EP 10: Visual Models Expert Simon Bowen Illustrates How Showing Your Thinking Makes Your Agency Easier to Choose

Your agency may have spent years developing specialized expertise. You recognize patterns faster. You see around corners. You understand why a problem is happening…and what needs to change. But if a right-fit prospect cannot see that thinking, the prospect is left with your words, your deliverables, and a process diagram that may look very similar to what every other agency presents. Simon Bowen offers a direct challenge: "Your thinking is your product." Simon is the Founder and CEO of The Models Method®(opens in new tab) and the creator of The Genius Model®(opens in new tab). For nearly three decades, he has helped leaders across government, Fortune 500 companies, startups, nonprofits, the military, and complex service businesses turn sophisticated thinking into visual models people can understand and use. The Models Method is now used in more than 30 countries, and The Genius Model has been delivered in more than eight languages. Quick answer: An agency makes its specialized expertise easier to choose when a right-fit prospect can see the thinking behind the recommendation…not merely hear a description of the process. Simon Bowen uses three visual models to show how. The Quadrant creates visual and structural access, helping the prospect move from "I hear you" to "I see it" and "I get it." The Iceberg moves the conversation beneath the known problem to the hidden challenge and deeper outcome. The Futures Model connects today's decision to the cost of drift, the value of action, and a path the buyer can believe. The goal is not to present a clever diagram. It is to facilitate a conversation that creates clarity, believability, and buyer safety. In this conversation, Stephen Woessner and Simon draw the models in real time, role-play an agency conversation, and expose a mistake many agencies make during biz dev: they show the prospect what they do without showing the depth of thinking that makes the work valuable. How does showing your thinking make your agency easier to choose? 1. The Quadrant helps a prospect see it and get it Simon begins with a two-by-two Quadrant built around visual access and structural access. Words by themselves may create more noise. A prospect can hear an agency's explanation without developing a clear picture of the idea or understanding how the pieces fit together. Visual access changes the first part of that experience. The prospect can say, "Now I can see it." Structural access adds the relationships, hierarchy, and logic that help the prospect say, "Now I get it." When both are strong, the agency's thinking becomes easier to understand and more believable. Simon describes this as the green zone. The choreography surrounding the model…what the agency reveals, in what order, and how the agency brings the prospect into the explanation…helps turn desirability into a viable decision path. Simon summarizes the distinction this way: "Trust gets you in the door. Believability gets you sold." For an agency, this does not mean adding a polished graphic to a proposal. The model must expose the logic beneath the recommendation. A right-fit prospect should be able to see the problem, understand the relationships, and recognize why the proposed path makes sense. A decorative diagram shows the prospect a picture. A useful model shows the prospect how your agency thinks. 2. The Iceberg takes the conversation beneath the deliverable The top of Simon's Iceberg represents the visible, transactional problem. That is where a prospect asks for a website, a campaign, a new brand, more reach, or help with sales. It is also where the agency can be compared most easily by deliverables, process, and price. The middle of the Iceberg contains the hidden problem. The prospect may recognize it but feel uncomfortable saying it plainly. Or the buyer may understand the symptoms without seeing the relationships beneath them. The base contains what Simon calls the ache…the deeper issue the prospect feels but may not yet be able to name. It also contains the larger outcome the buyer is trying to create. Simon demonstrates the model first through a ferry-builder example. The surface conversation is about investing in a ferry. Beneath that are the operating outcomes…passenger comfort, fuel performance, and speed to destination. Deeper still is the capital required to acquire the vessel and the competitive advantage the operator is trying to build. Then Simon and Stephen build an agency Iceberg in real time. The surface request is more marketing reach. Beneath it are internal alignment, distributor understanding, and a better end-customer experience. At the base is something more valuable than a marketing plan: helping a mission-driven company put its brilliance on show throughout the entire path to market. The model does not force the prospect into the agency's conclusion. Simon asks questions, listens to Stephen's answers, and builds the model with him. "Stop selling. And start facilitating." The deeper the conversation goes, the harder it becomes to compare the agency as a list of deliverables. 3. The Futures Model connects today's decision to buyer safety and winning Simon places the buyer's current state in the center of the Futures Model. From there, one curve moves downward toward a red future. Simon frames this as drift. The buyer does not remain in a neutral, flat status quo. The existing problems continue, compound, and pull the organization farther away from the result it wants. The other curve moves upward toward a green future. That path requires decisions and action. The agency's role is to help the prospect see both futures…then determine whether the agency's mechanism can move the buyer onto the green path. Gates along the path represent the decisions, conditions, and commitments required to keep the work moving in the right direction. Simon reduces the buyer's desired outcome to two needs: Make me safe. Protect me from the red future. Help me win. Give me a credible path to a better-than-average result. This is where the model becomes part of the Trust Bridge. It gives the buyer a way to examine the recommendation, question it, and test whether the proposed path connects today's challenge to the desired future. In Stephen's language…the agency aligns before it prescribes. A right-fit prospect is more likely to act when the path forward feels visible, credible, and safer than continued drift. How Simon built an agency's Iceberg in real time The live role-play is one of the most useful sections of the episode because Simon does not begin with the agency's services. He begins with