Positioning is a decision.
Here's how we make it.
Positioning is deciding who your product is for, what it replaces, and why it wins, before anyone makes a deck, a page, or a talk track. Most founders already know the answer. It lives in their head and comes out a little different in every sales call. This is the method we use to get it out, pressure-test it, and write it down so the whole company says the same thing.
Seven steps, in this order
The order does most of the work. Start with the category or the tagline and you end up describing the product you wish you had. Start with what the buyer would do without you, and every later step has something to stand on.
The order comes from April Dunford's Obviously Awesome.
The alternatives your buyer actually has
If your product disappeared tomorrow, what would your buyer do instead?
This step matters most. For most founders the honest answer is the buyer doing it themselves, with a spreadsheet and a free afternoon, or doing nothing at all. That is what you're up against, and it almost never makes the competitor slide.
You're done when you can name what they'd use, in their words, and none of it is a competitor you picked because it makes you look good.
What only you have
What can you do that those alternatives can't?
You're done when every item on the list is a capability or a way of working, and each one still holds up when someone asks, compared to what?
The value that creates
So what? What does each of those make possible for the buyer?
You're done when every attribute has a value a buyer would say out loud, and you can point to a time you've seen it happen.
Who cares most
Which buyers feel that value hardest, and how would you spot them?
You're done when you can describe the segment well enough that a new rep could find the next ten accounts without asking you.
The category that makes it obvious
What should the buyer file you under so your strengths look like the point?
You're done when someone hearing the category for the first time guesses roughly what you do and who you compete with, and guesses in your favor.
The statement
Can you say it in two sentences the whole team would sign?
You're done when the statement is written down, and the deck, the site, and the talk track all trace back to it.
The proof
What would make a skeptical buyer believe each claim?
You're done when every differentiator has a receipt next to it, and anything without one is labeled a claim until it earns one.
Where you win
Three things overlap in every deal. What your buyer needs, what you do best, and what their alternative does best. Where they overlap tells you what to say and what to stop saying.
- Win here
- Your buyer needs it, you do it best, and the alternative doesn't. Everything you say should point here.
- Parity
- All three overlap. The buyer needs it and you both do it, so you only win on speed, service, and the relationship. Say it once and move on.
- Losing ground
- Your buyer needs it and the alternative does it better. Know it before the buyer tells you, then decide whether to close the gap or sell to a segment that cares less.
- Noise
- You and the alternative both do it, and the buyer doesn't care. Stop talking about it.
Positioning lives in the first region. Most decks spend half their slides in the last one.
Three tests for any positioning statement
Run the statement past all three. Passing two out of three is how most positioning fails without anyone noticing.
Relevant
The buyer recognizes the problem as theirs.
Ask. Would a buyer describe this problem in these words, without you prompting them?
Different
It's true of you and not of the alternative.
Ask. If you swapped in the name of their alternative, would the sentence still be true?
Believable
You can prove it, and here's the receipt.
Ask. What would you show a skeptic in the first five minutes?
How often it changes
The company story
Why the company exists and what it believes. It changes when the company does.
Years, and rarely
Positioning, per segment
Revisit it on a schedule, or sooner when the buyer's alternative changes. A new tool, a new habit, or a competitor that reframes the category all count.
Every 12 to 24 months
Messaging and campaigns
The words, the angles, and the offers. Test them, rotate them, and let them wear out.
Quarterly
Most drift comes from changing layer one when layer three was the problem. A campaign underperforms, and somebody rewrites the company story. Fix the layer that broke.
Fill in the blanks
The statement is what the first five steps produce. If a blank is hard to fill, go back to the step that feeds it.
For [who], who [the problem they'd name], [product] is the [category] that [the value]. Unlike [what they'd use instead], we [the difference], and the proof is [one receipt].
Questions about positioning
What is a positioning framework?
A positioning framework is an ordered way to decide who your product is for, what it replaces, and why it wins. Ours runs seven steps, starting with the alternatives your buyer actually has and ending with the proof, and it produces one written statement the whole company can say the same way.
How often should positioning change?
Positioning for each segment deserves a fresh look every 12 to 24 months, or sooner when your buyer's alternative changes. The company story changes rarely, over years. Messaging and campaigns change quarterly. Most drift comes from rewriting the company story when the campaign was the problem.
What's the difference between positioning and messaging?
Positioning is the decision about who the product is for, what it replaces, and why it wins. Messaging is how you say that decision to a specific audience, in a specific channel, this quarter. Positioning changes every year or two. Messaging changes as often as it needs to, and it always traces back to the positioning.
Decided, written down, and shipped
This is how our work starts. We run the seven steps with you and write the answer down. Then we ship what carries it, from the homepage and the deck to the talk track and the battlecard. And when your first product marketer arrives, they inherit a decided position instead of a blank page.
We build one finished artifact for your business before you pay for anything.
See what happens when nobody decides the story