Positioning is a pricing decision
If your positioning does not change what you can charge, it is a tagline. A framework for positioning that shows up in the contract value.
The fastest test of a positioning statement is to ask what it lets you charge. If the answer is 'the same as before', the exercise produced a slogan. Positioning that works changes the comparison set in the buyer's head, and the comparison set determines the price.
The comparison set
A buyer prices you against whatever they think you replace. If a compliance-automation vendor is compared to a spreadsheet, it is worth a few thousand dollars. Compared to a failed enterprise deal, it is worth a great deal more. The positioning work is choosing which comparison you want and earning the right to it.
A working sequence
- Name the alternative. Not a competitor's brand; the thing the buyer does today. Spreadsheets, an intern, a consultant, doing nothing.
- Name the cost of the alternative in the buyer's units: deals lost, weeks delayed, audits failed.
- Name the one capability that removes that cost, and prove it with a number from a customer.
- Only then, name the category. Categories are labels for comparison sets; pick the one where your price makes sense.
What this looks like in practice
We ran this with a cloud partner entering India that arrived with eleven service lines. Eleven services means eleven comparison sets and no price. One wedge, cost-optimisation-led migration, anchored to a public benchmark, gave the sales team a number to talk about and a reason to be paid more than the incumbent integrators.
Positioning is not what you say about yourself. It is the comparison you make the buyer draw, and the price that follows from it.
