Here is a test I run in the first week of every positioning sprint. I ask the founder, the head of sales and a newer team member, separately, to finish one sentence: “We help … to … unlike …”.
I have never seen three matching answers on day one. That isn’t a failure of communication. It means a decision hasn’t been made yet, and everyone is quietly filling the gap with their own version.
What a good sentence does
A positioning sentence isn’t a tagline. Customers may never read it. Its job is internal: it lets everyone in the company say no to the same things.
- It names who you are for, narrowly enough that some people are left out.
- It names the alternative customers would use if you didn’t exist.
- It says why you win against that alternative, in words a customer would use.
Where the words come from
The sentence should be built from interviews with your best customers, not from a workshop. Ask them what they were doing before they found you, what nearly stopped them buying and how they would describe you to a colleague. Write down their exact words. They are usually plainer and better than anything you would write.
Your best customers already know your positioning. They just haven’t been asked.
The part that hurts
A real positioning decision means letting some customers go, or at least not chasing them. When Studio Wren decided it designs the first version of products people have to trust, it also decided to stop pitching for logo-only projects, which had been most of its income.
If your sentence doesn’t rule anything out, keep going.
Try it this week
Ask three people to finish the sentence and compare the answers. If they match, good: you can stop reading strategy blogs. If they don’t, you’ve found the most useful conversation your leadership team can have this quarter.
