A few months ago, I delivered a workshop at Warwick University. The session was about sales and the funnel. But I wanted to start somewhere else: why do people feel ready to buy at all?
A funnel describes stages. It does not explain trust, clarity or confidence, and it does not explain the experience that moves someone from one stage to the next.
So I gave the room one line to hold onto. Brand comes before marketing. Marketing comes before sales.
That does not mean design replaces sales ability. It means people need to understand you, trust you and feel comfortable putting their name behind the decision before any sales process can perform properly. That holds in B2B and B2C alike. There is always a person making the choice.
The workshop exercise
The exercise I set the room was simple. I asked each table to think about their alignment: where their business stands now, where it needs to go and what must change.
Then to think about their audience: who actually chooses them, and what those people need to understand and feel before they commit.
And finally to understand what they require: the clarity, the story and the experience that make choosing them feel like the safe decision.
Align, Visualise, Your Outcome
I use three steps to answer it. Align: get clear on where the business is now, where it needs to go and what must change, including the customer, the offer, the friction and the decision points.
Visualise: turn that clarity into the identity, website, messaging and experience people actually encounter, so the business is easier to understand and trust.
Your Outcome: make sure the work produces a real commercial or behavioural shift. Better conversations, more confidence and clearer decisions.
Five questions to take away
If you want to run the exercise yourself, start with five questions. What does someone need to understand before they can choose us? What do they need to feel before they can trust us? Where does our current experience create doubt, effort or confusion? What promise are we making, and does every touchpoint support it? What one moment could we improve in the next 10 days?
Getting the brand and experience right does not guarantee the sale. It makes the sale easier, because it reduces uncertainty and gives people more confidence in the decision.
A funnel can show you where a customer is. It cannot make them trust you. That happens when the story, the experience and the delivery all say the same thing.
What people took away
The most useful feedback was not simply that people enjoyed the session. It was that they left clearer on how brand affects trust, value and the way clients choose them.
The feedback reflected the point of the workshop: clearer brand positioning does not sit separately from sales. It makes it easier for the right people to understand your value, trust your business and feel confident choosing you.
If you’re serious about your brand, this workshop is essential. Avy breaks it down in a way that’s immediately actionable.
This workshop gave me the clarity I needed to reposition my business. Worth every minute.
If you want to understand how to command premium fees, this workshop will transform how you present your brand.
Very good balance between information, actions and stories.
Looking for a guest speaker or workshop facilitator?
I run practical sessions for founders, teams and business communities on brand, positioning, customer experience and making it easier for the right people to choose you.
If you are planning a workshop, team session or event, get in touch.
Need someone to get your project over the line?
Project delivery support for brand, digital, and creative teams that need clearer direction and smoother progress.