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Positioning Sprint

Positioning is your first pricing decision.

Your product is strong and your sales team still struggles to convince. Conversion stays flat however many features you add. Strategic deals go to a rival, or to nobody. The positioning is usually where it starts.

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SprintA focused sprint · leadership, with sales, product and marketing

Positioning build
  1. 1
    The real alternativeA spreadsheet and two interns
  2. 2
    Only-we attributesBank reconciliation built in
  3. 3
    ValueSix hours saved on every monthly close
  4. 4
    Best-fit customerFinance teams of 5 to 20 people
  5. 5
    CategoryClose automation, not accounting software

Price band it supportsPremium, not entry-level

Pricing power

Sounds familiar?

Poor positioning can hold growth back for months, and no amount of new features makes up for it.

Lost to a rival, or to nobody

The buyer cannot see why you, and why now. The status quo wins by default.

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Aimed at the wrong buyer

The message speaks to the user while someone else signs, so every deal starts from zero.

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A price you cannot defend

You are worth the gap between you and the buyer’s alternative. Vague positioning shrinks the gap, and the price with it.

Read the discipline

Five moves, in order.

I use the Positioning Build from chapter 4 of my book as a starting point, and adapt it to your market. Each move prices the next one.

04 · Own Your Unfair Advantage
Positioning cardWhere the five moves land, on one card: for whom, against what, the ground only you own.
  1. 01

    The real alternative

    What the buyer does if you do not exist. Often a spreadsheet, or nothing.

  2. 02

    Only-we attributes

    Things you can prove. Adjectives do not count.

  3. 03

    Value

    What each attribute is worth in what the buyer pays for: revenue, time, risk, headcount.

  4. 04

    Best-fit customer

    The slice for whom that value is most urgent.

  5. 05

    Category

    The frame that makes the value obvious and sets the budget, the buyer and the price band.

What you get.

Segment, positioning, messaging and an action plan.

  • 01

    Your best-fit segment

    The slice of the market where your value is most urgent and easiest to monetise: they buy quickly, rarely ask for a discount and tell their peers. You also decide who you are not for.

  • 02

    A positioning only you can claim

    Built from your market, your competitors and your customers’ own words. The real alternative, the attributes only you have, the value they create, the category that frames it.

  • 03

    A concrete action plan

    What changes in the pitch, the website, the sales material and the roadmap, so the positioning shows up where deals are won.

Who takes part.

Run it before a fundraise, a launch or a price change, or when the win rate starts to slide.

Message houseThe messaging in the output, built bottom-up: proof as the foundation, three pillars, then the promise as the roof.
Output
Segment, positioning, messaging and an action plan
Who takes part
Leadership, with sales, product and marketing
Format
A focused sprint

Done from the inside.

At Sewan I defined product strategy and positioning, and crafted the messaging and white-label material our partners and resellers sold with. At OuiCar I worked with the CEO on the company’s repositioning. At Kolecto I owned positioning and go-to-market from no product to launch.

Mathieu’s intervention enabled us to clarify our positioning in just one day. We had lots of ideas but lacked focus - now we know exactly which segment to target and how to differentiate ourselves.
Sarah M.CEO, Seed

What comes next.

The sprint ends with an action plan your sales, marketing and product teams own. Three ways to carry it further.

Keep it on course

Strategic Advisory

Regular sessions while the positioning reaches the pitch, the website and the roadmap.

See Strategic Advisory

Next sprint

PLG Accelerator

When the product itself has to carry the positioning to the buyer.

See the PLG Accelerator

Flagship

Fractional VP Strategy & Growth

If the plan needs someone in the seat to run it, I take the role for a while, build the function and hand it over.

See the fractional VP role

Choose who you are for. Then make it pay.

Get in touchOr take the 12-question Quick assessment