The Cost of Being Hard to Explain
Growth becomes much harder when people don't immediately understand what makes you different.
A few years ago, we asked a client a simple question. "What does your business do?"
The answer took nearly five minutes. There was nothing wrong with the response. It was thoughtful, detailed and technically accurate. It reflected years of experience and a genuine passion for the work they delivered.
The problem was that by the end of the explanation, we were no closer to understanding what made the business different.
It's a challenge we've come across many times over the years. Not because organisations lack expertise. Usually it's the opposite. The businesses that struggle most to explain themselves are often the ones that have been successful for a long time.
They've grown. They've adapted. They've added new services and responded to new opportunities.
The business has become richer, broader and more capable than it was when it started.
From the inside, that feels like progress. From the outside, it can look surprisingly complicated.
The answer took nearly five minutes. There was nothing wrong with the response. It was thoughtful, detailed and technically accurate. It reflected years of experience and a genuine passion for the work they delivered.
The problem was that by the end of the explanation, we were no closer to understanding what made the business different.
It's a challenge we've come across many times over the years. Not because organisations lack expertise. Usually it's the opposite. The businesses that struggle most to explain themselves are often the ones that have been successful for a long time.
They've grown. They've adapted. They've added new services and responded to new opportunities.
The business has become richer, broader and more capable than it was when it started.
From the inside, that feels like progress. From the outside, it can look surprisingly complicated.
The businesses that struggle most to explain themselves are often the ones that have been successful for the longest.
Adam Connolly
Studio Lead at Studio Global
Success has a habit of creating complexity
One of the most interesting things about growing businesses is that complexity rarely arrives all at once.
It creeps in gradually.
A new service gets added. A different audience emerges. A successful project opens the door to a new sector. Over time, what started as a focused proposition becomes a much bigger story.
The challenge is that most businesses don't notice the shift happening.
Internally, everyone understands the journey. They know how all the pieces fit together. They understand the history, the expertise and the reasoning behind every decision.
Prospective clients don’t. They're seeing your business for the first time. They don't have years of context to draw from. They're simply trying to understand whether you're relevant to them and whether you're the right fit.
The more work they have to do to figure that out, the harder the decision becomes.
It creeps in gradually.
A new service gets added. A different audience emerges. A successful project opens the door to a new sector. Over time, what started as a focused proposition becomes a much bigger story.
The challenge is that most businesses don't notice the shift happening.
Internally, everyone understands the journey. They know how all the pieces fit together. They understand the history, the expertise and the reasoning behind every decision.
Prospective clients don’t. They're seeing your business for the first time. They don't have years of context to draw from. They're simply trying to understand whether you're relevant to them and whether you're the right fit.
The more work they have to do to figure that out, the harder the decision becomes.
We've seen this play out in countless ways
Sometimes it appears in a sales conversation. A prospect asks what makes the business different and receives three different answers from three different people.
Sometimes it appears in a website. The homepage talks about one thing, the service pages talk about another and the about page introduces a completely different story.
Sometimes it appears in marketing. Content is being created, campaigns are running and traffic is arriving, but nothing seems to be building real momentum.
On the surface, these can look like separate problems. More often than not, they're connected.
People are struggling to understand the business quickly enough. Not because the business lacks value. Because the value is buried beneath complexity.
Sometimes it appears in a website. The homepage talks about one thing, the service pages talk about another and the about page introduces a completely different story.
Sometimes it appears in marketing. Content is being created, campaigns are running and traffic is arriving, but nothing seems to be building real momentum.
On the surface, these can look like separate problems. More often than not, they're connected.
People are struggling to understand the business quickly enough. Not because the business lacks value. Because the value is buried beneath complexity.
The businesses that stand out aren't always the loudest
When people talk about growth, the conversation often turns to visibility. More marketing. More content.
More reach.
Those things matter. But some of the most successful organisations we've worked with haven't necessarily been the most visible. They've simply been the easiest to understand.
Their audience understands where they fit.
Their team communicates consistently.
Their website reinforces the same story that's told in meetings, proposals and conversations.
Nothing feels forced. Nothing feels confusing. The business simply makes sense.
And when that happens, something interesting follows. Decisions become easier. Conversations become shorter. Trust develops more quickly. Momentum starts to build.
More reach.
Those things matter. But some of the most successful organisations we've worked with haven't necessarily been the most visible. They've simply been the easiest to understand.
Their audience understands where they fit.
Their team communicates consistently.
Their website reinforces the same story that's told in meetings, proposals and conversations.
Nothing feels forced. Nothing feels confusing. The business simply makes sense.
And when that happens, something interesting follows. Decisions become easier. Conversations become shorter. Trust develops more quickly. Momentum starts to build.
Clarity isn't about simplifying what you do
This is where many businesses get nervous. The goal isn't to reduce a complex business into a simplistic statement. It's to make that complexity easier to navigate.
The organisations that do this well aren't hiding their expertise. They're making it more accessible.
They're helping people understand why they matter before asking them to understand everything
they do. And that's an important distinction.
Most customers don't need to know everything about your business before they decide to engage with it. They simply need enough clarity to take the next step. When that happens, growth starts to feel less like an uphill battle.
Not because the business has changed, but because the understanding has.
The organisations that do this well aren't hiding their expertise. They're making it more accessible.
They're helping people understand why they matter before asking them to understand everything
they do. And that's an important distinction.
Most customers don't need to know everything about your business before they decide to engage with it. They simply need enough clarity to take the next step. When that happens, growth starts to feel less like an uphill battle.
Not because the business has changed, but because the understanding has.
