The Roast of Motion.io

The Intel Op That Uncovered What You Missed (Insight Foraging)

When I send brands my intake questionnaire, most of them trip up on sneaky questions like what compels their customers to act (triggers). You didn't. Nothing stumped you. That tells me you're genuinely close to your customers… and not hiding behind dashboards like most SaaS companies pretending they know what's up.

But being close to your customers and seeing the full picture? Two completely different beasts, right?

Going Full Susan Cooper on Your Business

The movie "Spy" is a favorite comedy my wife and I watch when we're too brain-dead for anything else. It stars the brilliant Melissa McCarthy as Susan Cooper, the CIA's most talented desk analyst, who is completely overlooked while flashy field agents get all the glory.

(It’s going to be relevant in a bit, I promise.)

Alright. Since I live and breathe this agency world myself, I knew I needed fresh intel beyond your intake form. So I went full Susan Cooper mode with a three-arm intel op that would make the CIA jealous.

Part #1: Community Infiltration

First mission: infiltrate r/agency subreddit where real agency owners congregate. Why this target? The moderators are all agency owners, and only folks with karma can post… keeping the intelligence quality high.

I deployed web scrapers to extract recent discussions mentioning "client onboarding" and "client portal," then cross-referenced them with problems from your intake questionnaire.

Then, I focused on the ones that touched on problems mentioned inside your intake questionnaire.

Part #2: Review Surveillance

Second mission: deep surveillance of your G2 and Capterra reviews, filtering specifically for the “marketing & advertising” industry. I knew happy customer reviews wouldn't give me amazing insights, but they'd reveal patterns and confirm intelligence trends.

Web scrapers extracted the data. Old-school digital espionage.

Part #3: Undercover Contact

And here's where the mission got interesting. I used my personal email to infiltrate Motion.io and schedule a "sales call" with your Account Executive, Matt. Your co-founders were my handlers (they knew the operation) but Matt had no idea he was being debriefed by a Frenchman with ulterior motives.

This exercise wasn’t meant to test Matt’s (and his moustache’s) sales ability; it was to gather juicy insights from someone talking agency owners all day, every day. And I’m so glad I went through it, because Matt said something in passing that made everything click for me. Not kidding.

The Intelligence Breakthrough

During this operation, something emerged that wasn't in your intake reports. Something your targets experience that's way more devastating than the operational issues you've identified. It's intelligence about why agencies really lose clients. Not because of admin chaos or time management, but because of something much more psychological. Much more primal.

I won't declassify this intel here, but this overlooked struggle could completely transform the way you position your client onboarding software solution. The beautiful irony? Your platform already neutralizes this threat. You just don't know it yet.

Verdict: 4/5. Your customer intelligence is solid, but even the best field agents can miss what's happening in the shadows. There's a critical blind spot in your intelligence gathering. Once you see it, everything clicks into place. And trust me, when we declassify this intel in Stage 2, you'll understand why this changes everything.

The Intelligence That Changes Everything (Unique Positioning)

Right, Motion.io. Stage 2 is where we declassify the positioning intelligence and find out if you're giving agencies a compelling reason to choose you over their current Frankenstein systems. Time to reveal what my undercover operation… well… uncovered.

Job: What Agencies Really Hire You For

The "job" is the specific goal agency owners are hiring your onboarding software to achieve. Not what you think they should want, but what they actually need to get done.

From your website and intake form, I found three core jobs you think agencies hire you for:

1. Keep projects moving

2. Get paid faster

3. Scale operations

"Keep projects moving" is solid. It starts with a verb, sounds like something an agency owner would actually say, doesn't mention technology. But here's where I initially got stuck thinking the real job was "onboarding new clients."

Turns out I was still thinking too small. The real job is something much bigger, much more painful. But patience, mes amis… we'll get there.

Alternatives: Frankenstein Systems From Hell

Alternatives are the different solutions your customers currently use or consider to get their job done, thinking beyond just your direct competitors. This includes manual processes, workarounds, completely different approaches, or even doing nothing… all the paths available to solve their problem.

This part? You absolutely nailed it. Agencies are using hacked-together systems to onboard new clients: CRM + project management tool + spreadsheets + endless email ping-pong. For example, during my community mining, I found gems like this:

This isn’t to say this is a bad onboarding process, I’m not here to judge this random redditor, but "Invite to Slack → kickoff project in ClickUp → client portal in Notion → daily reports via Loom." really feels hacked together.

