B2B services companies have a big brand challenge. They have to express an often intangible offering in a tangible way. That pertains to everything from investment banking services, to supply chain, even to cloud-based solutions. The Defining Moment in any business development pitch is how well your firm makes its business case. You can help yourself with a Signature Diagram.
A Signature Diagram visually expresses your firm’s unique competency/ability/benefit in an easy to understand and memorable picture of your service model and the unique value you deliver. We see hundreds of these a year in pitch decks across a variety of industries. Here are 3 keys to create a Signature Diagram with real impact:
1. Know what the competition’s picture looks like: Think of it this way, if your methodology diagram looks the same as your competitors’, you aren’t doing anything to differentiate yourself in the market. You’ve invested some time and resources to create even this simple diagram, by reviewing competition you can ensure you will invest in a piece that helps you make an impression.
2. Know what makes you a competitive threat (or, conversely, what makes you uniquely valuable to your clients): To develop your diagram, you will need to know not only what you do better than competition but why and how this is the case. If your competition could draw the same picture of your business benefits, you have not yet found what makes your offering unique. Back to the drawing board!
3. Know your brand: Your brand is your story, right? So make sure your picture helps to bring your story to life. Simply put, if your brand is about efficiency, say, your diagram should be simple and easy to understand, not crowded with icons and arrows and Venn diagrams– the antithesis of efficiency.
A picture is worth a thousand words? Yes it is!