How a Simple Shift Changed Our Game
When I joined TMW, I was super excited to get started across the full suite of capabilities we could offer. Within weeks, I found myself bouncing from an experiential opportunity on a Monday to a CRM creds on a Tuesday, with an advertising pitch on the Wednesday. It was the dream job for me, as someone who had been in the pureplay CRM space for so long.
This newfound integrated toolkit I had in my arsenal really got me excited. But it soon became a real problem. Our approach was being misinterpreted, and we were being seen as jacks of all trade and master of none. Simply put, we weren’t converting enough opportunities. It only takes a few losses before you revisit the pipeline and suddenly, there’s not much there.
We needed to change what we were doing. And we needed to do it fast.
One Tuesday (I remember it was a Tuesday as I got out of swimming lesson duties for my girls), I stayed late. I printed every case study I could find on the server and stuck it up on the wall, and I began to categorise what work we had done – and what made us special. And guess what? The thing that set us apart wasn’t the breadth of channels or the capabilities. It was the problems that we’d solved.
I bucketed each case study into 3 areas: Brand Transformation, Brand Performance and Behaviour Change. Suddenly, we had a vision and focus. We weren’t trying to sell everything to everyone, but our expertise in three specific areas. This narrowed our pool of potential clients, but it made us right choice for the right brands.
We stopped leading with capabilities and started leading with outcomes. Business outcomes. Brand outcomes. We reframed our story around what clients actually care about: solving the problems that keep them up at night.
This change wasn’t just about swapping out a few slides – it was a mindset shift. We got better at asking questions upfront. We shaped our conversations around how we could help, not just the tools in our toolbox.
And it worked. Better engagement, more meaningful conversations, and a serious uptick in pitch conversion. Prospects started seeing us less as an agency and more as a partner who could help drive real, transformational growth.
We still offer all the same integrated capabilities. But now they’re positioned as the how, not the what.