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Vertical positioning

Vertical positioning makes the rest of the sales process easier

Last updated: November 2026

Vertical positioning means focusing your agency on one industry or clearly defined buyer so the market can describe what you do in a single sentence.

Tim Kilroy treats positioning as the step before any sales tactic. His agency FAQ puts it plainly: "Your agency doesn't have a sales problem. It has a positioning problem that looks like one." When buyers cannot describe you, every deal collapses to price, and discovery calls start from zero instead of from shared context.

Why does positioning matter for the agency sales process?

Positioning matters because buyers sort you before they talk to you. Tim Kilroy's positioning playbook says buyers categorize an agency in the first eight seconds based on the options they already understand. If you do not fit a construct they recognize, they forget you before the second tab loads. His gut-check: if a prospect, a client, a teammate, or you cannot describe what you do in under 20 seconds, you do not have a defensible position. You have a brochure.

Definition: vertical positioning

Vertical positioning is the choice to focus an agency on a specific industry or type of buyer instead of serving everyone. Tim Kilroy describes positioning as burning the boats: an active choice to take options away so the remaining ones are the strongest connection between your impact and the market's need. He also stresses that the buyer owns your position, not you. You can rewrite headlines in a week, but repositioning takes years, and your case studies must back the words. If your case studies say "everyone," a tagline that says "specialist" reads as noise.

The trade-offs, stated honestly

A niche buys faster trust and higher rates. It also concentrates risk into one market's weather. Tim's warning from his agency FAQ: nobody tells you what to do when the niche has a bad year.

His advice is to choose a market you can genuinely dominate, then watch for over-concentration the same way you would watch a single client that has grown into a large share of revenue.

Generalist vs vertically positioned agency

How positioning changes each stage of the agency sales process, based on Tim Kilroy's positioning playbook
Sales stage"We work with everyone"Vertically positioned
AwareHard to remember or describeDescribable in one sentence
InterestedInbound is randomInbound matches the buyer you serve
DiscoveryStarts from zeroStarts from shared industry context
ProposalCompared on rateCompared on outcome
ReferralsLiked, recommended, then not hiredReferred for a specific problem

How to choose a position you can defend

  1. Look at your best work

    Which clients got the biggest outcomes, and what do they have in common?

  2. Name the buyer

    Write down who you serve specifically enough that a stranger could picture them.

  3. Test the 20-second rule

    Ask a client and a teammate to describe what you do. Compare their words to yours.

  4. Make the case studies match

    The market reads your case studies, so they must say the same thing as your homepage.

  5. Commit long enough to be noticed

    Tim notes positioning usually gets done reactively, right after referrals dry up. Hold it through the quiet period.

Read the full method in Tim Kilroy's agency positioning playbook, then see how a clear position feeds lead generation beyond referrals.

See how positioning fits the full agency sales process

Positioning questions

What is vertical positioning for an agency?
Vertical positioning means focusing an agency on one industry or a clearly defined type of buyer, so the market can describe you in a sentence. Tim Kilroy frames positioning as burning the boats: choosing to remove options so the remaining ones connect your strongest work to a real market need. Buyers cannot remember an agency they cannot describe. See this in the full FAQ
Is an agency niche a moat or a trap?
It is both, and your margin for error decides which. Tim Kilroy's agency FAQ says a niche buys faster trust and higher rates but concentrates risk in one market. His warning: nobody tells you what to do when the niche has a bad year. Pick a market you can dominate and watch for over-concentration. See this in the full FAQ
Why do agencies keep losing deals on price?
Because the agency sells effort while the buyer pays for an outcome. When a prospect cannot see the specific change you create, the only thing left to compare is your rate. Tim Kilroy calls a price objection a positioning problem in disguise, and recommends shifting the conversation to outcomes and raising the floor on who you take. See this in the full FAQ
How do I stop taking the wrong clients?
Turn your ideal client description into an operating filter you use during sales, not something you recognize only in hindsight. Tim Kilroy's agency FAQ notes that most founders can name a good client only after the fact. Define the buyer, the problem, and the deal size you want, then walk from deals that anchor you low. See this in the full FAQ
How do I get more agency leads?
Tim Kilroy's three steps: know exactly who you are trying to attract, know the channels where that audience receives and responds to information, and know what to say that connects your work to their needs. Run those steps consistently and they become a demand system rather than a one-off campaign. See this in the full FAQ

Read all 45 agency sales questions and answers

Outgrown referrals? Talk with Tim Kilroy about your sales process.

Tim coaches marketing and creative agency owners on positioning, lead generation, and a repeatable way to win clients.

Contact Tim Kilroy