Create Your Customer....#153
- Adrian Dionisio - business737 owner
- Dec 30, 2025
- 4 min read
Most experts struggle to sell but smartest businesses escape the red ocean
Most B2B service businesses have a customer design problem. Consultants, coaches, and expert-led firms keep trying to sell harder, post more content, and run more funnels, but they’re all fishing in the same overcrowded pond.
Same audience. Same promises. Same pricing pressure.
And then they wonder why demand is weak.
The truth is uncomfortable but liberating:
You don’t find customers. You create them.
This is one of the most misunderstood ideas in business.
Let’s unpack what it really means and how it changes everything about marketing, positioning, and growth.
The Real Job of Marketing Isn’t Awareness — It’s Problem Creation
Most service businesses market like this:
“Here’s what we do.”
“Here are our services.”
“Here’s why we’re better.”
That’s feature-based marketing.And it creates zero leverage.
High-growth companies do something very different.
They:
Define a hidden or ignored problem
Make the customer emotionally aware of it
Position themselves as the only logical solution
That’s how demand is manufactured.
Peter Drucker said it best:
“The purpose of a business is to create a customer.”
Not to find one. To create one.
A customer doesn’t exist until someone becomes aware of a problem that now feels urgent, expensive, and risky to ignore.
If your prospects don’t feel exposed without you, you’re competing on price.
Positioning Is Not What You Sell — It’s What You Sell
Against
Most consultants try to differentiate on:
Experience
Credentials
Process
Methodology
None of that creates demand.
Real positioning is:
The problem you make visible.
If you and five competitors all claim to help “grow businesses,” the buyer has no reason to pick you.
But if you frame the problem as:
Revenue leakage
Invisible churn
Pipeline fragility
Decision paralysis
Trust erosion
Opportunity decay
Now you own a lens — not a service.
And once you own the lens, your offer becomes the obvious prescription.
Why Red-Ocean Experts Stay Stuck
Most expert businesses operate in what strategists call a red ocean:
Everyone selling the same outcomes
Everyone competing for the same buyers
Everyone pushing the same language
That’s why you see:
Discounting
Long sales cycles
Price resistance
“Let me think about it”
The market doesn’t need another provider. It needs a new frame.
Blue-ocean businesses don’t sell better services — they sell to newly created buyers who suddenly realise they have a problem they can’t ignore.
How You Create a Customer in B2B
Here’s the formula every high-leverage consultancy follows (consciously or not):
1. Find a Pain People Feel but Can’t Name
These are things like:
“We’re busy but not growing”
“Sales feels unpredictable”
“We keep losing deals for unclear reasons”
“Our brand doesn’t command authority”
They feel it.They can’t articulate it.
That’s your opening.
2. Package the Pain Into a Concept
The moment you give a problem a name, it becomes real.
Examples:
Revenue Leaks
Pipeline Decay
Decision Bottlenecks
Trust Deficit
Market Noise
Now the prospect isn’t confused — they’re diagnosed.
Whoever names the problem controls the sale.
3. Agitate the Risk of Ignoring It
Elite positioning doesn’t scare people — it clarifies consequences.
“What happens if this continues?”
Lost deals
Lower margins
Weaker positioning
Missed growth windows
The cost of doing nothing must feel greater than the cost of change.
4. Make Your Offer the Only Logical Fix
You are no longer “a consultant” or “a coach.”
You are:
The system
The filter
The clarity layer
The strategic engine
Your service becomes the infrastructure that protects them from the very problem you just made visible.
Now price becomes secondary.
Perception Creates Demand
One of the biggest mistakes expert businesses make is trying to look “professional” instead of looking like the customer they want to attract.
People buy from those who feel like insiders.
Your language. Your framing. Your examples. Your tone.
They must signal:
“This person understands my world.”
If your market can’t see themselves in your brand, they won’t trust your solution — no matter how good it is.
Distribution Is a Positioning Decision
If you’re not where your buyers are, you don’t exist.
High-leverage businesses don’t wait for traffic. They bring the message to the market.
B2B experts → LinkedIn
Thought leadership → long-form content
Strategic buyers → podcasts, newsletters, events
Visibility isn’t marketing. It’s market access.
The easier you are to encounter, the easier you are to choose.
The Real Reason You’re Not Selling Enough
If sales feel hard, it’s usually not because:
Your offer is weak
Your pricing is wrong
Your funnel is broken
It’s because:
You’re selling into the wrong market with the wrong frame.
The fastest way to grow is not to improve your offer.
It’s to move your offer into a market that already wants what it solves — once you show them the problem.
Final Thought: Create, Don’t Compete
The most valuable companies don’t fight for attention.
They change what attention is about.
They don’t win by being louder.They win by being more precise.
If you’re an expert, consultant, or advisor selling your knowledge, your growth isn’t capped by your skills — it’s capped by how well you’ve defined the problem you solve.
Create the problem. Create the category. Create the customer.
And the market will follow.
