John Elbing

I needed a value proposition I could explain clearly and concisely in one sentence, and one that touched on pain points a prospective client would truly recognise. What I realised is that what you believe is the pain you are solving for a client is not always something they are ready to understand. If they were, they would probably have built the product you built. So at some point I began positioning my solution in a way that was more in line with their way of thinking and their decision-making when it came to buying EdTech products.

Clients can now quantify the benefit of subscribing to my product, rather than just hearing qualitative or anecdotal evidence of its benefits. John will help you think things through from the perspective of the buyer, not yours as the seller. That makes all the difference in the world, if you ask me. Today I am an exited founder, and John has played a role in that through his coaching.

We struggled to sum up our offer in one clear sentence. Wills, advance directives, expert guidance: several building blocks with no obvious thread running through them. And we couldn’t put our finger on what was really stopping a client from taking the step. Fear of the subject? How complicated it seemed? The price?

The click came when we filled in John’s canvas. We understood who we were really for, which pain we were answering, and what was holding our clients back. Our offer is now restructured and easier to read, and we can name the points of friction and adapt how we talk about it. If you’re struggling to explain your offer simply, or your website isn’t converting, his method helps you step back from the day-to-day and see what is really holding the customer back.

We were struggling to put the real value of our products into language that was easy to digest and easy to remember, and every deck, every letter, every approach had to be reworked for its audience. It was overwhelming. What unlocked it was talking through the core of the business, the impact and the need, with an impartial third party: our thoughts came out loud, then onto paper, then into something coherent.

Now we work from one core storyline and shift the emphasis for each audience. Our pitch deck is modular, with an emotional journey built in, and the feedback shows it: far less confusion and disengagement, far more “How does that work?” and “Tell me more!” Our advice: do it. Get your thoughts out in the open, then listen, play, and budget time for interesting tangents. John is an excellent sparring partner.

John has become a valued marketing partner for BlueBotics. We worked with him to update our brand messaging. Instantly respected by our entire team, he both carefully guided and brought a fresh (but relevant) perspective to these brainstorms. He helped us to define, in particular, our customers’ key challenges in a way that speaks to anyone. We’ve since used John’s consultancy to stress-check our plans for our messaging rollout and I can imagine this won’t be the last time we enlist his expertise.