The Struggles: Jude Law vs. Susan Cooper

Here's where the intelligence gets interesting, and where that "Spy" movie becomes relevant again. You've identified these struggles:

• Stop wasting hours on manual tasks (the time-saving angle)

• Stop chasing clients for information (the efficiency angle)

• Prevent team exhaustion from boring work (the morale angle)

• Prevent operational chaos (the control angle)

None of this is wrong. But during my undercover sales call with Matt, something else emerged. Something that made everything click.

Agencies are behaving like Jude Law's character: the flashy field agent who gets all the glory. They're obsessed with the sexy work: optimizing LinkedIn “thought leadership” ads, coming up with fancy new messaging concepts, or analysing website heatmaps. All eyes, all attention, all energy goes to being the glamorous operative delivering spectacular results.

But they completely neglect the Susan Cooper work: the unglamorous intelligence and communication that actually prevents mission failures, you know?

The Declassified Struggle

Picture this: You're an agency owner. You've just delivered brilliant work for a client. But the client is unhappy. Confused. Doubtful about what you're actually doing.

And they leave.

Not because your Jude Law work was sh*t. Because you ignored your Susan Cooper responsibilities.

One agency owner put it perfectly in a community discussion I uncovered:

"A while back, a client told us they were thinking about discontinuing after six months of what looked like solid progress. Rankings were climbing, leads were coming in, everything seemed on track. When they brought it up, we were caught off guard. They just didn't know what was going on half the time. It always felt like a bit of a mystery."

So, in my opinion, this is the real struggle: preventing clients from feeling doubtful and uncertain about your agency work.

People want clarity, not just performance. Performance AND clarity.

Nothing stings more than losing a client after doing excellent work for them. The betrayal, the confusion, the financial hit… It can be devastating. And here's the beautiful irony: Motion.io already solves this problem. You just don't position it that way.

The Updated Job

Once I saw this, I had to revise the core job entirely. It's not "keep projects moving" or "onboard new clients."

I think it’s more "stay ahead of client doubt."

We’re shifting from making ops efficient to preserving client relationships. From saving time to saving clients. Good stuff, huh?

The Category: What’s Your Real Identity?

I don’t think choosing your category isn't about finding the "perfect" fit… It is more like finding the one that positions you best against alternatives while matching what your segment actually searches for.

I initially thought "client portal" made sense since that's a core feature you offer. But when I dug into search volumes and competitive analysis, it's too narrow. "Project management" or "task management"? Too broad. You'd be competing with ClickUp, Asana, Monday. Plus, project management doesn't highlight your core differentiator around preventing client doubt.

I’ve gathered data from G2 around potential candidates, and I think you’re spot-on when you said that client onboarding is probably the sweet-spot:

• Specific enough: Only 26 companies on G2 target this for small businesses (your actual competitive set)

• Urgent enough: Onboarding is the most critical, time-sensitive moment in client relationships

• Broad enough: Covers your full feature set without sounding like just a tool

• Searchable: Agencies actually use this term when looking for solutions

Motion.io's Unique Positioning Statement

Putting this all together:

Unlike hacked-together systems of CRMs, project management tools, and spreadsheets with endless client back-and-forth, Motion.io is the only client onboarding software to prevent clients from feeling doubtful and uncertain about your agency work… helping experienced service providers stay ahead of client doubt during high-volume client onboarding.

See how this reframes everything? You're helping agencies be both Jude Law AND Susan Cooper; delivering results that stand the f*ck out while keeping clients informed about the brilliant work happening behind the scenes.

Verdict: 3/5. You nailed the alternatives and picked a solid category. But you're missing the biggest positioning insight: agencies need help balancing their inner Jude Law with their inner Susan Cooper.

Mission: Invisible (Distinctive Brand)

Alright, Motion.io. You've got solid insights, decent positioning, but your brand? It's about as distinctive as Susan Cooper in the CIA basement. This stage is where most SaaS companies completely sh*t the proverbial bed. You can have brilliant positioning, but if you blend into the background noise, you're basically invisible.

The Monster: Jude Law Syndrome

Every project management tool uses that same tired diagram; scattered apps with arrows everywhere, showing the "mess" of current systems. ClickUp does it. Asana does it. Even Basecamp:

This might work for them, but the struggles you solve are far more specific than ones a project management tool solves. Enter: the monster. The enemy that represents your audience's struggles and unites them against a common threat instead of making everything about you.

