The window of opportunity to market a new product is short. It requires all hands on deck to develop standout positioning and communicate it effectively. In this make-or-break situation, it makes sense to involve an experienced positioning professional. Here’s why.

Time is the Enemy

New ideas have a “shelf life” — an increasingly shorter one. If it is a good idea, it will be mimicked. Being forced to deal with look-alike products happens sooner rather than later. The first-mover advantage will be lost to a skilled second-mover if market leadership is not achieved in a timely fashion.

Accelerating the Communications Journey

Many companies take too long to hit their stride in communicating effectively. That is time that can never be recovered. That time is crucial for building effective competitive barriers and to make available cash stretch as far as possible in order to cover ramp-up expenses.

As a make-the-market specialist, positioning is part of every project I undertake and my goal is to break new ground and make the most of that precious time by bringing clarity to communications.

At the moment I am working with nine different start-up companies and their founding teams — each a part of the B2B incubator, 9Mile Labs. As a result of the workshops that I am conducting with each company, I have been reminded of the value clear positioning generates. For example:

• Hit the Bulls Eye:  Emerging companies have a lot to say about how they do what they do. However, what a prospect needs to hear first are the Whys. More on how to accomplish this is available at:  Why Me?  Why Now?  Why this Product?
• Standout Fast:  In the first few seconds of your interaction with a prospect, they will decide to either go-forward or stop. Use that time wisely by cutting through the clutter and clearly communicate why you are different from all the rest. More on how this is achieved is available at: Positioned Clearly.
• Use an Appropriate Analogy:  For one of the 9Mile Labs start-ups, a successful communications concept from the telecommunications industry was applied to a retail situation, generating immediate understanding.
• Speed-Up “Discovery”:  The “fit” message can be understood and market tested before you ramp up a sales team. Avoid the pain and expense of the “one-salesperson-to-one-prospect” discovery process that chews up so much time.
• Lower Cost of Sales:  When the “fit” message is clear, you can bring qualified buyers to the business through cost-effective marketing tactics, rather than seek prospects through high-cost, personal selling tactics. More on how to do this available at: Practice Systematic Marketing.

Be prepared by asking yourself, “Of all the things my product can do or deliver, when competition copies me, what is the most important thing I will fight for in order to standout?” The answer will take you a long way towards knowing how to position yourself in the present.

It’s a Make-or-Break Situation

Achieving standout positioning and effectively communicating it is challenging work. It is one of the hardest things a marketer has to do. As in any other significant endeavor, frequency and depth of experience matters.

A typical marketer will position or reposition a product only a few times in their career, which reminds me of a conversation that I had with a physician friend. He told me when picking out a surgeon, choose someone that does that same procedure often. That advise makes sense in marketing situations as well, because positioning can make-or-break the success of a company.

That is why positioning is a specialty. A specialist offers the experience built with frequency, provides frameworks that speed the outcome, and provides feedback on what has worked or not worked in other situation. Combined, this means that obstacles are removed, performance is optimized, and precious time is saved.

It is so easy to let the demands of the moment consume our attention. However, the value of setting aside time to visualize the future and seek out the lessons learned by others can have an incremental impact on day-to-day thinking. Here is some food for thought.

Sharing Lessons Learned

I had a great “food for thought” experience while participating in the Ignition CEO Summit, an event that the venture capital group hosts for the CEO’s in their portfolio companies.

The event is an important opportunity for CEO’s, Venture Partners and Subject Matter Experts to share lessons learned, and benefit from each others experiences.

I saw the CEO’s put down their smart phones or stop typing on their tablets and laptops whenever another CEO talked about a lesson learned. For me, it was a valuable reminder of what power there is in seeking out perspectives on key issues that will impact your future.

Sources of Food for Thought

It also got me to thinking about other food for thought sources. While there are many ways to gather perspective-changing insights, there are a couple of internet resources I would like to call out.

Ted Talks

This is a well-established and respected lecture series described as “great talks to stir your curiosity.” Indeed it does. Clicking on the logo will take you to the subject directory. Enjoy browsing.