the buyer's business. Stephen plays the leader of a product manufacturer trying to create stronger alignment across the internal team, distribution partners, and end customers. Simon listens for the words carrying the most meaning…then organizes them into the Iceberg. At the top, he places reach. In the middle, he maps three outcomes: Create the internal sale before taking the message to the market Help the distribution network understand and carry the message Build a stronger experience for the end customer At the base, he connects the commercial work to the company's mission and reframes the agency's value as helping the client put its brilliance on show at every level. The important lesson is not the exact words Simon places on the page. The important lesson is how he gets there. He asks. He listens. He reflects the buyer's language. He tests the relationship between ideas. He gives the prospect room to correct the model. Then he uses the completed picture to clarify the deeper value of the work. The prospect is not watching the agency present a framework from the outside. The prospect is helping build the framework from the inside. What you will learn in this episode Why Simon says an agency's thinking…not merely its deliverables…is its real product How visual access and structural access help a prospect move from hearing the idea to understanding it Why simplification is different from dumbing down sophisticated expertise How the Iceberg moves a biz dev conversation from the known problem to the hidden problem and deeper ache Why the model should facilitate a conversation instead of becoming another presentation How the Futures Model makes the cost of drift and the value of action visible Why completeness of thinking can create more buyer confidence than another claim of uniqueness Put one prospect conversation through a three-model test Can the prospect see it and get it? Choose one idea your agency explains frequently. Identify what would give the buyer visual access to the idea and what structure would make the relationships clear. How deep does the conversation go? Write the prospect's visible request at the top of a page. Beneath it, identify the hidden business problem. At the base, identify the ache or larger outcome the prospect may feel but has not named. What future are you helping the prospect choose? Map today's state, the consequences of drift, the desired future, and the decisions required to move onto the better path. Do not begin by making the model attractive. Begin by making the thinking complete. Then practice drawing and facilitating the model until your team can use it without turning the conversation into a performance delivered at the prospect. Continue the Authority-to-Demand conversation In Don Yaeger's episode on telling business stories that move people to act(opens in new tab), Don explains how a listener-centered story helps a prospect see themselves inside an outcome. Simon extends that teaching by showing how a visual model lets the prospect see the agency's thinking and participate in building the path. In Scott McKain's conversation on how agencies become unmistakably valuable(opens in new tab), Scott explains why difference keeps an agency inside a comparison. Simon shows how depth, visible thinking, and completeness can move the prospect beyond surface-level comparison. In Stephen Woessner's solocast on what turns trust into Demand(opens in new tab), Stephen explains why expertise must be visible before trust can become action. Simon gives agency owners a practical way to make that expertise visible inside content, proposals, and biz dev conversations. Explore the complete In-Demand Agency Podcast archive(opens in new tab). Research notes and sources 1. Simon Bowen and The Models Method The Models Method's official company history(opens in new tab) identifies Simon Bowen as Founder and CEO of The Models Method® and creator of The Genius Model®. The company reports nearly three decades of consulting work across government, Fortune 500 companies, startups, nonprofits, the military, and elite sport. It also states that The Models Method is used in more than 30 countries. 2. The Genius Model The official Genius Model overview(opens in new tab) describes The Genius Model® as the flagship model of The Models Method®. The page explains that it turns intuitive company genius into organized genius, helps prospects see the power of a promise and feel the safety of a structured framework, and can organize a company's thinking into a visual explanation delivered in seven to ten minutes. The page also states that the model is used in more than 30 countries and more than eight languages. 3. The Quadrant, Iceberg, and Futures Model The three models in these show notes are summarized directly from Simon's teaching and live demonstrations during this episode. The public copy treats the model mechanics, buyer interpretations, and business examples as Simon's expert instruction. Resources Learn more about Simon Bowen and The Models Method(opens in new tab) Explore The Genius Model(opens in new tab) Connect with Simon Bowen on LinkedIn(opens in new tab) Visit Simon Bowen's personal website(opens in new tab) Watch Predictive ROI on YouTube(opens in new tab) Explore The In-Demand Agency Podcast archive(opens in new tab) Your right next step Bring one recurring biz dev conversation to your next leadership meeting. Ask your team to identify what the prospect typically requests at the surface…what business problem sits underneath…and what larger outcome the buyer is trying to create. Then draw the relationship. Do not add more words to the explanation. Give the prospect visual and structural access to the agency's thinking. Because authority may earn the conversation. Proof may strengthen the Trust Bridge. But the buyer still needs to understand how your agency thinks…and why that thinking offers a credible path forward. Show the depth. Make the path visible. Help the prospect feel safe choosing it. Onward with gusto! About Simon Bowen Simon Bowen is the Founder and CEO of The Models Method® and the creator of The Genius Model®. For nearly three decades, he has worked with government, Fortune 500 companies, startups, nonprofits, the military, elite sport, and complex service businesses. His work helps leaders simplify sophisticated ideas, organize intuitive expertise, and make the thinking behind a product, service, or strategy visible. The Models Method is used in more than 30 countries, and The Genius Model has been delivered in more than eight languages. Simon's work centers on two systems he considers essential to business: the system for thinking and the system for influence.