Okay, so, here’s what I’m thinking:

The real monster isn't scattered systems. Those systems play well together. With proper processes, you can make anything work. You can set up automated reminders, track conversations, unify everything. Yet agencies are still leaving clients in the dark.

So, what's really happening here?

It's what I discovered during my undercover operation: agencies suffer from Jude Law Syndrome. They're so obsessed with being the glamorous field agent that they completely forget about the Susan Cooper work that actually prevents disasters.

Photo by Juan Davila on Unsplash

Your client is staring into a black box. Money is going out. They assume work is happening. But they have little visibility into progress or results. This radio silence makes them fill in the gaps with their fears: Are they actually working on my stuff? Do they know what they're doing? Am I getting ripped off?

The Point of View (POV): When Everything Clicked

This all clicked during my undercover call with Matt. I casually asked if I could customise the client portal (change colors, branding, that sort of thing).

His response was immediate: "We're not really focused on customisation. We focus on function over design."

Holy sh*t.

That's when everything connected for me.

If the monster is agencies going full Jude Law, the last thing they need is more decisions to make. More customisation options. More features to configure. More pretty distractions.

What they need is something that makes it easier for them to do the Susan Cooper work. Motion.io's hidden point of view: Great work isn't enough if clients can't see it happening.

Using my CHIPS framework:

• Common belief: Agencies think doing great work (Jude Law mode) is enough to keep clients happy.

• Happen: So they go into the field while clients stare into a black box.

• Impact: This creates exactly what agencies are trying to avoid: client doubt and uncertainty. Radio silence breeds paranoia.

• Proof: "I've seen this happen with hundreds of our clients" (perfect spot for case studies).

• Solution: Agencies need to embrace both their Jude Law AND Susan Cooper sides… but tools should make the Susan Cooper work almost automatic, not add more complexity.

Spices: Spy Equipment

During our call, Matt revealed two things that show your true philosophy:

1. No customised email reminders: There's a specific schedule (e.g. 7 days before, 5 days, 3 days) and they won't let you change it because they know it works best.

2. Function over customisation: They strip away aesthetic distractions that don't serve client communication.

Your spice is being too categorically functional. If ClickUp is "the everything app" designed for Jude Law types who want endless options, Motion.io is "the few right things app" designed for agencies who need their Susan Cooper work handled.

You make opinionated product decisions. You won't add features just because they look cool or let agencies waste time on pretty customisation that doesn't serve client clarity.

But nobody knows this about you.

Assets: Jude Law Chaos vs. Susan Cooper Precision

Look at ClickUp's homepage and you can barely hide the Jude Law energy:

• Purple and pink gradients everywhere

• Arrows connecting everything to everything

• Product types: project management, product development, knowledge management, workflows...

• Features: tasks, calendars, AI, chat, enterprise search, docs, milestones...

• Industries: enterprise, startup, nonprofit, agency... (aka everyone)

It's pure Jude Law energy: flashy, attention-grabbing, promising to make you the hero of every operation. For agency owners struggling with client communication, this isn't helpful; in fact, I think it's overwhelming because they don't need more flashy tools. They need their Susan Cooper work handled with precision.

Now imagine the opposite: clean, purposeful design that says "we handle the intelligence work so you can focus on being brilliant." Think Susan Cooper's organized desk versus Jude Law's explosive gadgets…

Distinctive Brand Kit: Your Field Operations Manual

A distinctive brand kit is your operational toolkit; the specific elements that make you instantly recognisable and impossible to forget. Think of it as Susan Cooper's precisely organized desk setup. Every element should reinforce your "too categorically functional" mission.

Your Core Message

Agencies often believe great work (Jude Law mode) is sufficient, leaving clients in the dark. This silence creates client doubt and uncertainty, precisely what agencies are desperate to prevent. The solution is for agencies to combine their Jude Law and Susan Cooper sides, with tools automating the Susan Cooper aspects rather than adding complexity.

Behavior: How to Act

• Make opinionated product decisions that prioritise communication over aesthetics

• Strip away features that don't directly serve client clarity

• Refuse to add customisation that distracts from core “intel work”

Assets: How to Build Memories

Okay, for your branding, what if we channeled Susan Cooper’s energy and her beautifully uncluttered desk. For some reason, my brain goes to the iconic Anglepoise lamp…

You know, this lamp with an adjustable folding arm. It was made for working environments where workers had to light specific parts of whatever they were working on. It’s such a hyper-functional, brilliant simple design that has stood the test of time.

