Perfect Company Positioning is Relative

Blair Enns of Win Without Pitching spoke recently at Thriveal's annual Deeper Weekend Conference. It was amazing content. There were so many takeaways, but I loved his statement about company positioning. "positioning is an exercise in relativity."

When positioning your company, you are actually positioning yourself in comparison to the market your clients are comparing you to. The art of positioning is all relative. This is why strong positioning is polarizing. You have to make such a statement that your client can distinguish between you and the other guy. Weak positioning means you look like everyone else, and will then blend into the market. Blending in is death to your growth.

Strong positioning also makes your selling job easier. If your positioning is strong, then your clients can show up at your door already convinced of your value, and their need to pay for your expertise. We all know how hard it is to convince a client that you are an expert, and that they should pay a premium for that expertise. It's best to let your positioning make the argument for you before the client ever shows up at your door. We can't always pull this off, but that is the goal of our positioning.

How can you make your positioning so polarizing that it offends the wrong client, yet draws the right client?