From Bare Strategy

Writing

One idea at a time. New every week.

Positioning · June 18, 2026 · 7 min read

Your AI content gets you found. Then it loses the deal.

AI content wins discovery and loses evaluation, for the same reason. The fluency that helps buyers find us is the fluency that helps them catch us. Klaviyo and Datalily found people are four times more likely to trust a brand less once they spot AI in its marketing. The fix is a voice line. AI runs free on research, assists on drafts, and never touches positioning, the thesis, or any message a champion has to repeat without us in the room. Three questions find the gap in your own pages.

positioningai-contenttrustb2b-saasmessagingcontent-strategy

Positioning · June 17, 2026 · 7 min read

Why deals stall after your champion wins: the category creation budget-line trap

Your champion won every internal argument and the deal still went quiet. Category creation deals stall at the filing cabinet, because a purchase order needs a budget code and a category nobody has named yet doesn't have one. Call it the missing code. The fix is translation. Turn your category into a line the buyer's finance system already recognizes, then arm your champion with the one page they'll carry into a room you're not in. Here's how to find the line you can displace, and what to do when there honestly isn't one.

positioningcategory-creationsaas-gtmprocurementsalescompetitive-differentiation

Positioning · May 22, 2026 · 10 min read

How to know if your messaging will actually work (before you ship it)

Internal sign-off measures internal alignment, not market resonance. The False Confidence Filter is a two-day protocol of four tests, each run with five ICP-matched buyers who have never met you. The Stranger Test catches clarity gaps, the Priority Test catches relevance gaps, the Clone Test catches differentiation gaps, and the Champion Test catches whether a champion can resell your value unaided. Stranger and Priority failures force a rewrite. Clone and Champion failures are usually fixable.

positioningmessagingb2b-saasgtmpre-launch-validationvoice-of-customer

Positioning · May 22, 2026 · 7 min read

Is it a product problem or a positioning problem? How to know before you pivot again

Most growth stalls at seed to Series A are positioning failures wearing product clothing, and the misdiagnosis costs six to eighteen months of rebuild nobody needed. A product problem means the product can't deliver what the right customer needs. A positioning problem means it can, and buyers still can't tell it was built for them. Five signals separate the two, and the evidence already sits in your CRM. Run the diagnostic in a week, before you authorize the rebuild.

positioningpmfgtm-strategysaas-growthmessagingfounder-led-sales

Positioning · May 3, 2026 · 8 min read

Your champion loves your product. Here's why the deal still dies.

Deals stall at committee review because we wrote for one person and sent them into a room holding four others who can say no. The CFO, the security lead, IT and procurement each arrive with a different fear. The Committee Carry Test is four questions that check whether the champion can answer all four fears without us there. A fumble names the chair where the deal will die, and names the one-pager missing from the kit. Build for the room, and put it somewhere the champion can reach on a Tuesday.

positioningmessagingbuying-committeesaas-gtmsales-enablementb2b-saas

The newsletter

One idea in your inbox, every week.

No sequences, no funnels.

Unsubscribe anytime.