"The Win Without Pitching Manifesto" - How to Attract Premium Clients for Your Corporate Superpowers Without Competing on Price
Most people monetizing their Corporate Superpowers chase clients and compete on price. Blair Enns shows you how to do the opposite—and make more money in the process.
Here's what I appreciate about The Win Without Pitching Manifesto: It's 128 pages. No filler. No fluff. Just a punchy, contrarian framework for positioning yourself so premium clients come to you.
Blair Enns ran a creative agency for years. He watched talented consultants undercharge, chase clients they didn't want, and compete on price because they didn't know how to position their expertise.
So he wrote a manifesto—12 proclamations that flip conventional consulting wisdom on its head.
The result? A positioning framework that directly addresses the biggest fear corporate professionals have when monetizing their superpowers: "I don't want to sell."
Good news: If you position correctly, you don't have to.
The Problem Most Corporate Professionals Face
You have 15+ years of corporate experience. You've identified your Corporate Superpowers—Process Optimization, Stakeholder Management, Budget Planning, whatever your specific expertise is. You know your stuff.
But when you try to monetize those superpowers, you run into the same pattern:
The Typical (Broken) Approach to Monetizing Corporate Superpowers:
- You position yourself as a generalist: "I help companies with operations/strategy/process improvement"
- Prospects ask: "What do you charge?" and "Can you send me a proposal?"
- You're competing with 10 other consultants on price
- Clients treat you as a commodity: "Can you do it for less?"
- You win projects by being cheaper, not better
- You're constantly chasing clients, pitching, justifying fees
Revenue: Inconsistent. Stress: High. Retirement gap: Still there.
This is exhausting. And it's backwards.
When you position yourself as a generalist, you compete on price. When you position yourself as THE specialist who solves a specific high-value problem using your Corporate Superpowers, clients compete for your time.
Enns shows you exactly how to make that shift.
The Core Framework: Expertise-Based Positioning
The entire manifesto rests on one principle:
"We will replace presentations with conversations."
Think about what that means.
When you're chasing clients and competing on price, you present, pitch, and hope they say yes. You're selling.
When you're positioned as THE expert who solves a specific problem using your Corporate Superpowers, clients come to you with that problem. You have a conversation about whether you can help. You're diagnosing, not pitching.
That's the fundamental shift Enns teaches.
And for corporate professionals who hate "selling," this is the framework you need. Because you're not selling. You're having a professional conversation about a problem you're uniquely qualified to solve with your superpowers.
The 12 Proclamations (What Actually Matters)
Enns lays out 12 proclamations. Here are the ones that directly impact corporate professionals monetizing their superpowers:
1. "We will specialize."
Not "I do operations consulting." Instead: "I help mid-sized manufacturers reduce budget variance when they're scaling from $50M to $100M in revenue using my Budget Planning superpower."
Specific problem. Specific client type. Specific superpower. Specific outcome. That's positioning.
2. "We will replace presentations with conversations."
Stop pitching. Start diagnosing. When a prospect reaches out, you're having a conversation to determine if your Corporate Superpower can solve their problem. Not convincing them to hire you.
3. "We will diagnose before we prescribe."
Doctors don't pitch. They diagnose, then prescribe. You should do the same with your superpowers. That's how experts behave. And it's how you avoid scope creep and misaligned projects.
4. "We will rethink what it means to sell."
Selling isn't convincing someone to buy something they don't need. It's helping someone who has a problem determine if your Corporate Superpower is the right solution. Completely different energy.
5. "We will do away with presentations."
When you're positioned correctly, you don't need to present. The client already knows what your Corporate Superpower can do. You're just determining scope, timeline, and fee. That's it.
Example from the Book Applied to Corporate Superpowers:
A consultant specialized in using her Process Optimization superpower to help SaaS companies improve onboarding conversion. A SaaS CEO reached out because onboarding conversion was 23% and needed to be 40%+.
The "sales process" was a 45-minute conversation about the problem, followed by: "I can fix this using my process optimization expertise. My fee is $35,000. The work takes 6 weeks. Do you want to proceed?"
No pitch. No proposal. No competing with other consultants. Just expertise-based positioning of her Corporate Superpower.
That's how premium clients work when your Corporate Superpowers are positioned correctly.
How This Connects to Million Dollar Consulting
If you've read Alan Weiss's Million Dollar Consulting, you know about value-based pricing. Enns complements that perfectly:
How These Books Work Together When Monetizing Your Corporate Superpowers:
Million Dollar Consulting = How to price your superpowers based on value, not hours. The math and methodology of premium fees.