What if we took inspiration from it for our branding assets? (And no, I’m not saying to replace the i’s in “Motion” by two lamps like Pixar does.) 

• Colors: Clean whites and sharp grays

• Shape/Logo: How about sharp lines/angles, as well as springs to show connections?

• Character: Using a lamp as a character would lead to a cease&desist letter from Pixar, so how about turning that rabbit of yours into a mechanical rabbit with springs?

• Sound: If you do video content, think clean, precise audio, and maybe the sound of spring going off?

• Phrase: How about, “Spring into motion?”

Verdict: 1/5. This hurts because you're sitting on absolute branding gold. I really think you could own the "prevent client loss through better communication" space. In short, you're Susan Cooper in a world of Jude Law competitors. Your platform already prevents the disasters that flashy tools ignore. But right now, you look just like every other client portal tool.

Field Ops (Continuous Reach)

Final mission briefing. Are you intercepting agencies when they need you most, or are you just another SaaS tool hoping someone stumbles across your website during a casual Google search?

The Triggers: Target Acquisition

Triggers are specific events that motivate your audience to seek solutions, not vague timeframes or demographics. Understanding triggers helps you show up when people are most ready to act, rather than when it's convenient for you.

Your current intel on triggers isn't bad: realising they need more staff, New Year motivation kicks, manual email hell. But then, these two intercepted community transmissions (from Reddit) stopped me cold:

"A while back, a client told us they were thinking about discontinuing after six months of what looked like solid progress. Rankings were climbing, leads were coming in, everything seemed on track. When they brought it up, we were caught off guard. They just didn't know what was going on half the time. It always felt like a bit of a mystery."

"We had a similar wake-up call when a client said they always felt like they were in the dark, even though results were coming in."

Holy sh*t, Motion.io.

Agencies are losing good clients who are getting good results because they feel confused and uncertain. That's the trigger that should keep agency owners awake at 3 AM: the fear of losing a profitable client not because your work sucked, but because your communication did.

Status Shifts: From Professional to Amateur

People are driven by status even when they don't admit it, mes amis. For agency owners, I think there are clear status markers that trigger action:

Low Status Markers (the nightmare scenarios):

• Clients calling them "unprofessional" or "unresponsive"

• Prospects comparing their chaotic onboarding to other agencies

• Clients asking "Are you guys actually working on this?" or "What's next?"

High Status Markers (what they aspire to):

• Pitching enterprise clients and needing to look sophisticated

• Speaking at industry events with professional systems

• Applying for agency awards

• Hiring senior talent who expect proper processes

These status shifts, alongside what you shared with me, create five trigger categories:

1. Process Overhaul Moments: New Year, scaling up, new hires

2. Client Crisis: Threats to leave, actual departures

3. High Onboarding Volume: Manual burden becomes obvious

4. Professional Reputation Threats: Looking amateur compared to competitors

5. Market Position Opportunities: Pitching bigger clients, industry recognition

The Channels: Where You Should Be (But Aren't)

Channels are how you meet potential customers where they experience triggers, compare alternatives, and can easily find/buy your category. Let me show you how to map triggers to channels using my methodology.

Step 1: Break Down Your Crisis Triggers

Take that devastating trigger: "Agency just lost a good client despite solid work." Let's break it down into contextual components:

• When: Right after a client leaves, during damage control mode, quarterly client reviews

• Where: Agency office panic meetings, personal reflection time, industry events discussing "lessons learned"

• With whom: Team members, other agency owners they trust, business coaches, consultants

• With what: Termination emails, client feedback, team Slack discussions, LinkedIn posts seeking advice

Now we intersect this with your segment (agencies managing high-volume client onboarding) to get precise channels. For example:

Agency Community Surveillance:

• Type: Social/Partnership

• Objective: Brand-building (becoming top-of-mind during crisis)

• Reach: Organic presence + paid amplification

• Context: Monitor r/agency and other relevant subreddits, LinkedIn agency groups for posts about lost clients. Share perspective about the Jude Law syndrome.

Crisis Response Content:

• Type: Social/Video

• Objective: Brand-building

• Reach: Organic + LinkedIn ads to agency owners

• Context: Create content series "Why Good Agencies Lose Good Clients" featuring real case studies (with permission) about communication breakdowns

Step 2: Map Status Threat Triggers

Another trigger: "Client questions agency competence" ("Are you actually working on this?")

