Positioning brief
Translate product capability into a specific reason for a defined buyer to act.
Use when buyers understand features but cannot explain why they should choose the product now.
Before the working session
- Collect recent buyer language from interviews, loss notes, reviews, and public alternatives. Separate direct quotes from internal interpretation.
- List the real alternatives: an incumbent, a spreadsheet, a service provider, an internal build, or doing nothing.
Run the process
Pick one buying context
Describe the role, workflow, trigger, and current constraint. A statement written for every buyer rarely survives a real comparison.
Map alternatives honestly
For each alternative, note what it does well, where it fails in this context, switching cost, and why a buyer might still prefer it.
Make a narrow claim
Link one capability to an outcome the buyer values. Name the mechanism and the proof available today. Keep unproven claims out of headline copy.
Test without coaching
Show a one-page message to five target buyers individually. Ask whom it serves, what it replaces, why it differs, and what they doubt. Record their words before explaining. Revise the misunderstood claim.
Fictional example: “Automate operations with AI” becomes “For operations teams reconciling weekly site reports, consolidate exceptions into one review queue.” The team tests whether buyers recognize the workflow and whether the queue is meaningfully better than their spreadsheet.
Failure checks
- A competitor list is not a positioning strategy.
- “Faster and easier” needs a specific task and measured proof.
- Comprehension is distinct from purchase intent.
Working worksheet
POSITIONING TEST Audience / situation / trigger: Current job and consequence of the status quo: Alternatives, including doing nothing: Why each alternative is attractive: Distinct mechanism we can actually deliver: Outcome claim and evidence source: Claim boundary or caveat: One-sentence message: Buyer test participants / verbatim understanding / objections: What we changed and why: