Product Positioned! Now what?

Hey there,

A few years ago, I finished up a strategy for a large global bank - but everything was tense. You can make a great strategy, but if no one buys into it, it's not working.

So we brought in a team who specialized in making sure strategies are communicated in a way that they are actually used.

Today, I'll share some tips from my experience so you can make sure your positioning strategy is adopted by the leaders, customers, and in the product.

Let's get into it:

If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe by clicking below:

Friend of the program:

Once you've developed your positioning - it's time to grow.

Joe Portsmouth writes a newsletter called Always Be Learning that will give you 1 marketing breakdown every Thursday to help grow your DTC e-commerce business (in 4 minutes or less).

Try it for free today 👇

So you know your positioning... now what?

Okay, imagine you know how you'll make your customers believe your solution is better than any others on the market (if you don't know how - check out this previous issue or reply to this email and I can direct you).

Now what? Let's go through the next steps to make your positioning a reality.

3 places where you need to make sure your positioning is adopted:

1) Leaders2) Customers3) Products

Leaders

If you have a small business with fewer than 30 employees, skip to the next section. This section is for businesses with enough employees to have office politics.

The leaders in your business need to feel inspired to drive their teams to make your positioning a reality. If a few leaders want to push against your strategy, it can be hard to make your strategy a reality.

What will help here is a socialization plan (with questions to consider):

What message will you be sending to leaders?What will you be telling them? What won't you be telling them? What can they share with their teams (and when)?

To who? In what order?Will you be sharing with leaders first and let the message cascade down? Will you be sharing with teams first and message up? All at once?

Messaging down empowers leaders, though makes employees feel less in control. Messaging up makes employees feel more ownership, though can make leaders feel as though you went behind their back if you don't do it right.

The best option is likely a blend, depending on the severity of the change.

How will you be sending the message?Workshop, emails, conference call?

The answer depends on the severity of the change - a more significant change should have a more personal communication (e.g., at an event).

Customers

Time to get customers on board too.

It's not just enough to be better than all the competitors, we need to make sure your customers and prospects know it too!

Here's what to revise:• Marketing materials to convey positioning• Pricing to ensure the price reinforce the value• Sales strategy to target the customers you're focusing on

Make sure each are in line with your new positioning so customers know how you're a better solution than anyone else for their problem.

Product Roadmap

The features you're planning to build need to be re-prioritized to reinforce your new positioning.

Two parts to focus on:• New features need to reinforce the value that your customers are looking for• Product upgrades improve the solution for your target customer's pain

Bottom Line

Make sure your leaders, customers, and products are all aligned with your new positioning strategy.

3 things to do to ensure the strategy is used:• Socialize with leaders• Message to customer• Prioritize your product roadmap to reinforce positioning

Great!

That should be enough to get your started on your next steps to bring your positioning to life.

Reply to this email if you have any further questions or challenges.

I read every email and will answer your questions in future content.

Hope it's been helpful!

If you enjoyed it, please forward this email to friends looking to grow their business.

See ya next week,

Brian