Peter Winick says most firms waste time on generic branding exercises instead of asking their actual clients three simple questions: what value do you bring, why are you paying us, and what problems do we solve? Listen to the answers and build your messaging from there.
A lot of times we don't do a good job in communicating the value that we provide to our clients. We don't really do a great job in telling them or explaining to them the problems that we're uniquely qualified to solve. So what do we do? We hire branding people, we do whiteboarding sessions, we brainstorm, we come up with words, we say describe yourself as if you were a car. In some cases those are good exercises. In many cases they're futile. I think the best thing to do is to go to your clients and just ask them one question. Ask them what the value you bring to the table is. Ask them why they're paying you. Ask them what they think the problems are that you solve. And listen. So ask and listen. Your clients will tell you why they're hiring you. It might not be why you thought they are, and you've got to be open-minded and you've got to listen. And you've got to be willing to react to that and respond to that. But by asking your clients not to describe what kind of car you are, but why they hire you and why they continue to hire you and the value that you provide them with, you'll get all the insight that you need to be able to communicate that effectively to future prospects and clients. Thanks so much.
