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Your Brand Positioning
A framework to create or refine your company's unique brand positioning.
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Positioning Strategies in Context
Take into account your company's business situation and what you will have permission to do. If you are a defensive company in turnaround-mode, you can't use positioning that is too visionary or claims breakout innovation. Your positioning needs to be consistent with your business situation to be believable.
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Positioning & Messaging Framework
Core Messaging Pillars
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Target Segment & Problem
Priority Market Segment
What specific type of organization are you targeting as defined in your customer needs based segmentation exercise in L2E3?
Describe them in detail and define how would you target or qualify them?
How this is used:
Apply this to the target audience in your positioning statement and how you formulate your unique point of view. What ideas or views of the world do you share with this group of people?
Target Audience
Who is the technical decision maker?
Who is the business decision maker?
Are there other influencers?
Decide Primary Person
Who do you need to convince first to get in the door?
How this is used:
Apply this to the target audience, pain point and emotional benefit.
Problem
For the primary person, what is the most critical pain point they have and how does it personally impact their lives?
How this is used:
Apply this to the pivotal moment in the narrative and target audience pain point in the first part of the positioning statement.
Competitors & Must-Haves
Competitors
Who are the top 3 competitors you face, include 'apathy' if that applies to you.
How this is used:
When your done with your positioning statement, swap your name for their name and make sure they couldn't claim the same thing.
Context
What terms describe the market you are in. Even if you believe you are in a 'new' category, what is the phrase that best describes what you offer based on context they already have.
How this is used:
Use this for your basic description.
Table Stakes
What are the must-haves to be considered a vendor in this category to begin with? What are the elements that every other vendor has/offers?
Consider
  • Features (automation, etc.)
  • Benefits (faster, easier, etc.)
  • Delivery method (SaaS, cloud, managed service, etc.)
  • Implementation/ configuration help
How this is used:
Don't use these things in your positioning statement. Filter table stakes out.
Positioning Statement - Singular Unique Advantage
This is your big idea!
What is the one thing that makes your company different than any other company?
Tips:
  • Specific, it shouldn't be multiple things
  • Relevant to the primary person that directly addresses their pain point
  • Different to what the other competitors you selected offers
  • Sustainable, a lasting claim or benefit; (not a feature, price, or something that can easily copied by someone else)
Consider the following:
  • Distinct experience or DNA your people have (know-how, industry knowledge, etc.)
  • A new way you solve the person's problem
  • A clever delivery model that has a compelling benefit
  • Your ecosystem, partners, or interoperability
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Messaging
This is your story!
Describe the what, the how, and the we.
Tips:
  • Be specific about your promises in each column.
  • Relevant to the positioning statement, supportive of your key point
  • Shouldn’t be table stakes promises, should be unique on their own if possible
  • Benefits should be specific to your target audience
Proof Points:
  • Use points that make your promise credible
  • Consider facts or statistics that are most impressive
  • Provide details about your customer base, like research or surveys
  • Use points about your customer experience, retention, loyalty, etc.
  • Consider awards, accolades and certifications
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Emotional Promise
How do you want the person to feel as a result of selecting you? (Confident, relieved, inspired, etc.). This won't be explicitly used in the messaging, but will guide the tone of the narrative and other execution tactics, such as tagline and tone of images.
Mission Statement
Why does your company exist? Typically used internally to give meaning to how you make the world better.
Taglines
They should be creative versions of your positioning statement. Not whole separate ideas.
Tips:
  • Can your competitors say the same thing?
  • Can you commit to it for many years? They shouldn't be changed a lot.
  • Should be specific to you, not categorical (unless you are trying to first establish yourself in a market as a 2-3 year endeavor).
Expand Your Narrative Into Thought Leadership Stories
Thought leadership creates interest for you and are useful to include in various channels (digital and personal), to create more interest and credibility for your company.
Here's some examples of how to brainstorm thought leadership.

1

Your Purpose or Expanded Mission
Use it to tell the the story about why your company came to be, what were the early beliefs and ideas of the founders.
Example: Steve Jobs set out to make a computer the size of a book that anyone could learn how to use in less than 20 minutes. The company has always been about the user experience and that guides everything they do.

2

Unique Point of View
Describe the context leading up to why your company so passionately wants to solve this problem and why it's currently an unmet need. This can be used to create thought-leadership on topics your target segment cares about.
Example: Twilio enables cloud communications through APIs developers can build into their applications, instead customers having to impliment complex communications infrastructures.

3

Category Context
Describe the specific category, why you fit in it and why there's an unmet need in that category. If you are trying to define a new category, talk about what's missing and why customers fall through the cracks and aren't currently served.
Example: Early Salesforce, they had to explain why cloud-based SaaS was a better way to deliver CRM.

4

Customer Stories
This is the best way to communicate how your company delivers value. Using real customer stories and having customers speak on your behalf builds credibility and is the best proof point for your claims.
No Examples Needed
Competitive Traps for Longer Narratives
Setting competitive traps highlights your company's strengths while subtly exposing your competitors' weaknesses, without directly criticizing them.
Competitive Differences
List your top competitors and call out your strengths relative to their biggest gaps or flaws and what the risk is to the customer.
Preempt Objections
List the top objections towards you, or competitive traps you know your competition is setting and for each one, address them with a benefit if possible, backed by examples and facts.
Here are some examples:
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Messaging Guide - Copy Block Examples
Learn about the GTM Surge Challenge
If you received this link from a friend, join us as we prepare for what's needed in the next-generation GTM motion. We need more future-ready GTM leaders as CMO, CRO, and CSS roles converge to align to the digital-first customer experience. Are you future-ready?
BE THE SURGE!

Surge Strategies

Join the Surge GTM Challenge | Modernize Your B2B Tech GTM Engine

For CMOs, CROs, or high potential GTM leaders in B2B technology, join this 8-Week Challenge to supercharge your business and your career! Unleash hidden potential in your B2B software company by applying the five SURGE principles so they work for you, starting today. This cohort-based, self-paced challenge will help you lead the change your company needs in this next AI-fueled wave of digital transformation.

Save your seat today for the next challenge with no obligation!