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Why Founders Struggle to Stand Out (And How to Fix It)
December 11, 2024 · Bradley Jacobs
Ever hear yourself say something like, “I'm a CMO who helps businesses with their go-to-market strategy and growth”?
Let's be honest: that sentence makes you disappear. The market is packed with talent, and when you pitch yourself as a generalist, you blend into the crowd and nobody remembers you.
The market is more crowded than ever
The number of founders and independent operators has exploded, especially since the pandemic-era layoffs pushed a wave of seasoned people into consulting. With tools like Mylance making it easy to launch, the space gets more crowded every day.
So be honest with yourself: if you're one of a million marketers, why should a client pick you over everyone else who “helps with growth”?
The generic pitches that get ignored
Here are the kinds of positioning lines that quietly tell people to scroll past you:
- “I help improve your business efficiency”
- “I handle all your digital marketing needs”
- “I'm an operations expert who streamlines processes”
- “I do video editing, content creation, branding, and marketing...”
Sound familiar? These lines aren't wrong. They're just white noise. Nobody can tell what you actually do or whether you're the person for their problem.
Get specific about the problem you solve
Here's how to go from forgettable to impossible to ignore:
Weak: “I help startups with digital marketing.”
Strong: “I help fintech startups build marketing attribution that actually works, so they can track CAC by channel and stop wasting spend.”
See the difference? The second one:
- Names a specific industry (fintech)
- Names a concrete problem (attribution)
- Ties to a clear outcome (less wasted spend)
- Shows you actually know the space
Niching down gets you more clients, not fewer
This is where people freeze. They won't niche down because they think it shrinks their pipeline. Let's do the math:
Say you reach out to 400 people a month:
- Generic message: maybe a 1-2% response rate, so 4-8 replies.
- Sharp, targeted message: even if only 15% have your exact problem and 20% of those reply, that's 12-15 replies.
The counterintuitive part: by targeting fewer people more precisely, you get more responses, not fewer.
Specificity sells (a quick example)
When I needed help with automations, I didn't go looking for an “efficiency expert.” I searched for someone who could handle “Klaviyo, Webflow, and Airtable automations using Zapier.” Specific wins.
Same idea everywhere:
- Don't be an “email marketing specialist.” Be a “Klaviyo automation expert for e-commerce brands.”
- Don't be a “CEO advisor.” Be a “scale-up advisor helping bootstrapped SaaS go from $3M to $10M.”
- Don't be an “operations consultant.” Be a “freight brokerage automation specialist who helps companies scale without massive headcount.”
Where this is all going
Picture the next few years: companies keep a lean core team and bring in specialists for specific, high-value problems. The winners won't be the jacks-of-all-trades. They'll be the people who solve one expensive problem better than anyone.
Your differentiation formula
- Start with your ideal customer
- Industry
- Size
- Stage
- Specific characteristics
- Identify their specific problems
- What keeps them up at night?
- What's costing them money?
- What's blocking their growth?
- Map your experience
- What problems have you solved before?
- What unusual mix of skills do you have?
- What results can you point to?
- Create your one-sentence positioning. Write it like this: “I help [specific type of company] solve [specific problem] through [your approach], so they can [clear outcome].”
The one-sentence test
Here's the real test: can you say what you do in one sentence that makes someone go, “We need that”?
Mine: “I help freight brokerages that haven't modernized grow without adding thousands of people to headcount, through smart automation and better process.”
Notice how specific that is. It tells you:
- Exactly who it's for
- The problem it solves
- How it solves it
- The business impact
Taking action
- Audit your current positioning
- Is it specific enough?
- Does it name a clear problem?
- Can a prospect get it instantly?
- Find your unique combination
- What skills set you apart?
- What experiences can you point to?
- What results have you driven?
- Write your one-sentence position
- Test it on a few colleagues
- Refine until it's crystal clear
- Make sure it passes the “we need that” test
The path forward
The market isn't getting less crowded. But here's the good news: while everyone else tries to be everything to everyone, you've got a framework to be something specific to someone specific.
Your goal isn't to appeal to everyone. It's to be the obvious choice for the right person. Get that right and you'll be having very different conversations, at very different rates.
So go write your one-sentence statement. Make it so clear and specific that anyone who hears it knows immediately whether they need you. That's not narrowing your opportunities. It's focusing your power.
The riches really are in the niches.
Mylance
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