In short
- Marketing magnifies what is there. If your position is average, you magnify average.
- The positioning matrix puts you and your competitors side by side on what your client really cares about.
- If you are average everywhere, choose one internal decision that moves you up two points somewhere.
In this article (6)
Nobody complains about you. Your clients are satisfied. Your price is reasonable, your quality is fine, your service is tidy. And yet you have to convince every new client all over again. Sound familiar? Then you are probably in the most expensive place in your market: average everywhere.
In this article I show you how to define your positioning with a positioning matrix. What it is, how to fill it in yourself, and what you do if it turns out you are not really better anywhere. Because that last one happens more often than you think, and it is less bad than it sounds.
Positioning first. Always.
At OMB this is our first rule, and it is not a rule we negotiate on. Whether you want a website, a campaign, a webinar or more leads via LinkedIn: we start with your positioning.
The reason is simple. Marketing is nothing more and nothing less than magnifying what is there. Magnify something sharp and it gets sharper. Magnify something average and you get a big average. And magnify something bad and it only gets worse.
That is why “get visible first, then we’ll see” is, in my view, the wrong order. Visibility without a sharp position is spending money to show more people that you are just like the rest.
Why average everywhere is the most expensive place
Being bad at something is visible. You can fix that. Being average everywhere, nobody notices. Not even you. And that is exactly why it is so expensive.
You compete on price
If a client sees no difference between you and the neighbours, they choose on the only thing they can compare: what it costs.
Every lead needs explaining
Without a sharp story you have to explain why you in every conversation, all over again. That costs time, and you pay for that time yourself.
Your marketing works at half power
Copy that could have been anyone's sticks nowhere. You pay for reach that delivers nothing.
My position, and you are welcome to disagree: rather mediocre in places and outspokenly better on one point, than just about adequate everywhere. A client doesn’t choose you because you are not bad anywhere. They choose you because you are better than anyone at one thing, and that thing happens to be what they need.
What a positioning matrix is
A positioning matrix is an honest overview with three questions:
- Where do you stand? How do you score on the points your client cares about?
- Where do your competitors stand? How do they score on those same points?
- Where are you actually better? Not what you hope, not what your website says. Where you really score higher.
It sounds simple, and it is. The hard part is being honest. Most business owners give themselves an eight on everything the first time they fill it in. And the competitor a six on everything. Then you are not filling in a matrix, you are reassuring yourself.
With us, the positioning matrix is a building block that keeps coming back in our strategy projects, together with audience research, competitor analysis and choosing your channels.
How to fill in the positioning matrix yourself
You don’t need an agency to make a first version. You do need an afternoon, an honest eye and preferably someone who dares to contradict you.
Choose the points your client really weighs
Not what you find important, but what your client names. Listen to what clients say to you, what comes back in sales and support and why people once chose you. Keep it to five or six points.
Choose two or three competitors
The parties your client *really* compares you with. Often not the big name in your sector, but that one party you lost the last few quotes to.
Score yourself, honestly
Give yourself a score from 1 to 10 per point. Torn between two numbers? Take the lower one. Ask a client or colleague to look over your shoulder.
Score your competitors
Based on what you can see and hear: their website, their reviews, what clients say about them. Not on what you hope.
Find your real lead
Where do you clearly score higher than the rest? That is your position. If that is nowhere, move on to the last step.
Average everywhere? Choose your internal decision
Choose one point where you are willing to change something in your business, so you go up two points there. Not a new slogan. A choice your client notices.
That last step is what it is all about. Positioning is then no longer a marketing question. It is a business decision.
An example: the training provider that scored a six on everything
This example is made up, as are the scores. It is about the idea, not the numbers.
Say you run a training provider for leadership training. You fill in the matrix and compare yourself with two providers you recently lost quotes to.
| What your client weighs | Your company | Competitor A | Competitor B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practical | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Quick to schedule | 6 | 5 | 7 |
| Aftercare after the training | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Price | 6 | 7 | 5 |
| Reputation | 5 | 7 | 6 |
The honest picture: you are not bad anywhere, and not really better anywhere. Average everywhere.
Now the internal decision. From your conversations with clients it turns out that aftercare keeps coming up. Participants go home enthusiastic, and three weeks later everything is back to the way it was. Nobody in your market does anything with that.
So you choose: every participant gets a fixed follow-up session after the training, and their manager gets a short report of what stuck. That costs you something. But on aftercare you go from a six to an eight, while the rest stays on six.
Suddenly you have a story. Not “we give practical training”, because everyone says that. But: “with us, the training doesn’t stop when the group goes home.”
The same goes for the familiar objection “our product can’t be told apart”. A business owner who says “you can buy my product just as well from the neighbours, but if something goes wrong, I’m there within two hours” has set an anchor. They win on the point they chose themselves.
Notice what those two examples have in common. The choice is not in a slogan, but in something the client notices: a follow-up session, a business owner who is there within two hours if something goes wrong. So when you look at your own matrix, don’t look first at what you can say. Look at what you are willing to do differently. That is where your position comes from.
The test that decides everything
Have you chosen your position? Then write down in one sentence where you are better, and hold that sentence up to one question:
Could this have come from a competitor?
If the answer is yes, you are not done yet. That is the same question we ask at OMB about everything we make, from a webinar to a page of website copy. The difference is painfully visible:
Factory bread
"We deliver quality and personal service."
Every competitor says that. Nobody believes it, nobody remembers it.
Fresh from the baker
"With us, the training doesn't stop when the group goes home."
Concrete, yours alone, and your client can picture it.
Factory bread
"We are the partner for all your challenges."
For everyone means for no one.
Fresh from the baker
"We work for training providers who want their training to stick."
You choose, and the right client recognises themselves straight away.
Don’t want to tackle this alone? In the Sold-Out Session we make your offer crystal clear, in one half-day. Read how that fits into how we work, from positioning to follow-up, or meet the people behind OMB. Rather see for yourself first where it is leaking? Take the free leak test.
Dare to choose. Then you get chosen.
Rubin is the founder of Online Marketing Bakery in Roermond. You take the stage, we fill the room. And we make sure it buys.
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Further reading: The Sold-Out Session · How we work · About us · Take the free leak test
How we work: first the offer, then the room. Want to get going with a brief like this? We do that in the Sold-Out Session: your offer and your event structure in one half-day.