Rand Fishkin Blog

Rand Fishkin is the co-founder and CEO of SEOmoz. In an article that appears in Forbes, Rand was ranked as #1 in “leaders who aren’t afraid to be transparent.”

“SEOmoz has made their funding decks open to the public, which is pretty much unheard of. They share all of their failures (and their successes) with the world so others can learn from their experiences.”

TheBeach Meets TheStreet

This is a new endeavor, launched in Feb 2013, focused on airing “casual conversations with serial entrepreneurs, founders and startup leaders.” I am calling this one out because they are currently seeking founders to be interviewed. If you are a founder at a start-up that has secured venture capital financing, you can share your insights by appearing on TheBeach. Contact Manoj Rao of Media 11:11.

The Power of Perspectives

In my own work, which involves positioning and messaging for emerging companies, I have learned the value of seeking out and merging multiple perspectives before making strategic decisions. For example:

Positioning:  To successful position a company for growth there are three key perspectives that need to be sought out and then merged.

• Company
• Competition
• Customer

Described in more detail:   Market Force #5: “Positioned Clearly?”

Messaging:  To resonate with a targeted prospect there are three key perspectives that must be understood and communicated.

• Why Me?
• Why Now?
• Why This Product?

Described in more detail:   Why Me? Why Now? Why This Product?

During a one-on-one conversation with a CEO at the Ignition event, we discussed this positioning and messaging framework and a perspective logjam was broken. The CEO immediately knew what he wanted to do differently in order to communicate his company’s value. This was my personal example of sharing lessons learned, in action. It is also the goal of my blog series as the ChangeMarketer.

Moral of the Story

Make the time today, to seek out perspectives on the key issues that will shape your future. The value of setting aside time to visualize the future and learn from the lessons of others, can have a positive impact on day-to-day thinking.

For a long time, many people have been saying “put the customer first to be successful.” Nevertheless, saying it does not make it so. In the real world, new product efforts more often begin with “WHAT” they want to make before getting to the “WHO” will use it and ‘WHY”. However, this is changing…

Accelerators Speed Iterative Learning

I had the opportunity to do some mentoring for a start-up in the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure, Powered by TechStars program. At the Demo Days event, ten companies gave their funding pitches to a packed room of investors, mentors, media, and community members.

The single-most important thread they all had in common was how each had defined a clear target market (WHO) they were addressing and how they were using technology to automate tasks, small and large, to optimize performance (WHY). Congratulations to all.

Supercharging the Learning Curve

There are a number of these accelerator-type programs facilitating start-ups by providing some initial funding, office space, mentors and access to investors. These programs run for about three months and are based on supercharging the learning curve. They help the companies focus on their Who’s and Why’s at the same time as they address the What’s and How’s, through an iterative learning process. It is changing the start-up process landscape.

Participating Details

If you are thinking about taking the big start-up step, consider what these programs have to offer. If you are an accomplished businessperson, think about the difference you can make as a mentor. Below are links to several accelerators enrollment pages, but do not delay as participation deadlines are approaching.

Next Step: Drive Customer Growth

So putting the customer first and foremost is a prerequisite for success. The next step is to ask yourself how you are communicating your value and if you are doing it…

• Clearly?
• Concisely?
• Competitively?

To learn more about communicating effectively with potential customers, see a detailed example in my previous blog post titled,
Why Me? Why Now? Why this Product?

It takes a lot of work to communicate what a company does in just a few words. While creating the message is important, comprehension by the intended audience is essential to achieve liftoff. Let’s look at five make-or-break liftoff concepts.

The Challenge: A Few Choice Words

I had the pleasure of mentoring some of the TechStars Seattle teams as they addressed marketing launch issues and prepared for their Demo Day presentations. The experience reinforced the challenge of trying to communicate all that a company is and does in a few choice words, and the exhilaration that occurs when comprehension is achieved.

Five Make-or-Break Liftoff Concepts

While previous blog posts have addressed these issues systematically, I wanted to touch on five make-or-break liftoff concepts here. They include problem, perspective, process, presentation and pictures.

