--- title: "Positioning matrix: how to define your positioning | OMB" description: "Defining your positioning starts with an honest matrix. How to fill it in yourself, and escape the most expensive place in the market: average everywhere." url: https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/blog/positioning-matrix/ language: en updated: 2026-11-08 --- > Markdown version of https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/blog/positioning-matrix/ for AI agents and LLMs. The HTML page is the leading version. Overview of the whole site: https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/llms.txt [Home](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/)[Blog](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/blog/)The positioning matrix: why 'average everywhere' is the most expensive place to be Strategy # The positioning matrix: why 'average everywhere' is the most expensive place to be Average everywhere feels safe. It is the most expensive place in your market. With a positioning matrix you see where you stand and which choice gets you out. Rubin Koot · Hoofdbakker 8 July 20265 min read 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) 1. Positioning first. Always. 2. Why average everywhere is the most expensive place 3. What a positioning matrix is 4. How to fill in the matrix yourself 5. An example: the training provider that scored a six on everything 6. The test that decides everything 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: 1. **Where do you stand?** How do you score on the points your client cares about? 2. **Where do your competitors stand?** How do they score on those same points? 3. **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. 01 ### 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. 02 ### 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. 03 ### 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. 04 ### 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. 05 ### 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. 06 ### 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](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/sold-out-session/), in one half-day. Read how that fits into [how we work, from positioning to follow-up](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/how-we-work/), or [meet the people behind OMB](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/about-us/). Rather see for yourself first where it is leaking? Take the [free leak test](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/leak-test/). Dare to choose. Then you get chosen. Rubin Koot · Hoofdbakker Rubin is the founder of Online Marketing Bakery in Roermond. You take the stage, we fill the room. And we make sure it buys. [rubin@onlinemarketingbakery.nl](mailto:rubin@onlinemarketingbakery.nl) · [More about the bakers](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/about-us/) **Further reading:** [The Sold-Out Session](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/sold-out-session/) · [How we work](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/how-we-work/) · [About us](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/about-us/) · [Take the free leak test](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/leak-test/) How we work: [first the offer, then the room](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/how-we-work/). 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](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/sold-out-session/) . In this article 1. Positioning first. Always. 2. Why average everywhere is the most expensive place 3. What a positioning matrix is 4. How to fill in the matrix yourself 5. An example: the training provider that scored a six on everything 6. The test that decides everything 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. Fresh from the oven! Questions ## Questions about this topic. What is a positioning matrix? An overview in which you score yourself and your competitors on the points your client cares about. That way you see at a glance where you are actually better, and where you are not. How do I define my positioning if I am not better anywhere? Then you choose one point where you are willing to change something internally, so that you visibly score higher there than the rest. Positioning is then not a text, but a decision in your business. How often should I redo my positioning matrix? As soon as your market or your offer changes, and in any case before you start a new website, campaign or event. Otherwise you magnify something that is no longer true. Is price a good positioning? Only if you can really be the cheapest structurally. For most experts it is the place you end up when you haven't chosen anything else. More from the oven ## Another slice? [Advertising ChatGPT Ads: what Target CPA and Target CPC mean for your campaigns 5 Nov 2026 · 6 min](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/blog/chatgpt-ads-target-cpa-target-cpc/) [Leads and follow-up A strategy session that sells: how to stop your free discovery call turning into free consulting 5 Nov 2026 · 7 min](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/blog/strategy-session-that-sells/) [Advertising Meta Andromeda: why one ad for everyone no longer works 4 Nov 2026 · 6 min](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/blog/meta-andromeda-one-ad-per-buyer/) [← Back to the blog overview](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/blog/) ## Your next event deserves a room that buys. Book a one-hour baker's chat. We figure out where your room leaks. If it's not for you, we'll tell you. [Book your baker's chat](https://calendar.app.google/xxHsojnQL4A574Me7) [Take the leak test](https://onlinemarketingbakery.com/en/leak-test/start/) You talk directly to Rubin, the head baker.