Your thinking is the pitch

How to lead with the thing clients are actually deciding on

I spent years leading with the résumé.

The companies. The titles. The scope. The account I grew from $2M to $10M. All of it true, all of it real, and (I eventually figured out) not quite the thing clients were actually deciding on.

Here’s what I mean. A potential client doesn’t sit across from you and think: impressive, I’ll buy that history. She thinks: can this person solve my specific problem. Those are different questions and they need different answers.

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What clients are really deciding.

When someone is evaluating whether to hire you, they’re running a private calculation you can’t fully see. Part of it is credentials. Which yes, you need to have done real work. 

But the larger part is harder to name. It’s the feeling that you understand their situation specifically. That you see the thing they’re dealing with. That you’ve been in that kind of mess before and know the way out.

That’s not something your title communicates. It’s something your thinking communicates.

The moment I stopped explaining what I’d done and started showing how I think about problems, the conversation changed. Not because the résumé got better. Because I stopped leading with the wrong thing.

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A structure that actually works.

I use this for my own positioning and find myself recommending it to clients regularly. Simple: FROM, TO, IMPACT.

FROM is what was broken, unclear, or slow before you got involved.

TO is what you built, changed, or put in place.

IMPACT is what actually moved because you were there.

Most of us lead with TO. We describe what we did and trust the listener will fill in the before and after. The whole arc, where things were, what changed, what that meant, is what makes the proof point land.

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Why this matters beyond pitches.

Every time you explain your work, in a post, an intro, a new conversation, you’re choosing what to lead with. 

The résumé positions you as someone with a history. 

The thinking positions you as someone with a point of view about what to do next.

Clients hire the second one. And it’s just the thing I wish someone had said to me clearly about four years before I figured it out myself.

— — —

One thing before you go.

Take one proof point from your own work: something you’d mention to a potential client. Then run it through FROM, TO, IMPACT. 

Write all three parts. See if the version you’ve been leading with is actually the whole story.

I’d genuinely love to know what you find. Hit reply.

— Nicki

Marlowe Strategies publishes every Tuesday. marlowestrategies.substack.com