Marketing Your Business: The Value Proposition and Why It Helps Investigators

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for marketing a business. If you have an unfamiliar product that requires a major amount of trust on the part of the first-time buyer, the approach should not be the same as persuading people to try a different kind of laundry soap/energy drink/food delivery service.

But a value proposition can help any business get the message across that their product is worth buying.

When I started my business 15 years ago, I knew nothing about marketing. As a former journalist and then an investigator for other people, it was never my problem if subscriptions weren’t growing enough, ad sales were flat, or the investigations company was a having a slow quarter. As long as the paychecks kept coming, it was the “business side’s problem” of how to juice up demand. I was a supply person only.

But if you are a smaller-firm professional (and even lawyers in larger firms have this problem), you have to worry about supply and demand. Before you can do the work you supply, you have to get the phone to ring to ask for the work.

Every business has different marketing problems. Here are the ones for mine and the value proposition solution that has greatly helped me.

Problem #1: Half the Market Doesn’t Know What an Investigator Can Do

People unfamiliar with investigation ask, “Why would I need you if everything is on Google?” or “Doesn’t AI just find all of that for you?”

Some people genuinely don’t understand that the human brain is still required to solve certain difficult problems. If it’s all on Google, then why can’t those people find it too? Why can’t their lawyer or accountant?

If I gave most people complete access to my databases, they would not be much further ahead than if I didn’t. Most of my legal clients have these databases, but the database output is only the starting point. This is why I wrote my book, The Art of Fact Investigation, and what I have been writing about for years on this blog, beginning with Google is Not a Substitute for Thinking.

Problem #2: Many Others Know What Investigators Can Do – And That Scares Them

Plenty of people have horror stories about investigators they have used. From, “I gave him thousands of dollars and he found nothing,” to “I told him not to call anybody and he called three people the first day.”

Some investigators are proud of “pushing the envelope.” As long as they don’t get caught, they think all is well. If they break the law by getting bank account information, they are fine with that as long as they know you won’t use the information in court or tell anyone how you got it. I’ve written consistently about this issue too, including investigator abuses on the Harvey Weinstein case.

I named this blog The Ethical Investigator because I am dedicated to the proposition that if you work for lawyers, you shouldn’t be breaking the law or the rules of professional responsibility that govern lawyers. Some things that are legal for some people to do are unethical for lawyers or their agents to do (contacting a represented party without their attorney being present; pretending to be a newspaper reporter in order to get people to talk to you). I won’t do those things and have spent close to 15 years writing as much.

What Works Best for All Trust-Heavy Businesses

To hire you, they have to know you. Then they usually have to like you. Once they like you, they need to trust you. And only then will they hire you or – as importantly – refer you to someone who trusts them.

How long does all of that take? Well, one meeting and an exchange of business cards won’t do it. If you tell me that you can lower my electricity bill by 20% or provide faster and cheaper internet service, I will hear you out or read what you have to send me. But if you tell me you can do my will or investigate my potential business partner better than anyone else, I will have a few questions. I will want to know why you’re better. Have you written anything that could show me how you think about what you do? Do you have referrals? Has anyone I might trust ever interviewed you about your work?

After all, I can always switch back from a bad decision about my power bill or food delivery service. But if you mess up my will or my million-dollar case, there’s no coming back from that. Building up trust takes time.

The Value Proposition: Critical for Unfamiliar Businesses

One tool that I have found immensely helpful is to give prospective clients a value proposition. This isn’t the normal company mission statement or vision statement. This is the thing that says to customers: “If you pay us X, you get back X-plus a lot in value.” The concept of showing value was written in a classic Harvard Business Review article in 2006. The article is worth buying either separately or in HBR’s 10 Must Reads in Strategic Marketing.

This is what my value proposition boils down to for divorce assets: You pay me $3,000, and if I find just $6,000, you break even (assuming you split the asset 50-50). If I find a boat slip for $45,000 (which I’ve done), you are way ahead. You have made $22,500 on a $3,000 investment. What other investment will you make that multiplies money by more than six times in a single month? Imagine if I find a whole house (which I often do). You will beat every money manager on Wall Street with that kind of return.

It’s the same for due diligence. What’s the value to your company of not investing $3 million with someone untrustworthy who may blow that money? The value is probably far in excess of $3,000 or $4,000.

Fixed Fees

Unlike litigators, I can offer a fixed fee for most of what I do. If you decide to sue someone, there is no telling whether the other side will want to settle or go to trial. The engagement could take two months or many years.

But with an investigation of the type I do, I can propose phased work in which most of the money will likely be spent in phase one. If it’s for a price people can live with, they know they are capped with no prospect of an unpleasant surprise (“Sorry, we retrieved 11,000 pages of filings, and they cost $1.25 a page to copy).

First they have to know you, then like you, then trust you. Once they do, the value proposition with a fixed price is what often gets you the order.