The Distinction Engine™: Agency Business Development Positioning & Planning Solution

NEW BUSINESS

DIDN'T GET HARDER.

THERE'S JUST NO obvious reason to choose you.

It shows up differently depending on where you are in the conversation.

TOP OF FUNNEL

the phone has stopped ringing

You used to get leads without really trying. Referrals from happy clients. The occasional inbound from someone who found you online. Nothing dramatic, but enough to keep the pipeline moving

Lately, that's changed. Leads aren't showing up the way they used to, and you're not entirely sure why. Is it referrals? Inbound? Both? You just know the pipeline is quieter than it should be, and you don't have an outbound program to fall back on.

proposal stage

you're Getting ghosted more often

You have the initial conversation. It goes well. You send the proposal. And then nothing. No feedback, no decision, no explanation. Just silence.

Or worse, you lose to an agency you're certain you should have beaten. You tell yourself it was timing or budget. But it keeps happening and that excuse is getting harder to believe.

pitch stage

finishing second and not sure why

You're getting in the room. You're presenting well. And you're still losing.

The instinct is to get more at-bats. Sharpen the deck. Maybe trim the price. But if your positioning isn't clear, more pitches just produce more of the same result. At some point, more at-bats stops being a strategy and starts being a way to avoid the harder question.

But it's always the same problem.

lack of a distinct reason to choose you.

the distinction engine

Distinction Isn't a One-Time Fix. It Has to Work at Every Stage.

Naming the problem is the easy part. The scary part is learning that a lack of distinction doesn't just hurt you at one point in the funnel. An undifferentiated position keeps hurting you at every point in the funnel.

Which means you've got to attack it at every point in the prospect's journey.

Positioning defines your distinct way of solving client marketing problems better than any other agency in the world.
Process ensures prospects hear your messages consistently.
Propinquity puts it in front of the right prospects in the places they already trust.

All three. In that order. Working as a system.

positioning

Without a distinct position, everything just sounds like noise to a prospect.

process

Without a system to convert interest, even great positioning fails to generate results.

propinquity

Once the first two are in place, strategic presence compounds. Visibility becomes trust. Trust becomes pipeline.

PILLAR ONE

POSITIONING

When prospects can't explain why you're different, they don't choose you. They choose whoever feels safest.

A PR firm in New York had built something genuinely innovative. An investor relations program for small-cap companies approaching or coming off an IPO that treated the ticker symbol the way a brand marketer would treat a logo. The methodology was sound. The team was experienced. The need was real.

But they were calling it "investor marketing and engagement." Which sounded like every other IR firm in the country.

We repositioned it as stockMARKETING. One word that clearly articulated the methodology to prospects who had never seen anything like it.

5 consecutive pitch losses

8 wins out of 9 pitches in five months

The service didn't change. The position did.

PILLAR TWO

process

A great position with no system behind it is just a tagline. You need a process that finds the right prospects, stays in front of them, and converts interest into conversations.

An agency serving the architecture, construction, and engineering sector had built a genuinely differentiated service offering. The positioning was clear. The methodology was strong. What they didn't have was any kind of proactive business development system. No CRM, outreach plan, or follow-up discipline. In short, NO playbook.

We installed one. We helped them identify the right industry trade association, locate the contacts who book local speakers, build an outreach sequence, and systematically leverage testimonials from local engagements as social proof to open doors at the regional and national levels.

No BD system. No pipeline.

Local, regional, and national conference speaker in six months. Travel covered by the conferences. Multiple requests for proposals.

Paid business development. Built on a process that didn't exist six months earlier.

PILLAR THREE

PROPINQUITY

You don't have a content problem. You have a consistency and targeting problem.

Most agency owners know they should be more visible. They should be publishing more, speaking more, and showing up more consistently in the places their best prospects spend time. They just never do it at the scale or with the consistency required to matter.

Because client work always comes first, promotion becomes the thing that gets deprioritized when things get busy and restarted when the pipeline gets scary. That cycle is the enemy of sustainable new business growth.

The Propinquity Principle™ solves this differently. Rather than asking you to become a full-time content operation, it identifies the specific channels, communities, events, and platforms where your ideal clients already congregate. Then builds a focused, strategic presence strategy around those touchpoints. Fewer places. Higher relevance. Consistent enough to build the familiarity and trust that makes your agency the one prospects think of first when the need arises. Focused enough that you can actually do it.

FEWER PLACES.

HIGHER RELEVANCE.

CONSISTENT ENOUGH TO MATTER.

The Distinction Engine is a 90-day content and communications plan built specifically around your positioning and your ICP. Not a generic content calendar. A targeted visibility roadmap that tells you exactly what to say, where to say it, and how often, so you can build a pipeline without sacrificing the client work that pays the bills.