1. Problem:  Address the 360-degree situation

During the first communication, it is essential that both parties get headed in the same direction quickly and comfortably. I call this the 360-degree problem because the intersection has yet to be established. As the presenter, it is your job to ensure that both parties get headed in a specific direction of mutual interest. It takes dialog and involvement to accomplish this.

2. Perspective:  Participant not audience

Seeing the recipient of your communication efforts as a participant instead of as a passive audience will head you in a very different direction. In a selling situation, replace the “threat” of interruptions or checkout behavior (such as emailing during your presentation) by inviting participation. For example, I do this with an intentional dialog slide placed after every three or four content slides.

3. Process:  What and why before how

If you are starting your presentation with a demo, or your company description begins with the words “software as a service”, you are putting the how first. It is like talking about leasing a car before it has been established that a new car is wanted. Addressing the “what” and “why” before the “how” will speed the setting of a valued direction.

4. Presentation:  Establish the story structure

Building a presentation is no different from constructing a house, writing code or crossing a bridge. They all require a good structure. Define the outcome first, outline the points that need to be made, and then select the images needed to support the message. Set aside the demo, take a blank piece of paper, and write headlines consisting of five-to-seven words that convey the essential message points.

5. Pictures:  Really are worth a thousand words

Images are often relegated to a support role when they are capable of leading comprehension. A successful image and messaging pairing is like being able to see music instead of just hear it.

See the words

I remember when I “saw” music for the first time. It was during a ballet called Glass Pieces. As the music plays, there is a stream of dancers at the back of the stage moving in time to the music’s harmony while a pair of dancers spotlighted in the foreground, move to melody. The experience is still with me. I’m betting it is much easier to understand this description when you see this picture.

Source:  Glass Notes

Feel the pain

Another, more mundane, example is this presentation slide concerning the problem of crab grass. The hands and weed puller convey the backbreaking nature of the problem in a much more effective way than words alone are able. Forget the text- laden presentation screen that says how unsightly, labor intensive and frustrating this problem is. One image and two words do the job.

Closing: The Exhilaration of Comprehension

Try applying these five make-or-break concepts to your communications efforts and enjoy the exhilaration that occurs when comprehension is achieved.

New products get launched using the most expensive selling resources: sales people and founders. This is essential for creating initial traction, but is not scalable when growth becomes the goal. Effective marketing based on realistic math is what makes it all add up.

Recap

This is a thread about How to Leverage the Marketplace Forces that Matter Most for Business Growth. Eight crucial marketplace forces have been identified and are being explored in depth in this series.

What is Realistic Marketing Math?

Realistic marketing math is the equations, forecast, and performance data, that address profitability by bringing together volume, time and money.

In a nutshell:

• Revenue:  Size x Value x Adoption Rate
• Cost:  People + Capital + Selling Expense
• Profit:  (Revenue – Costs) – Taxes

Each marketplace force has financial ramification. Links to previous posts are being included as we use marketing math to tie them all together and close this series.

Revenue: Closing the Gap between Projection and Performance

Revenue is forecast based on the size of the market targeted (people, companies and/or organizations), the price of the product/service (based on value in comparison to the alternatives) and the speed at which the prospect will purchase (adoption rate).

Realistic marketing math goes deeper by recognizing:

• Time is the enemy.  Many businesses have floundered by misjudging the rate of adoption. Generating awareness, supporting the case for action, and establishing new habits, takes time and money. Having a compelling “Why Now?” is the best offensive action an emerging company has to speed adoption. For a more detailed discussion see Market Force #1: “Why Now?”
• Prospects are not equal.  There is a smaller optimal target market where forces are at work that help push prospects towards a buying decision. For a more detailed discussion see Market Force #2: “Why Me?”
• Value is contextual.  The prospect always has an alternative, including doing nothing. Understanding who or what you are competing against in the mind of the prospect is vital to being positioned effectively and priced appropriately. For a more detailed discussion see Market Force #3: “Why This Product?”

