The 11 Differentiation Levers

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Being "the only" is dead

Ten years ago you could say you were the only company doing this for roofers, and it held up. It doesn't anymore. If something's working for you, the market will spot it and somebody will copy it by tomorrow.

So stop hunting for the only. Find three to five levers where you're already near the top of the pack and stack them. A competitor can copy one lever pretty easily. Copying five means rebuilding their business, and almost nobody's going to do that.

One caveat: what you do has to match what you claim. If you say you're fast and then ship a week late, you've burned the credibility. That's why seven of the eleven are about how you run the business, and only four are things you claim.

You can no longer just go into the market and say we're the only company for roofers, because the market is very good at exploiting whatever efficiencies they find. If they see something's working for you, someone is going to copy you tomorrow, and that no longer becomes your competitive advantage.

Hear it on 7-Figure Leap, 4:41

Pick a lever to open it.

What you claim

Positioning levers

These are the easiest to reach, so they're also the most crowded. Most of them are just a claim until you've got evidence behind it, and a claim is easy to copy.

Positioning lever 01

Market Focus

The industry you serve plus the role you sell to inside it. Pick a vertical, find the sub-vertical inside that, then pick which seat at the table you're talking to.

Why does your focus help the buyer, and not just you?

A big TAM is a good reason for you to pick a niche, but a buyer doesn't care about your TAM. The reasons that hold up with a buyer are experience (you've worked in this industry), understanding (you solve the same problem somewhere else and bring that idea in), or resolve (you care about these people for a reason you can name).

What proves it: Your client roster and the logos on it.

The niche test that isn't about industry

Positioning lever 02

Problem Ownership

The specific problem you name and claim as yours, so when people think of that problem, they think of you.

Is it painful, recurring, impactful, solvable and marketable enough that someone would pay to make it stop?

I call this the Rumpelstiltskin effect. Once you name the problem you have power over it, and when you name it publicly, people assume you own the solution. It changes your website too. Put up a list of services and a buyer goes and finds a competitor with the same list and compares you on price. That's a lot harder to do with a named problem.

What proves it: Case studies built around the problem you solved.

The two problems every client brings you

Positioning lever 03

Point of View

Something everyone in your category believes that you think is wrong, and the stomach to keep saying so.

Which piece of accepted wisdom in your space do you disagree with most, and would you still hold it if it cost you a deal?

The format is simple: most [X] believe this, we believe that, and then you give your reasons. Be careful what goes in that first blank. If you're the underdog against bigger firms, name the competition. If your space isn't crowded, go after your buyer's status quo instead. You don't want to introduce a buyer to competitors they'd never heard of.

What proves it: Years of content that keeps saying the same thing.

If no one disagrees, it's not a strategy

Positioning lever 04

Relationship Capital

The access you already have that a buyer would hire you to borrow.

Who can you reach on their behalf tomorrow that they couldn't reach in a year?

An agent in a captive market got in by doing security work for a pro team, and now places clients inside that organization at a rate nobody else can match. Every competitor recruits from the same pool and makes the same promise, but none of them has that door open.

What proves it: Introductions you've made that you can name.

Why partnerships go deeper, not wider

What you're built on

Structural levers

Much harder to copy. To match one of these, a competitor has to change how their business runs.

Structural lever 05

Delivery Model

How the work gets to the client. Group or one to one, live or async, how often, and where it happens.

If a buyer only knew how you work and nothing else, would that be enough of a reason to pick you?

One agency does a live call every other week with Slack in between, so clients get their week back. Another runs a 30-minute weekly. Another does voice memos only and replies whenever you send one. None of those is better than the others. The one that wins is the one that matches how your buyer wants to be helped, and it only becomes a lever once you commit to it publicly.

What proves it: You've stuck with the model long enough to turn away clients it doesn't fit.

Productized service, or stay custom?

Structural lever 06

Methodology and IP

How you think about the problem, plus anything you've built up that's yours: frameworks, the order you do things in, data nobody else has.

Could a good competitor copy your process, or would they have to run your last hundred engagements first?

People mix this up with delivery model all the time. Methodology is why you start an engagement with this before that. IP is the pattern library underneath it. It's what lets you say we've run this play across this many businesses in your space and we know what it does.

What proves it: A named framework you can teach on a whiteboard.

When being known for a process actually works

Structural lever 07

Operational Constraints

What you refuse to do. What you say no to tells a buyer more than your services list does.

What would you turn down this week, on the record, even if they had budget?

We only do SEO, and we won't touch your social or your website. Or: we take ten clients at a time, because past ten we get spread too thin, so if you want one of the ten spots there's a waitlist. A competitor would have to rebuild their business to match either one, and both tell a buyer how much attention they're going to get.

What proves it: Saying no in public, and a waitlist that has people on it.

Why doing less grows more

Structural lever 08

Talent

Who does the work, and why having that specific person on it is rare.

Does your talent claim survive the reply “so you think everyone else hired badly?”