AUTHOR

The Invisible Sale

SPEAKER

AMI, MCAN, TAAN, CMWorld, MarketingProfs

founder

Converse Digital, 2010

business development experience

Building agency BD programs since the 90's

why listen to me

i built my agency using this system. then i spent the last 16 years proving it works.

I've been in and around agency new business since the 1990s. Not studying it. Doing it. As a director of business development, as the founder of two agencies, and for the last several years, as the person agency owners call when the pipeline goes quiet, and they can't figure out why.

In 2010, I launched Converse Digital as a social media and digital agency. For 16 years, I have been the sole content creator, speaker, and business developer for my own shop. Every client we won, every relationship we built, every dollar of revenue we generated came through the same system I'm offering you here. The Propinquity Principle™ isn't a theory I developed in a conference room. It's the playbook I used to build and sustain a real agency in a competitive market for almost two decades.

In 2013, I published The Invisible Sale, which encoded that entire philosophy into a field guide. Readers still tell me it's one of the most prescriptive business books they've encountered because it doesn't just tell you what to do. It hands you the plan and points you to the tools to execute it.

In 2022, I made a deliberate decision. I was ready to stop building one agency and start helping other agency owners build many.

Since then, I've worked with agency owners across the country fixing the same three problems that show up in every struggling new business program. Unclear positioning. No proactive BD process. Unfocused promotion strategy. Some of those engagements lasted a full year, while others required a faster, more focused solution.

The Distinction Engine was built for the latter. It's the same thinking, the same framework, and the same playbook that underpins a full consulting engagement with me, which starts around $75,000 annually, compressed into an accessible entry point for agency owners who need clarity now, not twelve months from now.

I know what it feels like when the phone stops ringing. I also know what to do about it.

Tom Martin has forgotten more about agency business development, prospecting, lead generation, and lead nurturing than most of us will ever know. It's equal parts science and magic, and he has both in spades. I highly recommend that your agency hire him to help you grow.

Jay Baer
Serial Agency Owner & NY Times Bestselling Author

what you walk away with

A Complete New Business System. Built for Your Agency. Ready to Execute.

Not a report you file away. Not a deck you present once and forget. Within 30 days, you have four things working together as a system.

a distinct agency positioning

A clear, distinct positioning statement that tells prospects exactly who you serve, what problem you solve, and why your approach is different from every other agency they're considering. The kind of story that your best clients can repeat word for word when they refer you.

A Working BD System

A defined prospecting process with the right tools, outreach cadences, follow-up discipline, and pipeline tracking to find the right prospects, stay in front of them, and convert interest into conversations consistently. Not someday. Now.

A 90 Day Visibility Roadmap

A targeted content and communications plan built specifically around your positioning and your ICP. It tells you exactly what to say, where to say it, and how often, so you can build the kind of consistent presence that creates familiarity, trust, and pipeline without becoming a full-time content operation.

Cobbled: Your Custom Content draft engine

Most 90-day plans fail at the execution stage. Not because the strategy is wrong. Because blank screen syndrome is real, and client work always wins when priorities compete.

Cobbled is our proprietary tool built around your specific positioning, your ICP, and the content pillars developed during the diagnostic. Walk through a brief framework of questions, and it produces a first draft calibrated to your agency's voice and strategy, not generic AI slop.

Within 30 days you have all four. A story worth telling, a system to tell it through, a roadmap to put it in front of the right people, and a tool that removes every excuse for not starting.

Straightforward Pricing. Scoped to Your Agency's Complexity.

Every engagement is priced based on the specifics of your agency's challenges. The primary factors are positioning complexity, number of ICPs, and geographic scope. 90% of all engagements fall between $10,000 and $30,000.

$10,000

$30,000

Boutique Agency

One or two core service offerings. Clear vertical or client type. Positioning challenge is straightforward. Single ICP. Local or regional market focus.

Multi-Service Agency

Multiple service lines across two or more disciplines. Two or three ICPs. Regional to national market scope. Positioning work requires more discovery and definition.

Full service Agency

Broad service offering across many disciplines. Multiple ICPs requiring segmented positioning. National or multi-market scope. Complex positioning work with multiple stakeholders.

100% Satisfaction Guarantee

If, within 30 days of completing your Distinction Engine workshop, you don't walk away with a clear positioning statement, a defined BD process, a 90-day visibility roadmap, and a content engine you're confident you can execute, tell us specifically what's missing, and we'll make it right or refund every dollar. No arguing. Just a straightforward commitment that the engagement delivers what it promises.