Revenue is realized when a prospect purchases. Realistic marketing math helps in closing the gap so often seen between projections and performance. It also speed customer adoption and revenue generation.

Cost: Achieving Scalable Selling Strategies

A CFO friend shared the “rule of 25″ as a way to think about a profitable software business. Here’s how it works. Budget 25% of revenue for each of the following:

• Sales and Marketing Expenses
• Product / Technology Expenses
• Overhead / Facilities / Equipment
• Profits

In start-ups, before profitability is achieved, sales and marketing can be over 3,000% of revenue. However, the “rule of 25″ helps to visualize where your selling strategies need to be heading in order to be profitable. Even if profitability initially takes a back seat to securing market share, that can’t last forever.

Realistic marketing math goes deeper by recognizing:

• Change takes time and money to achieve.  This means understanding what the true cost of educating your market is likely to be. Looking at appropriate comparables can help range the anticipated costs. For a more detailed discussion see Market Force #4: “Behavioral Evidence?”
• Clarity in communicating value affects costs.  All too often sales teams are unleashed with murky messaging as to how their product delivers value. This means valuable time and plenty of money gets wasted. Starting with clear messaging, before ramping up sales, can lower the cost of sales. For a more detailed discussion see Why Me? Why Now? Why This Product?
• It’s a two-way street – selling and buying.  What you want to sell and how you sell it is only half the equation. What the customer wants and how they want to buy is the other half. Alignment is needed to avoid a crash. For a more detailed discussion see Market Force #6: “Aligned with Needs?”

Realistic marketing math helps in ensuring your “runway” is long enough to achieve take-off. It also helps you identify critical tasks and timelines so resources can be effectively focused.

Profit: (Revenue – Costs) – Taxes

As was just explored in the revenue and cost sections, marketing strategy and execution has a tremendous impact on growth and profitability.

Realistic marketing math goes deeper by recognizing:

• Express value clearly, concisely and competitively.  For a more detailed discussion see Market Force #5: “Positioned Clearly?”
• Apply Systematic-Marketing.  To realize a payback that is cumulative, not episodic. For a more detailed discussion see Market Force #7: “Practicing Systematic-Marketing?”
• Leverage the market forces that matter most for growth.  By focusing on the forces capable of influencing buying behavior. For a more detailed discussion see Eight Marketplace Forces

Realistic marketing math works to fast-track growth and profitability. It also helps to minimize the number of “redo” cycles start-ups typically experience while attempting to gain traction.

Closing: Business Growth

This is the last post in the series How to Leverage the Marketplace Forces that Matter Most for Business Growth. Eight crucial marketplace forces have been identified and explored in depth and are recapped below. The goal has been to help you think about additional steps you can take for business growth.

Product launches are often linear: first make the product, second try to sell it, third try to communicate its value, and finally try to make money. If you practice Systematic-Marketing, you can fast track this process and speed profitability.

Recap

This is a thread about How to Leverage the Marketplace Forces that Matter Most for Business Growth. Eight crucial marketplace forces have been identified and are being explored in depth in this series.

What is Systematic-Marketing?

Systematic-Marketing is a process for converting prospects into buyers, cost-effectively. Think of it as a set of steps that you and the prospect climb together to reach a purchase decision. The goal is to be prepared by anticipating …

• What the prospect will need to make a purchase decision
  (specifications, performance, references, etc.)
• Who else will influence the buy decision
  (spouse, partner, industry analyst, etc.)
• How the prospect can “try-before-they-buy”
  (free trial, sample, preview, etc.)

This is how you realize a payback on your marketing efforts that is cumulative, not episodic.

Marketing for a Blockbuster

A good example, that we have all experienced, of Systematic-Marketing at work is how the movie industry builds momentum for a blockbuster opening.

• Sample:  The movie trailer is how you sample the product
• Influencers:  The movie reviewer receives a preview
• Awareness:  Interviews and advertisements that include the trailer

Don’t take the expensive step of generating large-scale awareness until you have anticipated and addressed all three steps in the buying process. A lot of time, money and frustrating false starts can be saved.

