Playing to Win: How to Stand Out in a Sea of Acronyms

Wait…I meant “sea of sameness”, didn’t I? 

Nah.

While I’m sure the phrase was provocative in its day, I’m loath to use something so, well…overused - especially in the marketing space.  In fact, googling “sea of sameness” will get you 2.5 million results, but if you’re a marketer – that won’t surprise you.  We spend a lot of time trying to get attention, be unique and ultimately win in a crazy competitive marketplace. 

And while a strong brand will 100% help you do those things, more often than you’d think - especially in the industrial B2B market - deliberate and consistent brand building is still hit or miss.  An acronym for a brand, however, that’s meaning is neither intuitive nor clear…man, those seem to be everywhere.

Case in point…I’m working with a client that’s been in the utility trucks and heavy equipment business for 50 years, but has yet to develop a cohesive, consistent brand.  Multiple business entities have been created and/or acquired over the years and legacy DBAs – even if no longer reflective of their product portfolio – are still in place.  As a result, the business suffers from a lack of awareness, differentiation and even some confusion – and it’s limiting their growth. 

Because they’re poised to leverage dynamics in the industry to innovate and open up new markets, they need a strong brand as part of their go-to-market strategy.  But before we get serious about brand strategy, it’s critical to understand the business’ strategy. 

Playing to Win

I’ve been using Roger Martin’s Playing to Win (PTW) Framework ever since I had the opportunity to engage with him at a strategy session while at Westrock – a large, global packaging company.  The methodology that he and A.G. Lafley outline in Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works is simple, intuitive and flexible and takes the complexity (and the overwhelm) out of strategy development. Strategy is ultimately about making choices.  The PTW framework helps you think through the logic of your strategic choices and increase the confidence that you’re making the right ones. 

One of the things I love most about PTW is that while it’s an excellent framework for high-level, business strategy, it’s also a great tool to drill down into functional strategy (i.e. sales, marketing, pricing), individual team strategy, and even personal strategy (I’m currently using PTW for leadership coaching).  And, it works for both Fortune 500 and scrappy start-ups (and everything in between).  It’s a great way to build a vision with an actionable roadmap to increase the odds that you’ll realize that vision.

It's also a super effective way to get an existing leadership team in lockstep with respect to what they want to be and how they’re going to get there. Only then can sales & marketing build a plan, align on roles and hit the ground running - and drive results doing so.

To be clear, my client had a strategy.  They also had some knowledge of their priority customer segment.  But they’d never put pen to paper, worked through and aligned on some of the more critical dimensions and pressure test their strategy to feel confident that it would, in fact, set them up for success.  That’s step #1.

Nailing the WHERE and the HOW (the heart of your strategy)

For clients with existing businesses, capabilities and problems to solve, we often start defining the where they want to play and how they’re going to win components of the PTW strategy cascade and work through the strategic choices they need to make to be successful.

And a HUGE part of nailing this is to KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER.  I mean really know them.  Not just from a market segment standpoint or organizationally…but individually as well.  Who are the buyers, the influencers, the decision makers within your target B2B customers?  What do their days look like?  Where do they work?  How to do they work?  What’s their vernacular?  What do they care about most?  How do they communicate?  How do they like to be communicated to?  What pressures are they facing today?  What pressures will they be facing tomorrow?  What options do they have to solve their most critical business issues?

Talking to your customers (and potential customers) is the best way to get smart about all of these things.  It’s also the best way to truly understand your client’s value proposition, how they’re perceived by their customers and why they buy.  Some clients push back on making the investment or taking the time to do this. Sometimes, they’re just squirrely about asking their customers questions.

At the end of the day, everybody wants to help and everyone likes to have a voice. All you have to do is be curious.  I’ve NEVER been disappointed with the insight we generate and the ah-ha moments that ensue when we engage with our client’s customers.  This is our secret weapon – which weirdly enough, I’m sharing with you now – and guarantees that we help our clients create a strategy that will differentiate their business and articulate their value in a way that nobody else can.

And then…everything gets easier

With a strategy in place and key stakeholders on board, decision making becomes easier, quicker and more effective. All other strategies flow from your PTW (i.e. brand strategy, sales & marketing strategy, talent acquisition & retention strategy, M&A strategy, customer experience strategy).

Based on the work we did to refine my client’s PTW, we knew that a new brand had to achieve the following things:

• It had to be clear what the client is selling and the value they bring;

• It had to articulate those things in a way that their audience would get in less than a second;

• The brand name had to be easy to remember; and,

• It needed to convey how to connect with the business. 

We also crafted the brand personality, messaging hierarchy, brand elements (created by uber talented Richmond, VA branding agency punch), the website, sales & marketing strategy, engagement strategy and digital strategy to support and deliver on our newly minted PTW strategy.

The result…Really Good Equipment - the best reconditioned bucket trucks and leaf collection equipment available. Period.

In the 6 weeks since the launch of the new brand (and for the first time in 50 years), Really Good Equipment is experiencing a significant uptick in awareness, industry buzz, referrals, new customers as well as a more robust pipeline. We’ll continue to measure the impact of the new brand strategy and subsequent marketing campaigns and refine as we learn to create the awareness, credibility and equity required for their future launch plans.

It didn’t take a ton of time, it didn’t require a ton of data analysis and it didn’t require ANY busy work.  Strategy development only requires logic, creativity and rigor (and really good partners).  

These are our sweet spots at Sticks & Mud.  We advise, coach and empower your sales and marketing teams to target the right customers, with the right solutions, in the right way to create advantage and win (and have a great time doing it).