The best positioning persuades. Does yours?

You probably already know that “positioning” is key to creating any kind of change, whether it’s at the organizational or market level.?After all, as defined by its originators Al Ries and Jack Trout back in 1976:

“Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect…[It is] securing a worthwhile position in the prospect’s mind.”*

You can sub in “idea” or “change” for “product” here—Ries and Trout were positioning (!) this idea against classic “product positioning,” after all—but the question remains:

What’s the best way to actually?do?that?

The quick version

• GOAL: A lot of leaders want to know?the best way to position a change—either one they’re making or one they represent in the market.
• PROBLEM: While there are barriers to that goal we all know exist, the real problem arises when?we focus more on the?promotion?of our position than the?persuasion?necessary to achieve that position?in someone’s mind.
• PROBLEM PRINCIPLE: That’s a problem because?positioning?is?persuasion.?Persuasion?literally means?securing a new position in someone’s mind.
• TRUTH: Not only that,?persuasion requires an argument.?For someone to come to a new conclusion, they rely on a rationale for why that new conclusion makes sense given what they already want and already believe—even when their brains produce that rationale preconsciously.
• CHANGE: That’s why, to achieve our goal,?positioning requires an argument based on elements your audience already agrees with.?It requires a rationale anchored securely in what an audience?already?wants and?already?believes.
• ACTION: To do that, you need to?craft your Core Case—a thirty-second summary of?three critical questions:

1. What audience question do you exist to answer?
2. How do you answer that question?
3. Why do you answer it that way?

• GOAL REVISITED: Not only will that achieve the goal, and?clarify your or your organization’s?bedrock beliefs,?it will also give you all the elements you need to?build all the follow-on communications a successful change requires.

If you want to go deeper, read on!

The problem with most positioning

The clue to great positioning is in the original definition itself. It’s?what you do to the mind of a prospect.

And yet, a huge amount of “positioning” tends to stop at just the “do” part. It ends up being simply?promotion?of what you think your position is.

Let’s think about that for a moment. Have you ever known someone who, when you didn’t understand or agree with what they said, simply kept repeating their position… over… and over… and over again? (And usually louder and louder and louder?)

How well did that approach work on you??Did you eventually adopt their position, based on that increasingly infuriating repetition? Did you suddenly see the wisdom and accuracy of their point of view and become a convert?

I’m guessing not.

Sure, you may eventually have?feigned?agreement with a weary, “Sure, whatever” just to get them to stop talking. But you didn’t?really?agree.?Their position didn’t become yours.

You can only do?that?through?persuasion.

Positioning is persuasion

The action part of promotion makes sense. Ries and Trout say that positioning is something you “do.” Ergo, positioning is an action.

But not just any action.

To secure “a worthwhile position in someone’s mind,” someone has to?believe?whatever it is you’re promoting.?And that action of moving someone to adopt a belief or to (actually) agree with your position??That’s the very definition of persuasion.

Now, agreed, sometimes just making someone aware of certain aspects of your positioning is enough, especially for people who already know they want those things.?Science tells us that, as does our own intuition.?“All persuasion is self-persuasion,”?as any number of folks have said over the years.

But what about the times when promotion alone doesn’t work??What do you do when someone?doesn’t?already know they want what you’re offering, or?doesn’t?believe that a change is good?

That’s the question my clients?hire me to help answer?(and I?love?to answer it!).

Every action ends an argument

The nature of that answer isn’t mysterious, especially when you remember something I’ve talked about a lot here: that?we humans aren’t rational decision-makers, we’re?rationalizing?decision-makers. We tell ourselves stories to justify what we do.

These aren’t your classic “Once upon a time…” stories, though. They are preconscious, instantaneous assessments about why?we believe?causes and effects are related. They are arguments we have with ourselves, usually without even being aware of them.

That means?persuasion is the end of a successful argument, even a pre-conscious one.

How to build positioning that persuades

If positioning is persuasion, and persuasion is the end of an argument, then the answer to our first question is clear:

The best way to position something in the mind of your audience is to build an argument for it.?But, just like not just any action will do, not just any argument will do, either.

If you read the paper I linked to above, you’ll discover that people are more likely to be persuaded by:

• Positions with which they share values, especially if those values are important to them and their identity (“I believe circular design is good for the environment, and protecting our environment is important to me”)
• Positions that deliver outcomes they already want?(“We need to improve our productivity and improving our productivity is important to me”)

Stated another way, when we adopt a new point of view… when we agree with a position…?when we are persuaded… it’s because we’re presented with an argument—or its component parts—that?we already agree with.

This means that the?best?positioning builds an?actual argument?for that position—one built on elements your audience:

• Already wants, and
• Already believes.

Craft your Core Case?

I call that kind of argument your Core Case. It precedes your?Core Message, but is embodied by it.

Your Core Case is your simplest, strongest, “stickiest” argument for why your approach to achieving a certain outcome is the best way to achieve that outcome.?To build it, you need to answer?three critical questions:

1. What audience question do you exist to answer?
2. How do you answer that question?
3. Why do you answer it that way?

Once you have those answers, we can look to my boy?Aristotle?for the simplest, strongest argument that ties them together, which I’ve turned into this handy dandy?Core Case template?to get you started:

• We believe that… [first part of question 3]
• And that… [second part of question 3]
• Which is why I believe the way to [answer to question 1] is to [answer to question 2]
• OPTIONAL: That’s what I/we/this can/will/can help you do.

So, to recap:

• I believe that?positioning is persuasion…
• And that?persuasion requires an argument…
• Which is why I believe the?best way to position a change is to build an argument based on elements your audience already agrees with.
• That’s what I can help you do.

See what I did there??

*Ries, Al; Ries, Al; Trout, Jack; Trout, Jack. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (pp. 2-3). McGraw Hill LLC. Kindle Edition.