Targeting the Optimal Prospect

Let’s step through the whole process once, starting by identifying the optimal prospect to target. From ChangeMarketer’s perspective, prospects can be identified as potential, reachable, and optimal.

Potential:  Those identified as having interest in your value proposition. This target market forms the largest pool of prospects that a marketer has to draw upon. However, exhibiting interest is not the same thing as having buying behavior.

Reachable:  These are potential prospects that have existing marketing “highway” that reaches them. In most cases, it is difficult enough to build a new product without also having to construct the “highway” to reach potential customers.

Optimal:  These are reachable prospects that have a compelling reason to buy a product like yours, now. They represent the best near-term opportunity to be converted into buyers.

To move through a buying process, you and the prospect are going to have to make an investment. Both of you are going to want to be sure that it is worth the effort.

Step One: Awareness

Generating awareness and a positive attitude towards your company, its products and its services is the first step. This is most often accomplished by repetition of a compelling message.

Awareness:  Creating a concise message of your value and taking it to the prospect, speeds the “introduction” process. “Build it and they will come” only works in the movies.

Attitude:  You will hear it said that there is “no such thing as bad press”. However, those who have tried to sell into a negative attitude situation would disagree. It is more difficult to sell a cruise after an iceberg “incident”.

Repetition:  It is more than what you say – it is what the prospect hears. That’s why repetition works. The prospect hears more each time. Energy put into creating an initial clear message and then repeating it, pays off.

You are not alone in creating awareness, but it is you who can get the ball rolling in order to get word-of-mouth, influencers and media working for you.

Step Two: Evaluation

Once you have awareness, the prospect will typically turn to people they trust for input. Prospects never forget that you have an agenda, which is to sell them something, so they maintain a healthy amount of skepticism about your claims.

Gather Information:  Prospects expect you to provide details such as technical specifications, a return on investment analysis and client references, in an easy to digest format. Interest can vanish or be diverted to a competitor at this stage.

Evaluate:  Ask yourself who else can speak on your behalf? Satisfied clients, analysts/experts and the media are just a few examples. What they have to say will be more important to the prospect than what you have to say at this stage.

Influencers:  You can fast track the evaluation process by anticipating who the prospect will turn to when evaluating your product, and what that influencer will need to know.

If the buying influencers are not anticipated and addressed, the investment in awareness generation is at risk.

Step Three: Purchase

Following awareness and evaluation, the prospect can then turn their attention towards making the purchase decision.

Sample:  Experiencing the product for themselves is one of the most effective ways for the prospect to make a buy decision. That’s why “free trials” are so popular.

Buy:  Now the costs to purchase become a hard reality. A prospect can be interested in a new car, be made aware of specific make and model that suit his or her needs, read the reviews, and even take a test-drive. However, the rubber meets the road when then time arrives for the signature and payment.

Value:  To close the deal, the value/resource/reason triumvirate dominates. The value to the prospect must be clear. The resources (money, people and/or time) need to be allocated. Last but not least, a compelling reason to act now must be part of the purchase equation.

Compelling Messaging: The Prospects’ Handrail

For prospects to take these three big steps — awareness, evaluation and purchase — your messaging must be compelling. Think of messaging as the handrail that the prospects rely upon as they take each step. In previous blog posts I have described how to make your messaging compelling by focusing on answering Why Me?, Why Now? Why this Product?

Why Me?:  Ask, “Who is the me I’m talking to and why should they be interested in listening to what I have to say.” You have only one chance to make a first impression. If you want to create a connection that is valued, you do it by first communicating what is in it for the other person, not the details of how your product or technology works.

Why Now?  Consider “Do I have a compelling “Why Now” capable of moving people beyond interest to action?” A compelling answer to “Why Now” will rapidly propel you to your destination. Anything else leaves you without the benefit of marketplace forces.

Why This Product?:  Ask yourself, “Why This Product?”, and use the ChangeMarketer Positioning Choices — Only, First, Best or Most — to help you stand out from the rest.