Michael Pratt testimonial for Getting-to-Go, agency business development engine creation workshop by Converse Digital and Tom Martin

Worth Every Penny

The Distinction Engine was exactly what I needed as the CEO of an ad-tech software company that sells to agencies. It was also one of the most professionally executed strategic planning engagements I have ever experienced. Tom forced me to come prepared and ensured he had all he needed from me to be even more prepared himself. He pushed my thinking to places I couldn't get to on my own. Took studious notes, and the day flew by. As a result, the final recommendation report was highly detailed and massively helpful. As an added bonus, the follow-up meeting was all I needed to answer the handful of clarifying questions I had. Worth every penny.

Michael Pratt | Founder/PanAmplify

frequently asked questions

Everything You Want to Know Before You Decide.

How much of my time does this require?

The most intensive day is the full-day Distinction Engine workshop, which requires you and your key leadership to be fully present and prepared. Before the workshop, there's a pre-work audit phase in which we review your existing assets, so you'll need to make them available. After the workshop, the deliverables are sent to you. Total time commitment outside the workshop day is typically a few hours of prep, the final recommendation, and the 90-day plan review call to walk through the recommendations with you.

How is this different from other positioning or BD consultants?

Most consultants deliver a diagnosis. The Distinction Engine delivers a diagnosis, a complete execution system plus a proprietary content tool built around your specific strategy. You don't walk away with a deck to think about. You walk away with four things you can put into motion immediately. The framework also comes from someone who used it to run their own agency for 16 years, not someone who has studied agencies from the outside.

What if the diagnostic determines my positioning is already strong?

Then we focus the engagement on process and propinquity, which can independently drive significant pipeline improvement even when positioning is solid. The free competitive analysis tool above will give you an early read on your positioning distinctiveness before you commit to anything. If you're already clearly differentiated, we'll tell you that honestly and point you toward where the real problem is likely to be.

What happens after the 30 days?

You have everything you need to execute independently. The 90-day roadmap tells you exactly what to do and when. The content engine removes the execution friction. The BD system gives you the process and tools to run a proactive pipeline. If you want ongoing support after the engagement, that conversation is available, but there's no requirement or expectation of continued engagement. The goal is to make you self-sufficient, not dependent.

Who needs to be in the room for the workshop?

At a minimum, you and whoever is responsible for new business or client relationships. If you have a leadership team, having two or three key people in the room produces better positioning work because it surfaces real internal alignment gaps that a solo session can miss. More than five or six participants tend to slow the process down without proportional benefit.

Can my whole team use the content tool?

No. You will receive two Cobbled activation licenses. Cobbled is set up with your agency's positioning, ICP, and content pillars baked in, so anyone on your BD team producing content works from the same strategic foundation. That consistency across voices and formats is part of what makes a propinquity strategy work at scale without requiring a dedicated content person. Additional licenses are available at an additional cost.

How soon can we get started?

We typically schedule the one-day workshop within two to three weeks of the engagement being confirmed. The pre-work audit requires some lead time to do properly, and the workshop needs to be scheduled when your key people are available and able to be fully present. Rushing the audit phase yields a weaker workshop, which in turn results in weaker deliverables. The timeline exists for your benefit.

What does the competitive analysis tool actually analyze?

It conducts a lightweight but meaningful comparison of your agency's positioning against up to five competitors you identify based on each agency's website content. It looks at how you describe what you do, who you serve, and what makes you different, and scores the distinctness of that positioning relative to your competitive set. It's designed to give you an honest read on whether you have a positioning problem worth solving before you invest in the full diagnostic. It is also the first step we take in every engagement.

take the first step

Every Agency Owner Believes They're Unique. Not Every Pipeline Agrees.

The gap between believing you're different and being seen as different is where most agency new business programs break down. It's why the phone stops ringing, proposals get ghosted, and second-place finishes become the new norm.

The only way to know which side of that gap you're on is to look at how your agency actually appears relative to the competitors your prospects are also considering. Not how you see your agency. How they see it.

That's why we built the Distinction Detector. It compares how distinctly your agency positions itself versus up to five competitors you select. It's based on your website versus their website. It's also the same first step we'd take if you hired us, because website messaging is the most reliable proxy for how an agency presents itself elsewhere. If your positioning isn't distinct on your site, it almost certainly isn't distinct in your pitch decks, your networking conversations, or your proposals either.

The tool won't give you an exhaustive analysis. But it will quickly reveal any positioning problem, scored across 12 variables, along with an indication of how significant it might be.

Five minutes. No email. No sales call. Just an honest answer to the question your pipeline has already been asking.

see how distinct your agency really is

No email required. No sales call to get your results.