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Win Without Pitching · 12 of 12
Win Without Pitching
Entrepreneurship MEDIUM

The Disappearing Middle

Win Without Pitching Blair Enns
market-forces commoditization survival urgency

Key Principle

Technology and oversupply are eliminating the middle ground between commodity tacticians and expert practitioners. Technology lowers barriers to entry, creating oversupply. Oversupply intensifies price competition. The combination widens the gap between firms competing on price (commodity) and firms competing on expertise (expert). Firms in the middle get pulled toward commodity by default because price competition is the market's gravitational norm -- it requires no action to drift there, only inaction.

The firm that "chooses not to choose" has chosen commodity status. "If we continue to choose not to choose, the decision will be made for us." (Ch. 12) The twelve proclamations are not optional self-improvement -- they are a response to a market bifurcation that will sort firms whether they choose or not.

Why This Matters

This chapter provides the structural urgency behind every preceding proclamation. Without it, the twelve steps read as aspiration. With it, they read as survival strategy. The disappearing middle explains why generalist firms give away thinking for free -- they lack the differentiation to command payment for it, and market gravity does the rest. The firm that does not actively climb toward the expert end will be "pushed down the commodity road" and "reside with thousands of other order-taker suppliers who will never be free of the pitch." (Ch. 12)

The enemy was never the client demanding free pitches. It was the firm's own failure to specialize, price correctly, and walk away. Resentment toward bad clients is misdirected -- it is actually self-loathing for not building the positioning that would permit selectivity.

Good Examples

Selectivity as the Only Controllable Variable: Bad clients and free-pitching processes are permanent market features that will never be eliminated. The only variable a firm controls is its own response. Walking away from poor-fit engagements is the mechanism by which the free-pitching problem is solved -- "it is only going away from us." The problem itself persists; the firm simply removes itself from the conditions that produce it.

The Respect-Revenue Virtuous Cycle: Deep expertise earns respect. Respect permits premium fees. Premium fees fund reinvestment. Reinvestment deepens expertise. This is the upward spiral toward the expert end of the bifurcation. Reversing the sequence -- chasing revenue first -- forces the firm into price competition and pitch-mode selling, destroying the cycle entirely.

Resentment as Diagnostic: When a firm resents its clients for not valuing its work, the real diagnosis is that the firm lacks the positioning to walk away. The resentment is a signal that the firm is stuck in the disappearing middle, doing "adequate work for poor money for people who didn't value us."

The Correct Response to Financial Anxiety: Creative professionals instinctively chase revenue when anxious -- widening the funnel, accepting poor-fit clients, cutting prices. This is precisely when they most need to invest in positioning. The correct response to financial pressure is to deepen expertise, not to widen the funnel.

Counterpoints

The bifurcation thesis may overstate the speed and completeness of the sorting process. Many firms operate profitably in the middle for years, especially in markets where client sophistication is low or relationships are deeply entrenched. The disappearing middle is a directional force, not an instant event.

The advice to deepen expertise rather than widen the funnel during financial anxiety assumes the firm has sufficient runway to survive the transition. For firms in acute distress, the Four Priorities of Winning New Business (Ch. 4) provide the pragmatic safety valve -- but the tension between long-term positioning and short-term survival is real.

Key Quotes

  1. "When we express our resentment for the client who does not value us, we are really expressing our self-loathing for not being able to walk away from him." (Ch. 12)

  2. "If we continue to choose not to choose, the decision will be made for us." (Ch. 12)

  3. "Profit is the proof of the worth of our enterprise." (Ch. 12)

  4. "Technology and oversupply are combining to rapidly widen the gulf between the commoditized tacticians who now bid their services against each other online, and the expert practitioners who command significant fees for leading their clients to novel solutions to meaningful business challenges. The middle is disappearing." (Ch. 12)

  5. "We will seek respect above money, for only when we are respected as experts will we be paid the money we seek." (Ch. 12)

Rules of Thumb

  • Inaction defaults to commodity. The market's gravitational pull is toward price competition -- it requires active effort to resist it.
  • Selectivity is the behavioral proof that positioning has worked. A firm that cannot walk away has not truly specialized.
  • Respect leads, money follows. Reversing the sequence destroys the virtuous cycle.
  • Resentment toward clients is a diagnostic: it signals insufficient positioning to permit selectivity.
  • The correct response to financial anxiety is to deepen expertise, not to widen the funnel.
  • The twelve proclamations are survival strategy, not aspiration. The market will sort firms whether they choose or not.

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