The Customer

If you practice Systematic-Marketing, you can fast track the process of converting prospects into customers cost effectively, and speed profitability. Realize a payback on your marketing efforts that is cumulative, not episodic.

What is Next?

The 8 Marketplace Forces countdown continues. The next post will be…

Market Force #8: Realistic Marketing Math?

When bringing new technology to market, success will go to those who align the marketplace forces that drive offer and acceptance. Speed growth by understanding how to make these dynamics work for you.

Recap

This is a thread about How to Leverage the Marketplace Forces that Matter Most for Business Growth. Eight crucial marketplace forces have been identified and are being explored in depth in this series.

Alignment Speeds Acceptance

Many companies bring new technology to market as a standalone single-purpose tool. This is often done by default without having given consideration to other paths open to them. Paths that could save them time, money and speed overall business growth.

Think about it as the difference between offering a single-blade penknife or the very popular Swiss Army multi-purpose tool. The question to ask is which one will your targeted customer accept? Let’s explore the choices.

Offer: Tool, Product or Service

Let’s look at how technology can be offered to the customer by using the example of database software. There are three different ways a customer can benefit from this technology – as a tool, product or service

• Oracle offers the technology as a tool with its Oracle Database.
• SRDS is a company that offers an online product using database technology that has been populated with media information (e.g., Digital Media.)
• IMS offers a service that uses database technology, populated with pharmaceutical sales data, included as part of its Pharma Commercial Services.

Each of these options aligns with the needs of different customers and industries.

These companies have all built huge successful businesses using database technology in very different ways.

Acceptance: Standalone, Bundled or Integrated

Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. Success is not just about what you want to offer, but what the customer will accept.

Standalone: Companies and industries early in their lifecycles are more willing to accept standalone tools, because they are motivated to gain a competitive advantage. They are faced with the “make or buy” decision, in order to have what they need to succeed. Biocomputing is an example of an industry that is in the emerging lifecycle stage today, where standalone tool offerings would be well received.

Bundled: Companies and industries that are established have more at stake. They want products that perform reliably and work well within their existing infrastructure. They are motivated by Return on Investment (ROI), and bundled products can provide that. Financial Services is an example of an industry that is in the established lifecycle stage, where bundled offerings are expected.

Integrated: Change is much harder to accomplish with companies and industries that are mature. When they do change, it is often because regulations or obsolescence are forcing them to act. They often want complete solutions that are standards-based. Healthcare is an example of an industry with this dynamic. The current struggle for a “universal” medical records solution is one example of this dynamic at work.

Success: Leveraging Offer & Acceptance Dynamics

When bringing new technology to market, success will go to those leveraging the marketplace forces driving offer and acceptance. Here are some current examples of these forces at work.

Social Media: This is an industry that is still in its “wild west” phase, so standalone tool opportunities abound. However, the marketplace forces that will push towards bundling and integration can already be seen on the horizon.

CRM (End User): It would be an uphill battle to offer a “standalone tool” to end-user customers in the CRM space today, because customers want bundled/integrated products. The industries using CRM solutions are primarily driven by ROI and demand interoperability.

CRM (Vendors): However, that does not mean CRM is not able to provide high-growth opportunities. Established CRM vendors are looking for additional ways to provide incremental value to the end-user customers, making vendors a good prospect for standalone tools.

Achieve Offer and Acceptance Alignment

To optimize business growth, seek offer and acceptance alignment proactively. Understand which of these paths works best for the provider and the prospect. Let the offer and acceptance marketplace forces help propel you to your destination.

What is Next?

The 8 Marketplace Forces countdown continues. The next post will be…

Market Force #7: Practicing Systematic-Marketing^™?
Product launches are often linear: first make the product, second try to sell it, third try to communicate its value, and then try to make money. If you practice Systematic-Marketing, you can fast-track this process and speed profitability.

Your potential customers have a lot of “noise” being directed their way by you, your competitors and industry sources (media, analysts, associations etc.) Clear positioning is essential to securing attention and gaining buying consideration. Let’s look at how the ChangeMarketer Positioning Choices Approach will make your communications roar and growth soar.

