
who are looking for
__________________
there is ____________,
the _______________
because only ________
is _________________.
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Key Benefit
Reasons to believe
The segment for whom the
positioning is focused on.
The category of services in
the competitive set.
What the brand delivers to the
market that is credible,
differentiated, and relevant.
Activities, technologies, and
capabilities that prove the
brand is capable of delivering.
Target Audience
Frame of Reference
Reasons to Believe
POV

57. Pop Superstars With Clear POVs

58. David Bowie

60. Who Is David Bowie?

61. The Futuristic Iconoclast

62. Bruce Springsteen

63. 1970s 1980s 2000s

64. Who Is Bruce Springsteen?

65. Blue Collar Rebel

66. What Can We Learn from These Guys?

67. Having a clear point of view
has given each of them two
important things.

68. Guide Rails
Permission

69. Guide Rails
Permission
Defines where you are allowed to work.
Sets expectations around that work.

70. What do these things add up to?

71. CONTEXT

72. Bruce Springsteen
§ Familiarity leads to loyalty
§ His audience is looking
for comfort.
§ When you are familiar,
the songwriting has to
be great.

73. David Bowie
§ Perceived as an innovator
§ Deeply rooted in all the
arts, especially fashion
and film
§ Ultimate freedom to
make mistakes
§ Motivation to keep pushing

74. Their Nicknames Say It All.

75. They know the value
of building strong
brand equity.

76. How do you
build brand equity?

77. Achieving True Differentiation
1. Establish a clear point of view.
2. Get everyone aligned to that point of view.
3. Be disciplined and don’t stray.
4. Never follow the competition.

78. Finding Fresh Ground for Your POV
§ A long history or storied past
§ Super premium services/luxury
§ Quantifiable business
intelligence
§ Specific offerings that
become unique when
combined
§ A specialized region or
an industry

79. Two Secrets to Success
1. Half of differentiation is identification.
2. The other half is consistency.

80. Find your POV.
Stick to it.

81. Don’t Get Distracted by Shiny Objects
§ Never follow the
competition.
§ The competition’s story
is not yours.
§ Unless, of course, you
decide to make it yours.

82. A Story About Following the Competition
TayTay Ryan Adams

84. “I write pop songs.” “I write songs about
heartache.”

86. “Every poet is a thief.”
- Bono

87. Translation:
“Feel free to steal…
but make it your own.”
- Ryan Schulz

88. By applying your
unique POV to whatever you
are communicating, you can
experience creative freedom
and true differentiation.

89. Thanks.