Does your strategy reflect your market positioning?

Strategy 101 is about choices: You can’t be all things to all people.
Michael Porter

A small shop once opened across the street from my office. I’m sure, like most small businesses, they put a substantial amount of sweat equity and financial investment into launching their enterprise. There is a simple grand opening banner in front that declares: “Ice Cream, Bubble Tea, Fried Chicken, Phone Cases & More”. Not sure about you, but I rarely shop for phone cases when I take the family for ice cream.

While this may be an egregious example of failing to define a market position, it is not that uncommon for businesses of all types to fall into this trap. The signs and signals of poor strategy and market positioning can manifest themselves in many ways that are not this overt, but just as damaging.

Take a minute to consider these factors which can help you clarify your thinking around market positioning:

What is my company’s core competency?
Understanding what you do well and better than anyone else is critical. Answering this question can often be difficult, but it’s the only way you can define the direction that your company should grow and establish a market position that is sustainable. It will also help you to focus on the activities most likely to produce successful results over the long term.

How is my product or service different?
This may be an extension of your core competency, but it’s not the same thing. This question asks you to consider what truly makes you stand out from your competitors. Why would someone spend their hard earned dollar with you instead of the company down the street? Until this is crystal clear, you can’t answer the next question.

Is my message simple and concise?
Confusing corporate websites. Frustrating sales experiences. Sell sheets that ramble. These are all symptoms of bad market positioning. If you don’t know what you are great at and what makes your product or service distinctly different, then you can’t articulate it concisely. I once heard that Stephen Spielberg said you should be able to boil down the plot line of a movie into one sentence. For Jaws – “It’s a movie about a killer shark”. One easy way to see if your messaging is clear is to stop a salesperson in the hall or the next customer that comes through your door and ask them if they can explain what your company does in one sentence. The response may be very telling.

Don’t despair if you can’t answer these questions with complete clarity today. Momentum often carries us in directions that cause us to lose sight of the basics.

Take time to reflect on these questions and when you have the answers you’ll be well on your way to growing your business faster than you ever thought possible!