How to Increase Your Sales by Reshaping Your Positioning

Let's face it: the market is incredibly noisy. Everywhere you look, companies are shouting about their products, features, and supposedly "unique" value propositions. To break through this chaos and actually reach your target prospects, you need positioning and messaging that doesn't merge into the white noise—it needs to punch through that noise and speak directly to your prospect's deepest needs.

I've seen countless companies struggle with their positioning, so let's dive into the most common problems and, more importantly, how to fix them--because getting this right can transform your sales results.

The "Clarity Test": Can You Pass It?

Here's a quick test that might sting a little: Go to your website right now. Look “above the fold”, i.e. the top section of your home page—you know, the part visitors see before they start scrolling down. Now, put yourself in the shoes of a random prospect and try to answer these three simple questions:

1. What do you do?

2. Who do you do it for?

3. What's the next step if I'm interested?

If you're squirming because you can't clearly answer these questions, don't worry—you're not alone. But you do have a positioning problem that needs fixing. Your positioning is like a first date: if you can't clearly explain who you are and what you're about in the first few minutes, don't expect a second date. Rewrite the top section of your home page and ensure these 3 questions are answered unambiguously.?

The Ditto Trap: Why Being Good Isn't Good Enough

Saying you provide "great service" or that you're an "industry leader" is about as meaningful as a politician promising to "make things better." Why? Because:

• Your competitors claim to do what you do
• They all say they're really good at it
• They all promise amazing service

Look at a few competitors’ websites and ask yourself if you really see a meaningful? difference between your positioning and theirs.?

The Solution: Mine Customer Gold

If you really want to figure out what makes you different, stop guessing and start asking. Your best customers are sitting on a gold mine of positioning insights. Schedule calls with them and ask point-blank:

• "Why did you really choose us over competitors?"
• "What sealed the deal for you?"
• "What have you found most valuable about working with us?"

Their answers will often surprise you and reveal competitive advantages you didn't even know you had. This is real, market-tested differentiation—not the kind you brainstormed in a conference room. You can read about this approach in more depth in my recent Linkedin article How to Grow Your Company Faster By Using Customer Feedback.?

The "Everyone's Our Customer" Myth

I get it -- when you're really trying to grow, it's tempting to think that everyone with a pulse and a wallet is a potential customer. However, your actual market is probably much smaller than you think.

Here's the reality: your true prospects only need to meet two criteria:

1. You want to serve them
2. You're actually good at serving them

Creating Your Ideal Customer Blueprint

Look at your customers who check both these boxes. What patterns do you see? Focus on specific characteristics like:

• Industry vertical (Are your best customers all in healthcare? Tech? Manufacturing?)
• Company size (Revenue ranges, employee count)
• Geographic location (Local? National?)
• Purchase patterns (Seasonal buyers? Long-term contracts?)
• Technology stack (What systems do they use that you integrate with?)
• Personagraphics, i.e. personal characteristics (Demographics? Job titles?)?

Use this information to build a blueprint for targeting new prospects. Instead of trying to boil the entire ocean to catch fish, you can fish in a lake where your best prospects are located.?

The "Vitamin vs. Aspirin" Problem

Are you selling a vitamin or an aspirin? In other words, is your solution a "nice to have" or a "gotta have right now"?

We've all heard that customers buy on emotion, not logic. But knowing this isn't enough—you need to actually tap into those emotions. You can either create or connect to feelings of Fear, Uncertainty, or Doubt (what we in marketing call the "FUD" approach) that your prospects are already experiencing.

Making the Status Quo Unacceptable

Your job isn't just to sell your solution—it's to make the status quo feel unacceptable, unsafe, or unsustainable. You need to help prospects see (and more importantly, feel) that not buying your solution is the risky choice. Some ways to do this:

• Highlight the hidden costs of inaction
• Share stories of companies who waited too long and how this didn’t end well
• Quantify the opportunity cost of delaying

The "Features vs. Impact" Disconnect

This is especially common among technically-brilliant founders and leaders. They've created something genuinely innovative and assume customers will buy based on technical superiority. But customers don’t buy features or technical superiority--they buy impact.?

Similarly, some companies love telling other irrelevant things to prospects such as their origin story or company history. The harsh truth is that buyers don't care about your journey. They care about their journey and how you can help them improve their performance.?

The Impact Formula

To position your solution effectively, you need to:

• Understand your buyer’s current workflow in detail
• Know their operating environment
• Map their buying process
• Identify their pain points and aspirations

Then position your solution's impact in terms of:

• Time saved
• Money earned or saved
• Risks reduced
• Opportunities created
• Problems eliminated

The Mixed Messages Problem

Imagine that a prospect visits your website and sees one positioning statement. Then they check your LinkedIn page and see a completely different message. Finally, they look at your sales materials and find yet another angle.?

In the best case, they are confused. In the worst case, they question your credibility and move on to a competitor who has their act together.?

Achieving Positioning Consistency

Once you've nailed your core value proposition and differentiation, it needs to be consistently reflected across your:

• Website
• Social media profiles
• Sales materials
• Email signatures
• Customer service scripts
• Product documentation
• Everything else that touches customers

The "Trust Gap": Why Social Proof Matters

Let's say you've solved all the above problems. Your positioning is clear, differentiated, precisely targeted, created urgency, focused on customer impact, and created consistency across your digital properties. At this point, you should be generating much stronger interest from prospects. But if prospects don't see evidence that your solution actually works for others like them, you still might struggle to win customers.

Building Your Social Proof Portfolio

Depending on your solution, you might need technical certifications or industry recognition. But what will certainly help you are:?

• Customer ratings and reviews
• Written testimonials
• Video case studies
• Detailed success stories

Think of social proof as a trust bridge. The bigger the investment or risk for your prospect, the more social proof you need to help them cross that bridge.

The Bottom Line

Strong positioning isn't just about looking good—it's about connecting with the right prospects in a way that makes them want to learn more. By addressing these common positioning problems, you'll cut through the market noise and put yourself in a position to have much more success in growing your company.?

Remember that good positioning makes selling easier because you're not fighting against confusion or skepticism. You're simply connecting the dots between your prospect's needs and your proven solution.?

Review your current positioning against each of these points. Where do you see gaps? Which areas need the most work? Start there, and don't stop until your positioning is as strong as your solution.