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Your Positioning is More than Your Messaging
And what metrics to track to see if your positioning is working
Michael Houck
December 16, 2023
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
Customers are getting stuck in your funnel. Your marketing hasn’t taken off… yet. Your sales calls aren’t leading to deals, and you’re starting to get maybe just a little worried about your runway.
When your graphs are all flat it’s hard to figure out what’s going on or what to do next.
Before you go and blame the economy or algorithm updates you should consider your positioning.
Sometimes the product is right but the presentation is what’s wrong.
I recently caught up with Enzo Avigo, the founder of YC-backed June.so to share ideas about positioning and we ended up collaborating on this piece.
This week you’ll learn:
How to know whether your positioning is the problem
What metrics to focus on
How to fix a positioning problem
Your Positioning is More than Your Messaging
Most founders think positioning = the copy on your landing page.
But your messaging is just the implementation of positioning.
A more complete definition of positioning is “the strategy that communicates your startup’s value.”
Positioning that’s inconsistent, misaligned to user needs, and incoherent is surprisingly common. Here’s how to break it down:
Is It Your Positioning?
If your positioning is unclear you’re going to have customers coming in who look like leads because they think you do something that you don’t.
And then they come in and learn more about your product, maybe by getting a pitch from sales, and they’re like… wait, what? This isn’t what I thought it was.
And then they drop out of the funnel.
Diagnosing positioning problems is different for sales-driven and self-service startups, so let’s consider both:
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