Positioning Statements

 

What they are, how to use them, how to create your own

We are not what we do – but we need to be able to answer the question, “What do you do?” in a way that makes us better known and creates more business.

 

“Work harder on being memorable! A great positioning statement and self introduction needs to be well-designed and delivered with impact.”

Matt Church, CEO of Sydney’s Thought Leaders,  www.thoughtleaders.com.au

 

What is a Positioning Statement?

Matt Church has created a nine-step positioning process which achieves two things; first, it enables you to consistently answer the question, “What do you do?” with an appropriate level of detail. And second, it enables you to create a flexible statement that can be creatively applied in different situations.

An effective positioning statement is a flexible statement you can tell people when asked the question, “So what do you do?” at a networking event, a convention or seminar, at a function, in a supermarket queue or anywhere else. This line will convey:

1.  Who you specialise in working with; what industry, and what specific types of people
2. How you help these people to do something specific – satisfy a particular need, achieve a measurable goal, avoid a certain consequence

Your positioning statement will be specific, descriptive and will convey your expertise in your field. It will spark conversations with others, allowing them to get a detailed idea of who you are and what you do, and will encourage others to remember and recommend you with confidence. 

 

The Three Situations to use Your Positioning Statement In 

Your statement is a verbal summary of what you do which engages and interests the person you’re speaking to. Of course, how you speak will be different in different social situations. For example, you don’t speak in the same way to your kids as you would to your boss; or to your child’s teacher as you would to your buddy from work. Our language, register, formality, energy and tone all change depending on where we are and how comfortable we feel in any particular situation.

You can create different positioning statements to use in different situations. The aim of having a great positioning statement to use in any situation is to always be able to project confidence and ‘sell’ your small business wherever and whenever you might meet an interested party—and this is not always at a networking event or in the meeting room of your office. Great positioning statements, tailored to your current context, help you always be prepared to convince your next potential customer that you provide a fantastic service. Don’t let an underprepared sales pitch stop you from seizing rich but unexpected opportunities to promote your small business wherever you find them.

Below is a table that will help you decide upon what kind of position statement you’ll need for different kinds of contexts or events. You can change your focus, energy and pitch depending upon where you are. An all out hard sell is unlikely to impress someone you met at a party. But it might work on a potential client who just needs a touch more convincing in order to buy.

 

The three options for the focus of your position statement are: YOU, IT, or THEM.

• YOU is obviously all about you, who you are, what you have done, and what are you into.
• IT is all about the activity, examples of how it has worked for someone, what it is like and maybe a few good stories about what it is you do.
• THEM is all about the outcomes that your customers and clients achieve. You may ask questions, identify the key challenges they face or even get into solutions.

 

Which to use when:

SITUATION	FOCUS
Social Event	Personal	YOU
Business/Professional Networking Event	What Activity You Do	IT
Talking to a Business Prospect	Outcomes & Benefits	THEM

How Much Energy?

Overlaying the three situations are energy levels – whether the situation is best suited for high, medium or low energy.

We have provided in this article a table which helps you to create your own positioning statements. We have three versions of this table:

1. The first describes how it works.
2. The second is filled out for our business, Lead Creation to give you a working example.
3. The third has been left blank for you to fill in with your own positioning statements.

 

Table 1) How Matt’s Positioning Statement Table Works (with examples from different companies):

 

YOU: Talking about You	IT: Talking about What Activity You DO	THEM: Talking about Benefits & Outcomes
High Energy   Here you get to talk about your passion. Perhaps rant a little about what it is you believe. E.g.: Toby Marshall: “I want to make a difference to the lives of young people and give them a great start to their careers.”	High Energy   Here, you try to set yourself apart from others in your field. State your unique selling proposition and make a distinction between yourself and others. Whatever the masses are doing, try to position some part of what you do as contrary/opposed to this.	High Energy   This is where you express the client’s reason for being in a way that shows you are aligned. You express how what you do is a perfect fit for their purpose.
Medium Energy   This is a black-and-white answer to the question of what you do – answer with a professional category. E.g.: “I am a Financial Planning Advisor.”	Medium Energy Analogy: this channel is useful if you sell an intangible service or a new category of product or service. You draw a comparison between an already established concept and what you do. E.g.: “We are like a sports management company for information experts” – Matt Church	Medium Energy   Think about your client’s problems. A problem is best described as the day-to-day internal dialogue your target has around what they do. When you start speaking about what’s on their mind they truly engage with your products and services.
Low Energy   This is a short verbal resume outlining where you have been and what you have done.   E.g.:  Matt Church: “I grew up in Newcastle, moved to Sydney to study, graduated in the late eighties and went to work in a prison. I then worked for the Australian Council for Health and Lend Lease, wrote a few books and ended up here on the corporate speaking circuit.”	Low Energy   Choose an appropriate client case study, an example of someone you have been working with lately and tell the story.	Low Energy   This is similar to a case study or example, but here you actually state the benefits you create for others. It’s often easy to ask a question that explains why you have created a certain solution.   E.g.: “Do you find that you are spending too much time stuck in the day-to-day running of you business? We have created a personal effectiveness system that allows most people to get more done in less time. Our average client finds an extra three days’ productivity per month when using our system.”