Playbook
This is a
working document.
Not a reading document. Every section has two parts: concepts and exercises. The concepts are short. The exercises are where the work happens.
What You'll Build
- A clear picture of the market you're competing in (and why it matters)
- A specific, researched profile of your best-fit buyer
- A positioning statement you can actually use — not a generic template
- A messaging framework that covers every touchpoint
- A one-liner that makes people say "tell me more"
- Five ready-to-use templates, filled in as you go
Plan for 3 to 5 hours of focused work. You can spread it across sessions or push through in one sitting. Either way, finish each section before moving to the next. The parts build on each other.
Before You Start
Positioning is not a marketing exercise. It's a strategic exercise. Bad positioning isn't just a messaging problem — it's a revenue problem.
When people don't understand what you do, who it's for, and why it's different, they don't buy. Or they buy the wrong thing. Or they churn because their expectations didn't match reality.
Good positioning fixes all of that upstream.
How the Playbook Is Structured
- Parts 1–7: Sequential exercises that build your complete positioning system
- Templates: Five reference documents you fill in as you complete each section
- Print or save: Use the Print button in the sidebar to save your completed work as PDF
Category Design
Every product lives in a category. Sometimes the category already exists. Sometimes you have to create it. Your goal is to be in a category where you can win.
What Category Are You In?
A category is the mental bucket your buyer puts you in the moment they encounter you. It answers the question: "What kind of thing is this?"
Here's why this matters: buyers don't evaluate products in isolation. They evaluate them relative to other options in the same category. If you're in the wrong category, you're competing against the wrong things.
The Three Category Traps
- Too broad. "Marketing consultant." "Business coach." Buyers can't evaluate you against clear alternatives. You compete on price and vibes.
- Too narrow. If no one is searching for your category framing, it doesn't help you get found.
- Borrowed. Same language as everyone else = automatic comparison to every option in your space.
The sweet spot: specific enough to be meaningful, broad enough to be searchable, framed in a way that naturally leads to you.
Find a category framing that's both accurate and advantageous.
Ideal Customer Profile
Positioning without a specific buyer in mind is just philosophy. The more specific you get, the more your positioning resonates.
The Difference Between Demographics and Psychographics
Most people stop at demographics when building their ICP. Age, company size, job title, industry. These are useful — but they're not where positioning lives.
Positioning lives in psychographics: the beliefs, fears, desires, and mental models that drive behavior. The best ICP work goes deep on psychographics. Not job titles. Beliefs, fears, mental models.
Broad positioning doesn't attract more buyers. It attracts confused buyers who need to be persuaded, not sold. Specificity doesn't shrink your market. It sharpens your signal.
Imagine your best-fit buyer — the one you wish you could clone. Write as if describing a specific person, not a composite.
Map pain at three levels: Surface (what they say), Real (the underlying business problem), Fear (what they're afraid will happen if it stays unresolved).
Nobody wakes up ready to buy. Something happens that makes them start looking. Identifying trigger events tells you when your buyer is in market.
Competitive Differentiation
Every buyer has alternatives. Even if your offering is unique, they have alternatives. "Do nothing" is always on the table.
Real Differentiation Lives at Four Levels
- Who you serve — specific enough that others don't
- What you believe — a perspective on the problem that not everyone shares
- How you work — an approach that produces different kinds of outcomes
- What you won't do — the trade-offs you've made and are proud of
Features are easy to copy. Buyers don't buy features. They buy outcomes and confidence that a specific set of problems will be solved by the right person, in the right way.
Write three versions. Pick the one that feels truest.
The Positioning Statement
A positioning statement is an internal strategy document. Not a tagline. Not your elevator pitch. It's the source of truth that all your external messaging is built from.
What a Strong Positioning Statement Answers
- Who is this for? — Target customer
- What do they need? — The problem or opportunity
- What is it? — The category
- How is it different? — Key differentiator
- Why should they believe it? — Proof
Work through each element separately before assembling. This is the classic Crossing the Chasm framework — still the best.
A positioning statement is only good if it holds up. Put yours through these four tests.
Based on your stress test, write the refined version. This is your final statement.
Messaging Architecture
Your positioning statement is the strategy. Your messaging architecture is the execution — structured messages that bring your positioning to life across every customer touchpoint.
The Four Levels of Messaging
- Level 1: The One-Liner — One sentence. Who you help and what you do for them. LinkedIn headline, website subheadline, elevator intro.
- Level 2: The Value Proposition — 2–3 sentences. Website hero copy, email signature, proposal intro paragraph.
- Level 3: Key Messages — 3–5 specific claims supporting your positioning. Building blocks for all long-form content.
- Level 4: Proof Points — The evidence that makes your key messages believable. Without proof, messaging is just claims.
Formula: I help [specific audience] [achieve specific outcome] [without/by/through specific approach].
Three sentences: the setup (who you help and what they're trying to accomplish), the offer (what you do and how it's different), the payoff (the outcome they can expect).
Build 3–5 key messages. Each makes a specific, credible claim, connects to a buyer pain, and is supportable with proof.
Messaging Audit
Before you rewrite everything, audit what you have. Pull up your website, LinkedIn profile, and any proposals or sales materials. Go through each with the lens of what you've built.
You're at an event. Someone asks "what do you do?" You have 30 seconds. Write your answer using your one-liner, value proposition, and one key message.
A good elevator pitch makes the other person ask a follow-up question. If they just say "cool" and change the subject, the pitch didn't work. It should create curiosity, not closure.
Putting It All Together
Everything you've built is a system. The parts reinforce each other. When the system is aligned, your marketing gets easier, your sales conversations get shorter, and your close rate goes up.
The Three Signs Your Positioning Is Working
- The right people find you without you selling hard. Search, referrals, and word of mouth start working. People describe you to others using your own language.
- Buyers show up pre-qualified. Instead of explaining what you do on every call, you're spending that time understanding their specific situation.
- You win on fit, not on price. When positioning is weak, price becomes the default. When it's strong, conversations shift from "how much?" to "can you actually solve this for me?"
The Ongoing Work
Positioning isn't a one-time exercise. Markets change. Buyers change. Your own capabilities evolve. Plan to revisit this playbook at minimum once a year. More often if:
- You've launched a new product or service
- You've entered a new market or moved upmarket
- You've had a run of deals that felt wrong (wrong buyers, price objections, bad fit)
- A competitor has entered your market with strong positioning
One more thing. Show this work to your best clients. Ask them if it resonates. Ask them if it reflects how they'd describe you. The gap between how you describe yourself and how your best clients describe you is often where the best positioning insights live.
Your Positioning Snapshot
Before you move to the templates, fill in this one-page quick-reference card.
Your 5 Templates
These consolidate the most important outputs from each section. Fill them in as you work through the playbook. By the end, they'll be complete and ready to use.