Direction & growth
Business strategy
Marketing can only carry a business that is pointed the right way. This is the work underneath it: what you sell, who it is worth the most to, what you should charge, which market to take next, and in what order to grow. We have run the marketing for businesses since 2017, which is how we learned that the expensive problems are almost never marketing problems.
What you get
Everything that decides where the business goes next.
Where the money actually comes from
Revenue read by product, customer and channel — which lines earn, which quietly subsidise the rest, and which you have been defending out of habit.
Positioning and pricing
Who you are for, what you are worth to them, and whether the price is aimed at the customer you actually want. Most businesses we meet are underpriced for the wrong reason.
The offer
What you sell, packaged so a buyer can say yes without a meeting — scope, terms and the shape of the thing, not just the price on it.
Which market next
The segments, cities or customer types worth entering, the order to take them in, and the ones to leave alone however tempting they look.
A growth sequence
What to do first, second and third across twelve months, with what each step needs in people, money and time before it can start.
What to watch
The handful of numbers that tell you it is working, who owns each one, and how often they should be looked at. Usually fewer than you are tracking now.
Right for you if
This is the right first move if…
- ·Revenue has flattened and more marketing has not moved it
- ·You sell several things and cannot say which deserves the push
- ·You are entering a new city, market or customer type
- ·Everything routes through you, and that is now the ceiling
How it runs
Four steps, repeated every month.
Read the business
Numbers, customers, competitors and the last three years, before we ask you anything. We would rather arrive with questions we earned than a template.
Interview
You, the people who actually do the work, and where possible your customers and one you lost. The lost one usually says the most.
Decide
Positioning, pricing, market and sequence, argued through with you rather than presented at you. If you disagree, we would rather find out here than in month six.
Hand over
A written strategy, the twelve-month sequence, and a plain statement of what marketing it does and does not imply. Yours to keep and to act on with anyone.
Questions
Before you commit.
How is this different from Get clear?
Get clear is the marketing plan: channels, calendar, creative and measurement. This is the business underneath it — what you sell, to whom, at what price, and in what order you grow. When a marketing problem will not budge, the cause is usually here instead.
Are you consultants or a marketing agency?
Both, and deliberately. We have run the marketing for businesses since 2017 — a driving school, an electronics manufacturer, a car accessories showroom. Strategy written by people who will also have to execute it tends to be strategy you can actually execute.
Do I have to buy marketing from you afterwards?
No, and we would rather you did not decide that in advance. The strategy is a standalone piece of work and yours to keep. If it concludes that marketing is not your constraint, it will say so — and then there is nothing for us to sell you.
How long does it take?
Four to six weeks. It is longer than the marketing plan because the reading is deeper and the interviews take time to arrange — particularly the customers you lost, who are the hardest to reach and worth the most.
What if we disagree with the conclusion?
Then say so while it is still cheap. Disagreement in week four costs a conversation; the same disagreement in month six costs a year. We would rather rewrite a recommendation than watch you politely accept one you never believed.