Problem
We live in an ultra-communicated society and proposition abundant world. Most new companies, new brands, and new products fail to get noticed and adopted at scale. Prospects don't notice, don't care.
This challenge is only getting worse. You can feel the difference from 10, 5, 2 years ago. It's hella noisy out there. Even if you are offering something functionally new and fresh, it's often met with apathy. You may feel it's pretty different, but prospects don't see it that way, or, 'get it'.
This is a non-trivial obstacle to overcome.
Figuring out how to stand out compellingly can be difficult when you are too close to the situation. And, hiring internally or externally to solve the problem usually fails — candidates and consultants lack the founder mindset, strategic thinking, and executional ability. They're often unsure what to 'do' with a new idea, and will often play it safe copying what has been done before rather than being bold and creative.
Result: the idea gets lost in the noise. You end up going around in an endless circle to nowhere.
Insight
Companies often mistake symptoms as problems in a GTM context.
Low leads? "Do more advertising." "Do more outbound." "Do more content."
Crippling conversion? "New pricing". "New channels". "New pitch".
Rotten retention? "Add features". "Add support". "Add discounts".
This causes an overemphasis on tactics and tools. Doing more stuff, but achieving less. Trying more tools, but achieving less. Measuring more metrics, but achieving less. In essence, such companies have not recognised or realised the actual problem that needs to be solved (defined above).
It's not the act of doing that makes the breakout difference, it's the cognition and thinking behind it. Getting into the weeds on how prospects perceive the proposition placed before them. Developing a strategic thinking model of how it fits into a category and up against competing priorities.
In other words: if you improve perception, you sell more stuff. Getting this right supercharges your tactics.
Therefore, engineering perception should be the core focus. Master it, like a samurai swordsmith. Radical differentiation is the sharp blade we use to cut through the noise. Psychology is the sword.
Approach
There's three core ingredients that make our approach different to everybody else:
1. Founder mindset. We are startup founders ourselves, which is to say our default setting is high-agency, contrarian, and hustle-driven. Making sh*t happen with little resources. Connecting the dots. Knowing what it's like in the trenches and what it takes to get results.
2. Strategic thinking. We have a very strong philisophy on how to develop a GTM strategy, derived from the greatest thinkers of all time in this domain: Al Ries & Jack Trout. The only reality that matters is the mind of your prospect. We utilise psychology to get into the minds of your prospects and win.
3. Guerilla instincts. We don't believe in copying what everybody else does. That's a fastpass to nowhere. Being different is how you standout. We achieve that through creativity and resourcefulness. The most productive tactics are not always those that are neatly packaged and presented before you, it's the unbeaten path. Tactics should be lean, mean, and pack a punch. Acting like a punk, not a politician.