Win Without Pitching = How to position your superpowers so you never compete on price in the first place. The positioning that makes premium fees possible.
You need both. Positioning determines who calls you to use your Corporate Superpowers. Pricing determines what you charge when they do.
Why This Matters for Closing Your Retirement Gap
Let's connect this to monetizing your Corporate Superpowers to close your retirement gap.
If your retirement gap is $3,000/month ($36,000/year), you need to build approximately $900,000 in assets at a 4% withdrawal rate.
Positioning your Corporate Superpowers directly impacts how fast you build those assets:
Weak Positioning (Generalist Competing on Price):
- You charge $75-$100/hour because you're competing with cheaper consultants
- Projects average $15K-$20K
- You do 4 projects/year = $60K-$80K gross
- Time to build $900K in assets: 15+ years
Strong Positioning (Specialist Commanding Premium Fees for Your Superpower):
- You charge $150-$200/hour (or value-based fees) because you're THE expert with this Corporate Superpower
- Projects average $30K-$50K
- You do 3-4 projects/year = $90K-$200K gross
- Time to build $900K in assets: 7-10 years
That's a 5-8 year difference in your retirement timeline. All from positioning your Corporate Superpowers correctly.
Enns shows you how to make that shift—from generalist competing on price to specialist commanding premium fees for your specific Corporate Superpower.
The Parts That Hit Home
On saying no: Enns is clear—you can't be THE expert with your Corporate Superpower if you say yes to everyone. Saying no to bad-fit clients is how you protect your positioning. This is hard for corporate professionals trained to be helpful. But it's essential.
On free advice: Stop giving away your Corporate Superpower expertise for free in "exploratory calls." If someone wants your expertise, that's billable. This protects your time and reinforces your positioning as an expert, not a vendor.
On proposals: Enns argues you shouldn't write detailed proposals for free. Your thinking—your Corporate Superpower applied to their problem—is your product. When someone asks for a proposal, you're doing the work they should be paying for. Instead: have a conversation, agree on scope and fee, send a brief engagement letter.
These concepts feel uncomfortable at first. But they're what separate profitable consultants monetizing their Corporate Superpowers from struggling ones.
What I Don't Like
I'll be honest about the limitations.
The book is written for creative agencies, so some examples don't translate perfectly to monetizing Corporate Superpowers. You'll need to adapt the principles to your specific expertise area.
Also, Enns is prescriptive—almost dogmatic—about some rules. That's intentional (it's a manifesto), but it can feel rigid. Take the principles, adapt them to your Corporate Superpowers, and don't treat every proclamation as gospel.
Finally, this book is about positioning, not execution. You'll still need to deliver exceptional work using your superpowers. Positioning gets you in the door at premium fees. Results keep you there.
How This Fits the Encore Income System
Monetizing your Corporate Superpowers to close your retirement gap requires multiple pieces:
The Complete System for Monetizing Your Corporate Superpowers:
- Positioning: Win Without Pitching (be THE specialist with your superpower)
- Pricing: Million Dollar Consulting (charge based on value, not hours)
- Negotiation: Never Split the Difference (have confident fee conversations)
- Philosophy: Company of One (stay small, profitable, part-time)
- Investing: Simple Path to Wealth (invest that income to build assets)
That's how corporate professionals close retirement gaps by monetizing their superpowers without gambling their careers.
The Bottom Line
Is this book going to give you clients overnight? No.
Is it going to make positioning your Corporate Superpowers easy and comfortable? Also no.
But will it give you a proven framework for positioning yourself so premium clients seek out your Corporate Superpower instead of you chasing them and competing on price?
Absolutely.
This is a short book—128 pages—that you can read in an afternoon. But the positioning shift it creates can add 5-8 years to your retirement timeline by enabling premium fees for your Corporate Superpowers.
If you're serious about monetizing your superpowers to actually close your retirement gap, this book is essential.
Stop pitching your Corporate Superpowers. Start positioning them.
Get the Book
The Win Without Pitching Manifesto by Blair Enns
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First, Identify Which Superpower to Position
Before you position yourself as THE specialist, discover which of your Corporate Superpowers has the highest market value and deserves that focused positioning.
Take the Assessment (Free)Calculate Your Target
Know which Corporate Superpower to position. Now calculate the exact retirement income gap that premium positioning will help you close. It takes 5 minutes and gives you your target number.
Calculate Your Freedom NumberFortune favors the bold. But fortune also favors those who position their Corporate Superpowers as specialized expertise instead of generic services.
— Scott Fulbright
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