Positioning Before Internationalization

For creative services firms in emerging markets, internationalization is the clearest path to better margins, clients, projects, and independence of local referrals. The thing I’m seeing over and over again is that they’re starting in the wrong place. They’re jumping in legal, finance, project management, random direct outreach, etc.

Yes, most know about the only problem you need to solve — Business Development. But I want to dig deeper into the topic.

First, to formalize for the sake of argument in what order a creative studio from an emerging market should think about reaching out, selling to and holding onto international clients, I’d like to introduce you to such a pipeline:

The Pipeline: Positioning, Marketing, Sales & Pricing, Management (AM/PM), Finance.

In that order. Think of it as an extended CRM sales pipeline. Lead accounts are moved through those 5 Trello sections, if you will.

Positioning

Back in the day, we were able to open a firm in, say, Moldova, and serve just those local clients. We, understandably, needed to be generalists to do that, since there are not a lot of clients here in Chisinau.

Then, to our misfortune, our local clients understood that they could hire any firm or any freelancer in the world to fix their problems. And do it reliably, without much risk, through global agencies and freelancing platforms.

Bad news is — local creative firms are competing with the whole world. Good news is — local creative firms can pursue international clients too!

I want to argue with a common conception that a small-town creative firm could win internationally solely with its creativity and character.

In reality, prior to going international, you need to address your lack of positioning. Without a clear positioning statement and practice, you won’t be able to overhaul the pipeline and get that predictable international client flow. You will soon see how everything is tied to positioning and that, without a clear one, it is very hard to resolve your new business problem.

Positioning should be narrow — you should be uncomfortable with how narrow you’re claiming it to be.

There are three big areas of positioning: vertical, horizontal, and problem-based positioning.

A go-to starting formula for a somehow differentiated firm is Discipline for Client. E.g. Video production for interior design firms, or content marketing for accounting firms… That’s called vertical positioning, where you’re applying your broad discipline on a somehow narrowed client slice by the industry. To check if it’s really narrowed, ask yourself: “Can I filter a LinkedIn search and get less than a hundred thousand results?”

Horizontal positioning, on the other hand, should narrow your discipline. E.g. VFX fur simulation. Period. There are pretty few clients who need it, right?

The next level is positioning on clients’ problems. Now we are talking. It usually looks like a mix of vertical and horizontal, but in essence it is focused on dealing with a specific client’s problem. E.g. Late funnel video explainers for interior designers. Do you feel the problem here? It’s for interior design studios that are struggling late in sales conversations with eliminating doubts of their clients. When you are able to communicate the problem and the solution — you’ve got yourself a good positioning.

Fake positioning: We change our LinkedIn cover once a month depending on that big opportunity early in our CRM. Don’t do that. People aren’t dumb. Thank you.

But I want to do explainers and fur simulation, I’m a creative generalist!

I know you are, but your enterprise should be expertise-based. That’s how the market works: people seek answers to their specific questions. You can be a generalist in any other size and form, but the offer of your firm and its practice should stay narrowly positioned on a problem clients face.

Marketing

Who is your client? Who are you trying to get or impress with your marketing efforts?

Without positioning, you don’t have an answer, so you end up marketing to everyone, which is the same as marketing to no one. You post a case study, but which client is it supposed to resonate with? You write an article, but what problem is it solving, and for whom? You pick Instagram over LinkedIn, or the other way around, based on a hunch, not because that’s where your clients are.

Sales

Ok, so even if we’ve got someone interested in our services without a proper positioning, how are we gonna do that from a somewhat respected position? You see, for your client, you’re just one more undifferentiated vendor from some overseas country that sells motion design hours while keeping the margin. The client wants to resolve her inner problem. How would you do that, or make her believe you would in a sales conversation if you do After Effects and not late funnel video explainers for interior designers?

Imagine your posture in a client conversation if you already have the experience of cracking such problems for such clients. Who will rule in such a conversation? And who will set the price? Clients are setting the price only when they see you as a vendor; they do it because they sense that the only problem you’re solving in this engagement is your own cash flow — that is the position of desperation. They’re putting a price tag on you, not on their problem. With a clear positioning, you start putting that price tag on their problem and price depending on the value you provide by resolving it.

Management

Do you know why you’re dealing with constant feedback loops, unrealistic deadlines and micromanagement from the clients? Because the client controls the engagement, not you. Because the client is trying to solve her problem by herself using you as an instrument, not as a partner. And we can’t blame her for that. Does she have a choice? She wants to hang a picture on the wall, and you’re just a nail factory.

And here’s the thing few understand. You will be disrupted by AI not because of technological advancement but because you sell commodities. Nail production (commodities) can be automated; a handyman (problem solver) — not.

Your team is producing different results (deliverables) each time for different clients, which may seem cool and desirable, but it sucks in the long run. How are they going to grow in producing great work, if they lack those pattern-recognition benefits when facing the same kind of problems? And you really want them to outgrow you as soon as possible, and you want to help them with that. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with, you know, those guys… Blaming AI, economy, politics, or clients for the lack of opportunity and prosperity.

Finance

How are you going to plan your finances? Do you know when the slow seasons are? You most probably know the main ones, but what about the trends in the industry you’re serving?

A positioned firm can learn from the buying cycles of the given market; it can adapt to seasons, procurement patterns, conferences and economic triggers. It’s hard when every new client is from a different industry and you’re starting from scratch.

You need to be able, with a high level of certainty, to state: “I need $X a quarter in profit, that roughly translates to Y number of outreaches a week and Z number of qualified leads from networking a month.”

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You absolutely should position your firm — it’s worth it.

I’m on a mission to help creative firm owners from emerging markets outgrow local referrals dependency and build reliable business development systems.