Introduction

<aside> 💡 Positioning is the act of deliberately defining how you are the best at something that a defined market cares a lot about. [...] If we fail at positioning, we fail at Marketing and Sales. If we fail at Marketing and Sales, the entire business fails.

</aside>

I like to describe positioning as "context setting" for products. When we encounter something new, we will attempt to make sense of it by gathering together all of the little clues we can quickly find to determine how we should think about this new thing. Without that context, products are very difficult to understand, and the whole company suffers — not just the marketing and sales teams.

Weak positioning leaves a trail-the signs are there if you know where to look:

1. Your current customers love you, but new prospects can't figure out what you're selling. Do you spend more time explaining what you're selling rather than closing deals? If your prospects can't figure out what you do —quickly— they will invent a position for you, one that potentially hides your key strengths or misrepresents your value.
2. Your company has long sales cycles and low close rates, and you’re losing out to competition.
3. You have high customer churn.
4. You’re under price pressure. Do customers complain that your prices are too high? You can’t charge a premium for product that seems exactly like everything else on the market, and weakly positioned products are seen to offer little beyond their competitors. Clear positioning helps prospects understand that you are a leader in your market segment and that you offer considerable value, making it easier for you to charge a premium.

The 5 components of effective positioning

1. Competitive alternatives.

What customers would do if your solution didn't exist. The competitive alternative is what your target customers would “use” or “do” if your product didn’t exist.

2. Unique attributes.

The features and capabilities that you have and the alternatives lack. Your unique attributes are your secret sauce, the things you can do that the alternatives can’t.

3. Value (and proof).

The benefit that those features enable for customers. If unique attributes are your secret sauce, then value is the reason why someone might care about your secret sauce. Your value needs to be provable in an objective and demonstrable way.

4. Target market characteristics.

The characteristics of a group of buyers that lead them to really care a lot about the value you deliver. Your target market is the customers who buy quickly, rarely ask for discounts and tell their friends about your offerings.

5. Market category.