When you claim great talent, you're assuming your competitors have bad talent. They're hiring from the same pool, so they don't. Talent works when it's specific, like the person who built one of the biggest newsletters in the world running your newsletter. It also works as a constraint. Agencies are notorious for selling with senior people and then handing the account to juniors the week after the contract's signed. Buyers are scared of that, so if you promise in writing that it won't happen, that's a lever.

What proves it: Names and track records, right there on your site.

Make your team the attractive character

Why it's safe to buy

Commitment levers

These are what make the other eight believable, and most agencies barely use them.

Commitment lever 09

Economic Model

How you get paid, and what that pushes you to do day to day.

Does your pricing pay you more when the client wins, or just when time passes?

When I started, I charged $500 a month, and my fee went up another $500 for every $10K of revenue I helped bring in. That forced me to get my hands dirty instead of just handing over advice. One client went from $2K a month to $83K in nine months. Your price point matters too. If you serve sub-million agencies, you have to build a business that works at a price they can pay.

What proves it: Your pricing structure, published where buyers can see it.

Where pricing power actually comes from

Commitment lever 10

Outcome Differentiation

How big a result you promise, and whether you can prove you've delivered it before.

Can you promise a bigger outcome than your competitors and name three clients you got it for?

This ties straight back to the problem you own, because if you know the problem, you know the outcome. The tricky part is that what a buyer asks for and what they need are often two different outcomes. Part of your job is showing them the second one without brushing off the first.

What proves it: Case studies with the number in them.

How to shift from selling time to selling outcomes

Commitment lever 11

Risk Reversal

How much of the risk you take off the buyer, usually through a guarantee that backs up everything else on this list.

Is your guarantee attached to something you control?

I'd stay away from money-back guarantees, because they attract the people who just want their money back. My first guarantee was: if you haven't closed $10K of new business 90 days after we finish, I keep working for free. Nobody ever called it, but it depended on the client doing their part. Now I only guarantee what's in my hands: a complete marketing operating system, delivered and running by the end of the engagement.

What proves it: The guarantee in writing, conditions included.

Why results alone won't build trust

See all eleven on one page

From the 7-Figure Leap podcast

I walked through all eleven levers with Dustin Riechmann on his show. These are a few lines from it, and the full episode is further down.

If you come to my site and it says I'll help you with your positioning, I'll help you with your marketing, I'll do SEO, whatever, someone is just going to find a competitor and compare us on price. Versus: I will help you solve this problem if you have it. That's all you need to know.

Hear it on 7-Figure Leap, 13:27

If you're going to claim that we have great talent on your site and you think that's helping you stand out, that's because you're assuming everyone else you're competing with has bad talent. We know that's not true. They're hiring from the same pool.

Hear it on 7-Figure Leap, 25:16

I would never do a money back guarantee, because you'll generally attract the people who only want their money back.

Hear it on 7-Figure Leap, 35:07

Worked example

How I stack my own

These are the five I stack, and why. If I couldn't do this for my own business, you'd have every reason to ignore the rest of this page.

Market Focus: Sub-million agencies, because I grew one from there to the three million range. I picked it from experience.
Methodology and IP: Dynamic Agency OS is the methodology, and the company's named after it. It's an operating system for positioning.
Problem Ownership: Referral reliance. It's the problem founders name when they come to me. What I add is what's underneath it, delivery drag: you get busy delivering, marketing stops, and referrals end up being your only leads. Fix the drag and the reliance goes with it.
Talent: The talent pool is me. I've run the agency and done the work, and I'm in every session.
Risk Reversal: When we're done you'll have a complete marketing system tied to your positioning, every asset you need, and the ability to run it yourself.

01 Market Focus
02 Problem Ownership
03 Point of View
04 Relationship Capital
05 Delivery Model
06 Methodology and IP
07 Operational Constraints
08 Talent
09 Economic Model
10 Outcome Differentiation
11 Risk Reversal

Now I have a full operating system for your marketing that I can promise you by the end of our engagement will be fully delivered, and you will be able to run it with minimal time investment on your part. So the saying, "oh, I'm too busy to do my marketing," will never be an argument you can use again.

Hear it on 7-Figure Leap, 37:33

The long version

All eleven, in 48 minutes

I walked through the whole model with Dustin Riechmann on the 7-Figure Leap podcast. We went through every lever with examples, and at the end we each stacked our own.

Jump to a lever

Positioning Snapshot

You don't get to pick which levers the market reads you for

Now you've seen all eleven. The harder question is which ones your buyers can find right now. That depends on what's public about your agency, and it's often different from what you meant to put out there. The Snapshot is a free 30-minute call where I go through exactly that.

What you walk away knowing

Which of your levers is already doing the selling, and which strong ones are buried where no buyer ever sees them.
How a buyer decodes your agency in the first ten seconds, next to what you meant to say.
The one word or category you're closest to owning, and the buyer you're closest to being the obvious pick for.

Apply for a Snapshot

I read every application myself and do my homework before we talk, so we spend the call on what I found and skip the intake questions. You keep the written read either way.

Apply. A short form, so I can see your agency before we talk.
I prep. I run your public positioning through this same lever exercise before the call.
We talk, 30 minutes. I walk you through what I found, and we land on the fastest move.
You keep the read. A short written Snapshot, yours whether or not we ever work together.