• When: Mid-project when client feels in the dark, during project delays

• Where: Client calls, email exchanges, project review meetings

• With whom: Account managers, project managers, client-facing team members

• With what: Project management screenshots, status update templates, client communication

Channel mapping:

LinkedIn Personal Brands:

• Type: Social/Content

• Objective: Brand-building

• Reach: Organic posts + targeted ads

• Context: Team posts about "agency communication standards"

Partnership with Agency Training Companies:

• Type: Partnership/Event

• Objective: Sales activation

• Reach: Paid partnerships

• Context: Sponsor/speak at agency training events about "client communication mastery" with live Motion.io demos

Step 3: High-Volume Trigger Channels

Trigger: "New Year client influx"

• When: December planning, January onboarding surge

• Where: Agency strategy meetings, year-end reviews, team capacity planning

• With whom: Agency founders, operations managers, team leads

• With what: Capacity spreadsheets, client pipeline forecasts, hiring discussions

Industry Events:

• Type: Event

• Objective: Sales activation

• Reach: Paid booth/sponsorship

• Context: Target agency-specific events during Q4/Q1 planning season with "Scale Without Breaking" messaging

Strategic Partnership Network:

• Type: Partnership

• Objective: Sales activation

• Reach: Revenue-sharing partnerships

• Context: Partner with agency consultants, fractional COOs, and operations specialists who get called in during scaling crises

Your Current Reach (And Why I don't Think It's Enough)

Right now you're running basic "client onboarding, simplified" ads. Fine. It works. Instagram and Facebook are delivering leads.

But you're only reaching people actively searching for solutions. What about the agencies currently losing clients because of communication failures? The ones who don't even know "client onboarding software" exists?

The Offers: Mission-Critical

Offers are how you snap your segment out of hibernation. An offer is a clear, concise proposition stating how you'll help them overcome their struggles and get the job done. Your current offer (free trial, basic setup) works for agents already in-market, but it's not designed to wake the hibernating masses.

Your job is "stay ahead of client doubt." But let's slice this into smaller, specific stages that agencies go through. In other words, what are the concrete steps an agency needs to take to actually "stay ahead of client doubt?”

• Set expectations → Define what clients can expect when and how

• Schedule communication → Establish regular touchpoint rhythm

• Track progress visibly → Make work status transparent to clients

• Share updates proactively → Send progress reports before clients ask

• Address concerns early → Spot and resolve issues before they escalate

• Show value delivered → Show concrete results and wins

• Maintain ongoing transparency → Keep communication flowing throughout relationship

This gives me inspiration to come up with specific offers that solve specific problems your people encounter. For example:

Offer 1: "When Do Clients Leave” Research Report

• Basis: Proprietary research using your customer base, identify when clients tend to leave the most and what can be done about it

• Outcome: Know exactly which moments in your process might create client uncertainty

• X-factor: Proprietary data

Offer 2: Current Communication Process Audit

• Basis: Audit of agencies’ current communication process

• Outcome: Show where the gaps are and how they compare to others

• X-factor: Based on real client loss patterns

The Continuous Reach Plan

For Agencies Not Mission-Ready (Future Category Buyers)

Keep talking about agencies going full Jude Law, getting so absorbed in brilliant campaign work that they forget to communicate what's happening. Do it in agency communities, LinkedIn posts, podcasts... wherever agency owners lurk.

Stay visible around early triggers (like New Year planning or team scaling discussions). Be top-of-mind with educational content about "why good agencies lose good clients" and deliver your own research.

Double down on proven channels (LinkedIn ads, community presence), but expand your message beyond making onboarding more efficient. Talk about the heartbreak of losing profitable clients due to communication failures.

Make it crystal clear you're client onboarding software that prevents client doubt, and consistently show your distinctive brand assets. 

For Agencies Mission-Ready (Current Category Buyers)

Show how you prevent client doubt and uncertainty and explain the "cost" of staying with hacked-together systems (losing good clients despite good work). Then tell them what you are (client onboarding software) and who you're for (agencies managing high-volume onboarding). Finally, show them what to do next with a mission-critical offer.

Verdict: 2/5. You've got basic lead generation operational, but you're completely missing the emotional triggers that make people act.