Recap

This is a thread about How to Leverage the Marketplace Forces that Matter Most for Business Growth. Eight crucial marketplace forces have been identified and are being explored in depth in this series.

Clear Positioning is Essential for Growth

In my practice as a ChangeMarketer, positioning issues typically get presented to me when the company is having problems gaining customer traction, is falling short of sales/growth goals or is experiencing frustrating communications with prospects, partners and/or media because the selling messages are so complex. In many cases, the root cause is the lack of clear positioning. In response, I have developed a three-step approach to help companies achieve clear positioning.

ChangeMarketer: Positioning Choices Approach

The key to effective positioning is to examine and merge together three perspectives — the company, competition and customer — before communicating with your target audience. Too often the company viewpoint is the first and only step taken before new products are launched, setting the stage for expensive communication overhauls as the competitive and customer perspectives are in inevitably encountered.

Get Started by Understanding the Choices

(Only, First, Best or Most)

While the number of words used to communicate company and product positioning are almost infinite, the core idea can be distilled into one of four powerful directions that should be given consideration and tested before the creative team is engaged.

These four choices are depicted in this way because a simultaneous claim of Best and Most is simply not credible with potential customers. Neither is claiming all four.

Only: Is a powerful idea that gets attention. People listen more closely expecting to hear something they have not heard before. Only is a positioning direction that emerging technology and patent-holding companies can claim.

First: Is a choice a “serial” innovator can claim. Pixar Animation Studios is an example. Their position is communicated clearly in the following description.

“Pixar’s climb to the pinnacle of computer animation success was a quick one, and the company continues to push the envelope in its art — and technology-inspired moviemaking endeavors.”

Best: Is often a specialty, luxury or niche player’s choice. Best is accompanied by an attribute description. BMW is an example with “German Engineering” as the attribute.

BMW’s most recent tagline “Sheer Driving Pleasure” communicates a promise of the “best” driving experience.
 
 

Most: Is a choice many growth companies can claim, with Amazon being a prime example. Amazon’s logo communicates this idea with the arrow going from “a” to “z”.

“Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.“

Step One: Take an Inventory

(Company, Competition, Customers)

Company Inventory

Form a working team from the company leadership (include sales, marketing, product, customer support and technology) and take an inventory of the existing positioning assets. Ask yourselves:

• What is that “only” we do?
• What have we done “first“?
• What are we the “best” at doing/offering?
• Where do we offer the “most” of something?

Don’t force any resolution at this stage. Make the list as long as it should be in order to cover your strengths. Be sure to include looking forward about what you are capable of becoming. Just make sure that each listed item is credible, believable to others. Then, refine the list into higher order concepts. An example might be “best approach” as a much shorter and clearer way to consolidate a long list of standout features. This gets you the “Company” perspective.

Competitive Inventory

Next, designate someone to create an inventory of your competitors’ positioning. The best information to gather is what is said on the bottom of their most recent press release under “About“, as companies keep these About descriptions more up-to-date than their website content. I also like to gather copy headlines, product names, Hoovers descriptions etc. that round-out the picture. Look at this information and compare it to your company list. Do you still standout? For example, if everyone has chosen best positioning, you will have to work harder to ensure that a difference exists or you will become lost in the “me too” noise. This gets you the “Competition” perspective while providing an opportunity to reflect on your “Company” perspective.

Customer Inventory

Next, designate someone impartial to conduct telephone interviews with a few of your best customers as well as lost customers. I like to start these interviews with a warm-up, yet telling question:

“In your own words, how would you describe what (Company Name) provides to someone unfamiliar with its products/services?”

This starts to get at the “Customer” perspective, and provides an opportunity to reflect on the “Company” and “Competitive” perspectives, while formulating positioning directions to test with a larger group of prospects.

