Your Nine Keys result

Your clients know what you do.
Your market does not.

Growing Market is your weakest Key. Inside your client base you are trusted and specific. Outside it, your website says you do everything for everyone, the pitch takes three paragraphs, and the people who should be buying from you have never heard your name.

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150+ IT services founders coached. 6 exits worth a combined $230M.

Weakest Key

Growing Market

Positioning, thought leadership and market visibility, so the right clients find you first

  1. Loading Growth
  2. Loading Sales
  3. Loading Clients
  4. Loading Rates
  5. Loading Services
  6. Growing IP
  7. Growing A Team
  8. Growing Leaders
  9. Growing Market
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What is likely going on

You have probably said this: "We do not want to narrow down. We might miss opportunities." So the website says digital transformation, cloud, data and advisory, the global consultancies say the same thing with bigger budgets, and the buyer cannot tell you apart.

A perfectly capable consulting firm can be ineffective at sales and marketing, and small strategic improvements here yield outsized rewards. The improvement is almost always the same: say one thing, for one buyer, with a quantified benefit drawn from real delivery history, and say it every week.

When Growing Market scores lowest, it usually means a stranger could not tell from the first screen of the website what you do and for whom, the value proposition has no number in it, useful thinking goes out when someone has time, and the firm's position would evaporate if the founder stepped back.

The three levers below are how a firm of any size becomes the obvious choice in one market.

The three levers to pull first

These come from the Growing Market Key of the Loading Growth Wheel. Each one has an action you can complete this week.

Rewrite the first screen

A stranger should read the first screen of your website and know what you do, for whom, and what changes for them. If they cannot, every other marketing effort leaks. This is one afternoon of work and most firms never do it.

This week: write three sentences: who you serve, what you do for them, and the quantified result from a real engagement. Put them at the top of the home page this week. Remove everything that competes with them.

Put a number in the value proposition

Benefit first, jargon free, with a quantified result drawn from real delivery history. Not "we deliver digital transformation" but "we cut month end close from twelve days to three for mid market manufacturers". The number is what makes it believable and repeatable.

This week: pull your three best engagements. For each, write the before, the after and the number. Choose the strongest and build the value proposition around it. Test it on two clients and two prospects this week.

Publish useful thinking every week

Thought leadership is not volume. It is one genuinely useful piece for your niche, every week, in the founder's voice at first and the firm's voice over time, until the market associates the problem with your name.

This week: choose the day. Write the first piece this week from a problem you solved last month: what the client thought the issue was, what it actually was, what changed. Post it, and put the next four dates in the calendar.

Owning a tentpole moment in your market's calendar and a position that survives the founder stepping back come next.

Five signs this Key is costing you

Tick the ones that are true of your firm this quarter. The count tells you how much of your market has no idea you exist.

Nothing you tick here is stored or sent anywhere. It stays in your browser.

  • Signs you recognise0 of 5

Guides for this Key

Read every guide on Growing Market

Your Everest fit

Growing Market is where coaching meets The IT VA: Everest fixes the message, and the campaign team makes it travel every week.

Up to 10 staff

Everest Basecamp

Rewrite the first screen, build the value proposition with a number in it and start the weekly rhythm, with the Nine Keys basics alongside.

$150 per month, capped at 100 firms

Talk to Ian about Basecamp

10 to 40 staff

Everest Ascent

Regular group sessions and one to one time with Ian on positioning against the global consultancies, thought leadership and owning a moment in your market's calendar, inside the 90 Day Sprint.

Pricing on the call

Talk to Ian about Ascent
Ian Markram, founder of Loading Growth

Who is telling you this

I am Ian Markram. I built and sold an IT services firm, and for the last decade I have coached founders of IT services and systems integrator firms who compete with the global consultancies every week.

  • 150+ IT services founders coached
  • 28 years in IT professional services
  • 6 founder exits guided
  • $230M combined exit value
He helped us grow our business by looking for the right clients, shifting our mindset and focusing on the right things.
Benjamin Chambersthen COO, Mojo Soup
He and his team help drive continuous improvements in my business in practical steps of a manageable size. His advice has been invaluable in helping me mature as a business leader.
James BeresfordCEO, Talos

Get the Growing Market playbook by email

Five short emails over two weeks: the three levers with a seven day action each, what they looked like for one founder, and a 45 minute call with Ian if you want to work through them together. Then take the six minute scorecard for your scores across all nine Keys.

Questions founders ask at this point

If we niche down, will we lose the work outside the niche?
No. Clients outside the niche still buy from a firm that is clearly excellent at something. What you lose is the price competition that comes from being indistinguishable from everyone else.
The founder is the brand. Is that a problem?
It is the right starting point and the wrong end point. Begin with the founder's voice because it is credible and fast. Then bring senior people into the thinking, so the position belongs to the firm by the time you want to step back.
Who writes the weekly piece?
The founder at first, one hour a week, from real client problems. When that is proven, the campaign team at The IT VA can run the rhythm around you. Content that comes from nowhere does not work; content that comes from delivery does.
We are a systems integrator, not an MSP. Does this apply?
Yes. This is built for IT professional services and SI firms that sell project and advisory work against the global consultancies. We do not coach MSPs. If your revenue is mostly managed services contracts, this is not the right program for you.
What happens on the strategy call?
Forty five minutes with Ian. You bring your result and your rough numbers. You leave with the one lever to pull first and a view on whether Basecamp or Ascent fits. No pitch deck.

Find out which lever to pull first

Bring your Growing Market result to a 45 minute strategy call with Ian.

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