You know those positioning templates that go: “For [target customer] who [have this problem], our [product category] is the only [differentiation] that [key benefit].”
Yeah, throw those out.
I’ve seen hundreds of companies fill in those blanks, and they all end up sounding identical. “For growing businesses who need better project management, TaskFlow is the only collaborative platform that increases team productivity by 40%.”
Riveting stuff.
The problem isn’t that the template is wrong—it’s that it’s a template. Real positioning isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about staking out territory in your customer’s mind that competitors can’t touch.
Why Most Positioning Feels Like Everyone Else’s
Because it literally is everyone else’s. When you follow the same framework as your competitors, you get the same generic results:
- “Enterprise-grade security”
- “Seamless integrations”
- “Intuitive user experience”
- “Scalable solution”
These aren’t positions. They’re participation trophies.
Real positioning makes a choice about what hill you’re willing to die on. It’s specific, opinionated, and sometimes makes people uncomfortable.
The Anti-Framework Framework
Instead of filling in blanks, we’re going to build positioning like a prosecutor builds a case. Every piece of evidence (those insights from your product team) needs to support one clear, compelling argument.
Step 1: Find Your Fighting Words
Look at those seven insights you gathered from your product team. What words keep coming up? Not feature words—emotion words.
When I talked to a cybersecurity startup, the product team kept using words like “paranoid,” “obsessive,” and “never trust anything.” Their positioning became: “Security for the appropriately paranoid.”
That line did three things:
- Self-selected the right customers (security-conscious CTOs)
- Repelled the wrong ones (companies looking for “good enough” security)
- Differentiated from competitors promising “easy” security
Step 2: Choose Your Enemy
Every great position defines itself against something. Not just competitors—concepts, approaches, or ways of thinking.
Netflix didn’t position against Blockbuster. They positioned against the idea that you should have to leave your house to watch movies.
Slack didn’t just compete with email tools. They declared war on email itself.
Your enemy might be:
- A broken process (“Stop managing projects in email”)
- A dangerous assumption (“Your data isn’t as safe as you think”)
- An outdated approach (“Why are you still buying software like it’s 1999?”)
- A false choice (“Speed vs. security is a myth”)
Step 3: Build Your Evidence Stack
Now take those product insights and arrange them like evidence in a trial. Each one should build toward your central argument.
Example: A data analytics platform
Position: “Analytics for people who actually make decisions”
Evidence stack:
- Insight: “Customers hate dashboards that look pretty but don’t answer questions”
- Insight: “Every other tool requires a data scientist to get useful answers”
- Insight: “People need answers in minutes, not days”
- Insight: “Real decisions happen in Slack and email, not BI tools”
Translation: “While other analytics tools focus on pretty charts, we focus on fast answers. Because the best dashboard in the world is useless if it takes three days to load and requires a PhD to understand.”
Step 4: The Brutally Honest Test
Before you get attached to your positioning, run it through these filters:
The Elevator Test: Can someone explain this to their boss in 30 seconds without using your product name?
The Competitor Test: Could any of your main competitors claim this same position with a straight face?
The Mom Test: Would your mom understand why this matters?
The Intern Test: Could a smart college intern pick your company out of a lineup based on this positioning alone?
If you fail any of these tests, your positioning is too generic or too complicated.
Real Examples That Actually Work
HubSpot: “Inbound marketing” (positioned against interruption-based marketing)
Zoom: “It just works” (positioned against complicated video conferencing)
Basecamp: “Organized simplicity” (positioned against feature-bloated project tools)
Monday.com: “Work without limits” (positioned against rigid, process-heavy tools)
Notice how none of these sound like they came from a template? They’re taking a stand, not filling in blanks.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Good Positioning
Good positioning makes some people hate you. If everyone loves your position, it’s not a position—it’s a platitude.
When Dollar Shave Club launched with “Great razors for a few bucks a month,” traditional razor companies thought they were crazy. How could you sell quality razors so cheaply?
That discomfort was proof they were onto something.
Your Position in Action
Once you have your positioning, everything else becomes easier:
- Your website hero section writes itself
- Sales objections become predictable (and answerable)
- Content topics emerge naturally
- Ad targeting becomes obvious
- Pricing strategy aligns with perception
In our next post, we’ll talk about how to take this core position and adapt it for different channels without losing its power.
Your homework: Write down your current positioning. Then rewrite it as if you’re trying to pick a fight with your biggest competitor. See which version feels more true.
Because if your positioning doesn’t make competitors a little nervous, you’re probably not positioned at all.
Marissa Homere 