You know you’re ready for bigger clients. The difficult part is getting them to believe it.
You’ve built a good business. The work is better than it has ever been. Your team is stronger. You’ve learned a great deal.
And yet the clients you really want still seem just out of reach. That can be hard to understand.
You know you could do the work. Your existing clients know it too. But larger clients have more complicated problems, more people involved and more to lose if they get the decision wrong.
They probably already have someone. That person may not be better than you. They are simply known, approved and safe.
To win the opportunity, you need to give the client a good reason to reconsider. Not a louder claim. Something that feels as though it was built for them.
The Signature Sprint
The Signature Sprint helps you understand what your best clients already value, what your ideal future clients are looking for and what your industry has failed to give them.
Then we turn what we find into a service that is easier to understand, harder to compare and more compelling to choose.
“The Signature Service way of thinking enabled us to reevaluate how we position ourselves and market our services, allowing us to win bigger clients at higher values.”
Joe Turnbull, Bull & Wolf Media
Our unique approach
Around once to understand. Around again to validate.
Most businesses create new services from the inside out. They decide what they want to sell, then try to persuade the market to want it.
This does the opposite.
The Signature Sprint looks at your business from four perspectives.
Each perspective gives us part of the answer. The opportunity appears when we put them together.
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You and your team.
To understand the ambition, expertise and reality of how the work gets done.
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Current and former clients.
To discover why people chose you, why they stayed and what they value more than you may realise.
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Ideal future clients.
To understand what they need, what frustrates them and what they would need to see before giving someone new a chance.
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Your industry.
To see what everyone else is saying, where they all sound the same and where there may be space to do something better.
“By speaking to me, the team, our clients and the people we wanted to work with next, Thad was able to see the business from every angle. He identified strengths we had taken for granted and a much clearer opportunity for where the business could go next.”
Julia Nelson, Create Momentum
Phase One: The Signature Report
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1) Continue
Some things are already working.
Clients value them. They trust you because of them. They may be the very reason people stay.
The report confirms those things.
People have described this as getting their homework back with a good grade. It gives you the confidence to keep investing in what matters.
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Stop
Other things may matter far less to clients than you thought.
A message. A feature. A process. Something consuming time, money or energy without helping you win the work you want.
Once you know that, you can stop second-guessing yourself and move those resources somewhere more useful.
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Start
This is the opportunity.
The thing your future clients want, your business is capable of delivering and your industry has not yet offered properly.
This becomes the heart of your Signature Service.
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Surprise & Delight
You are unlikely to find one simple 10% improvement that everyone else has missed.
But you can often find ten 1% improvements.
A frustration removed. A reassuring detail added. A useful moment delivered before anyone asks for it.
Small things, carefully chosen.
Together, they make the service feel more thoughtful, more valuable and more clearly made for the people you want to win.
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Your Ownable Process
Finally, everything is shaped into a repeatable process that belongs to your business.
Usually five clear steps.
It makes your expertise visible.
You no longer need to tell people you are different. You can walk them through the difference.
Ready to take this further?
The Snapshot is a focused introductory session.
It helps me understand your business, the clients you want to win and where the opportunity may be hiding.
If I can see a strong case for a Signature Sprint, I’ll show you what I think is worth exploring.
If I can’t, I’ll tell you.
Phase Two: The validated brochure
Once you are happy with the direction, the report is turned into a promotional brochure.
This becomes the complete story of the service:
What the client is struggling with.
What they need.
What you understand.
How your service works.
Why it is different.
Why they should trust you.
Then we go around the circle again:
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You and your team.
Your team checks that it is true and deliverable.
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Current and former clients.
Current and former clients check that we have retained what made working with you valuable.
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Ideal future clients.
Ideal future clients tell us whether it solves something they care about and whether they would consider paying for it.
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Your industry.
The industry review checks that nobody else is offering the same thing in the same way.
We listen.
We improve it.
Then we sign it off.
“The process helped us see what made Sekoya genuinely different and turn it into a service that was much easier for the right clients to understand and buy. It gave us greater clarity and confidence in how we presented the business, and we have since gone on to win significant new clients and opportunities.”
Donna Morcom, Sekoya
What you receive
You receive two things.
1) The Signature Report
The research, the insights, the opportunity, the Continue–Stop–Start recommendations, the surprise-and-delight ideas and your ownable process.
2) The validated promotional brochure
A complete sales story for your new service, tested and refined with the people it needs to persuade.
The brochure then becomes the foundation for everything else: your website, pitch decks, proposals, emails, content and campaigns.
The hard thinking has been done once. Everything else grows from it.
“Thad helped us take what was already distinctive about Pritchard & Company and turn it into a much clearer and more compelling service. Since then, we have continued to move into a higher-value market, including recently winning an instruction to sell a property valued at approximately £6 million.”
Robert Pritchard, Pritchard & Company
The result
A service built around the clients you want to win.
A better reason for them to consider switching.
A clearer way to show that you understand their world and can operate at their level.
And, when the first bigger client says yes, the evidence that helps the next one say yes too.
Ready to take this further?
The Snapshot is a focused introductory session.
It helps me understand your business, the clients you want to win and where the opportunity may be hiding.
If I can see a strong case for a Signature Sprint, I’ll show you what I think is worth exploring.
If I can’t, I’ll tell you.