Strategy Note 13: Name Your Approach
Your unique process is a differentiator worth emphasizing.
Everyone focuses on what they deliver. The methodology, the sequence, the specific way you approach problems—these are often more defensible than the outcomes themselves.
Outcomes can be promised by anyone. "We will increase your revenue." "We will improve your brand recognition." "We will create clarity." These claims are common because they are easy to make. They are also difficult to differentiate on, because everyone in your space is promising similar outcomes.
But your process is yours alone.
The way you diagnose problems. The questions you ask that others do not think to ask. The sequence of steps you have developed through experience. The philosophy that guides your decisions. The specific combination of elements that constitutes your approach.
This cannot be copied easily because it emerged from your specific history, perspective, and expertise. It is not templated. It is not standard. It is yours.
When you name your approach and explain why it matters, you shift the conversation entirely.
You are no longer being evaluated against competitors who promise similar outcomes. You are being evaluated on whether your specific way of working appeals to this specific buyer. The comparison is no longer apples to apples. It is your apple to their orange.
This is why I named the CRAVE diagnostic. Not because I needed a clever acronym, but because naming it claims it. The approach becomes intellectual property in the minds of my audience. When they think about evaluating their brand, they think about CRAVE—which means they think about me.
What do you do differently? If you gave it a name, what would you call it?
The name does not have to be clever. It has to be memorable enough to stick and descriptive enough to suggest what it involves.
Once named, your approach becomes an asset you can reference, explain, teach. It becomes content—you can write about it, create videos about it, explain its components and philosophy. It becomes a reason to choose you over alternatives who may deliver similar outcomes but do not have a distinctive methodology.
The danger of not naming your approach is that it remains invisible. You do it, but no one knows it is distinctive. You assume clients understand that your way of working is different, when in reality they see you as interchangeable with others who promise the same results.
Name the thing. Claim the territory. Make the invisible visible.
Stay Curious,