Step Two: Test

With all three perspectives in mind, pick three directions positioning to test. Some examples include, Best Customer Service or Most Trusted Partner or Only End-to-End Solution. Two things to consider for optimal testing are:

• Participants: Positioning is better tested with people that have experienced the company and product.
• Include Messages: For each positioning direction, write and test 3-4 messages that are examples of how you would communicate the positioning. This will help the test participant give more granular feedback. For example:

• Positioning Direction: Best Customer Service
• Message Directions:

• The (Company Name) team is accessible, approachable and highly responsive to my requests.
• The skills and experience of the (Company Name) team enables them to understand what I need and how to resolve issues quickly and accurately.

I do my positioning and message testing as a web survey with ranked order responses. In the final analysis, the messages that rank high for appeal will be revealed. The most successful messages are difficult to predict, even for seasoned marketer, so there is simply no substitute for testing. The alternative is to waste time, resources and money.

Step Three: The Choice

Part of the reason clear positioning is often a later-stage choice is because of people’s tendency to want to be all things to all people. However, the time and expense of chasing every potential customer instead of understanding and focusing on the optimal customer has caused many growth windows to close. However, with the ChangeMarketer Positioning Choices Approach you can make your communications roar and your growth soar.

What is Next?

The 8 Marketplace Forces countdown continues. The next post will be…

Market Force #6: Are You Aligned with Customers Needs?
Many companies offer new technology as a tool sold on a standalone basis. However, customers often prefer bundled products and/or integrated services. Offering what the prospect will accept is key to growth.

When setting growth goals, it is important to seek behavioral evidence over attitudinal data, to avoid the “Emperor has no clothes” problem.  If you say you are wearing a beautiful set of clothes, people will let you believe that.  They don’t want to argue, they simply won’t buy. It is up to you to get genuine feedback.

Recap

This is a thread about How to Leverage the Marketplace Forces that Matter Most for Business Growth. Eight crucial marketplace forces have been identified and are being explored in depth in this series.

Where is Your Behavioral Evidence?

Very early in my career, I learned it was having behavioral evidence and comparables that made it possible to set realistic sales goals and growth expectations for new products. I was on the team that designed and launched Prodigy, the first consumer online service. Having a large research budget, I very quickly discovered that what people said they valued (attitudinal data) did not match how they were spending their time online (behavioral data).

Saying What They Think You Want to Hear

It’s human nature. No one wants to tell you that your “baby” is ugly. When it is clear what you want to know, it is with good intentions that people will tell you what you want to hear. That’s why research techniques and questions have to be constructed carefully. Yet, it goes deeper than this.

Conceal Your Intentions

This was driven home by a research technique we used called the “electronic store”. We invited targeted prospects to our store which had several new technologies on display, including ones where purchase behavior data was known. The prospect didn’t know which one was our “baby” so a more honest answer was forthcoming.

Using Known Comparables

However, the real value of the electronic store approach was that we could compare what the prospect “said” was their likelihood to purchase, against the “actual” adoption rates for the known technology. This gave us a behavioral measurement to discount the prospects’ tendency to overstate their likelihood to purchase. The discount factor was BIG. Ever since, I always look for behavioral evidence and comparables when sizing markets.

Web Analytics Provide Comparables

Today, web analytics make readily available a vast array of behavioral data in traffic pattern and click-through analysis. The web also enables testing of all sorts to be accomplished cost effectively, including A/B testing and offer optimization. So gathering behavioral evidence and comparables has never been easier or cheaper.

Do the Math

The first thing I do when I review a business plan is to make a few comparable calculations. For example, how much revenue is being projected per employee? I then compare it to the known behavior of industry-leading companies. The vast majority of the time, the new business is projecting revenue that is far greater than any known behavior. There is very low probability that promise will be kept.

Business Growth

I have many conversations with emerging business owners explaining that the fastest way for an entrepreneur to lose his or her company is to miss what comparables can help us understand. Behavior evidence is a key to being able to make promises you can keep. Take a fresh look at the assumptions driving your growth targets. Then seek out the behavioral evidence and comparables that can help you plan and spend wisely.

This post appears on Gist, an online service that helps people build stronger professional relationships. As a guest blogger, I was asked to address communication issues relevant to emerging companies. Learn more about how clear positioning enables you to optimize impact by making every word pull its weight.

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