Entries

In theory, The ability to recognize the perspective of a counterpart and the vocalization of that recognition. In practice, paying attention to another human being, asking what they are feeling, and making a commitment to understanding their world

A quick note: the actual definition(s) of positioning are about 3/4 of the way down this rather long article (1200 words). Feel free to skip ahead! I first wanted to set up the definitions with some thoughts and examples of why to define important concepts.

Another note, because I often forget this—you don’t necessarily write because you have ideas. You write to get ideas.

This is true for writing a definition.

I obsess over definitions because they are how you describe ideas. The word is just the vehicle the idea rides in.

I’d wager that 99% of you use the idea of “active listening” in your work, maybe on a day-to-day basis. It’s an essential tool for two-way sync’ing complex information, requirements, ideas.

But do you have a definition of active listening in your head without your having written it down in your own words? Probably not. Probably you’re borrowing someone else’s definition of the idea of the word and, more importantly, the idea.

*    *    *

Sidebar on defining terms in politics. Last week, political YouTubers debated whether a famous young politician was “corrupt.”

The first said, Look at what she did; she is corrupt.

The second said, No, that’s absurd. She’s never taken any money. Where’s your evidence? 

To which the first replied: Corruption doesn’t necessarily mean taking money. I looked it up and the dictionary defines ‘corrupt’ as comprising behavior in exchange for money or personal gain. That’s the point—she’s corrupted by personal gain.

The first then elaborated on the definition of corrupt, adding his own layer of definition. Of course, in doing so, he was reading from a script he’d written.

In other words, he articulated a unique definition to layer on top of “the dictionary” definition of a word. Why? Because corruption is an important concept in the work of a political analyst.

And through this definition writing process, he understood better what the idea meant, as did his audience.

I don’t know if this approach will get you a million YouTube subscribers, but I still think is a good model to follow.

BTW, he was challenged by his counterpart—who challenges you to define your terms, ie, your ideas?

*    *    *

Let’s say you work for a CRM implementation and consulting agency, and your boss asks you to define “Marketing CRM” for an upcoming presentation. In a lazy state of mind, you go:

“Uhh.. a CRM software product for marketing”.

Or you do what we all learned in school, stuff your thinking with filler and fluff to make it seem more valid by virtue of word count:

“A CRM product that is designed to facilitate integrated, targeted marketing strategy and services.

Unfortunately, however, that sounds like 1000 other lame definitions of Marketing CRM. But there’s a solution to that problem.

First, take some time to sit down and write as much as you can on the subject, so that you come up with good questions, such as:

• Who is this definition for? What type of clients? What type of partners or other members of our ‘audience’?
• What definition do they currently work with, and what’s wrong with it?
• How do our competitors define this term? What’s right or
• \wrong with their definition?

Answers to the questions will form the ideas that flesh out your definition. Now cut out the filler and fluff. Editing is thinking. You may now end up with some sharp, useful thinking that inspires people to engage with you.

BTW, who is your boss and what does she want? We all have one, in one form or another.

*    *    *

So anyway.

Now that we’ve talked about the value of defining key concepts, let’s define the one that probably matters the most to most of you: positioning.

Maybe your business, product, or organization is already well-positioned. But is positioning just a “status”? Or is it a status, a mindset, and a series of ongoing projects and processes?

Are your clients better positioned after they engage with your products and services? Can you tell them why they will be, or how to be?

B Lab, the organization that certifies and curates the B Corp community has always had good positioning, in all three senses of the word that I define at the end of this essay. (That’s why I got my prior firm “B Corps certified” 12 years ago.) But do its “Certified B Corps” members have great positioning? Or at least leverage their B Corps status in a way that improves their positioning? 

To the extent they don’t, I think a widespread misunderstanding of what the term means is partially to blame.

I’ve read most books about positioning, including the original by Al Ries. I’ve listened to podcasts on the subject and read articles. I feel that there’s often something missing, though.

Firstly, what is “the” dictionary definition of positioning? Your definition shouldn’t contradict (or ignore) those of the language authorities. Instead, it should layer a shade of meaning on top of the shades of meaning they already provide.

So let’s look at the premier English-language dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

Like other traditional dictionaries, the OED offers a good general definition of positioning (“putting a person or thing in a certain position”).

But its definition in the context of marketing is dated:

The identification of a product, service, or business as belonging to a particular market sector

This definition is a little incomplete, even when it comes to consumer goods.

And it’s way off in the world of B2B or complex and high-value B2C/B2P marketing.

In the latter world, the term positioning has three definitions because it is used in three separate ways; the first way is the de facto definition of positioning:

1. Perception. How a particular audience perceives your brand as opposed to alternatives. Perception includes how the audience thinks about it, feels about it, talks about it, and even engages with it financially or otherwise. This is the actual positioning of your brand vs. the desired positioning.
2. Strategy. The strategic activity of deciding on the desired audience(s) and positioning of your brand. This is an iterative and nonlinear process since desirable positioning frequently changes in response to market changes, including audience changes.
   Note that there’s no such thing as a single “positioning decision”; there’s only a positioning mindset and process. It is a semi-objective decision-making process to the extent that it hinges on basic market economics, as opposed to say, personal taste. That said, there’s some gut instinct at play in positioning strategy as well. But it’s circular, not linear.

3. Creative Expression. Orchestrating the transition from actual to desired positioning with creative work—ideas, words, images, sounds, or experience. This is related to, if not identical to, Messaging, Content Marketing in Thought Leadership format, and Design Thinking.

The first definition is, again, the real thing—the most important and central definition.

The second definition is what creative services consultants and agencies sell, mostly. The third definition is what they should sell. Or at least it’s how they should frame what they sell.

Have a great weekend, define what matters (:
–Rowan

 

Go-to-market aka GTM.

Is this jargon or lingo? 

The entire text of a recent Seth Godin newsletter is as follows:

Jargon is intentionally offputting, and lingo reminds us how connected we are.

They might look similar, but the intent is what matters. Jargon is a place to hide, a chance to show off, a way to disconnect. Lingo, on the other hand, allows us to feel included.

This is 100% correct. “Ace in the hole” is lingo because non-poker players are welcome to use it and often do.

But “Go to market” is jargon. “Go to market strategy“ is even worse – it’s both jargon and a false concept.

*    *    *

To understand human behavior, it’s tempting to look to our “simpler” past for a simple explanation. I tried to explain the theory of thinking outside the box by looking back to our ancestors 1.5 million years ago when the first technology consultants and tech companies roamed the earth.

What did going to market look like then?

• Trading one form of nutrition and calories for another, perhaps, with new or at least distant people
• Or trading information with such people

Now money, mass communication, and mass anonymity make this kind of behavior more complex.

Even in a simple case – imagine bringing your food product, such as honey or artichokes, to the local outdoor Saturday Market. There’s some branding work involved (maybe even personal branding), some practice required in articulating a value proposition, and (if you want an advantage) some positioning work too.

Usually, I am satisfied to explain any human behavior by looking at our Paleolithic (or older) past and seeing it there, staring us back as obvious and common sense. Of course, something valuable usually has an element of surprise for millions of years of human history. Of course, creativity and productivity have been at odds for millions of years. Etc.

But nowadays, going to market for a sophisticated B2B/B2P product, such as ML software or consulting services, requires more time-compressed thought, orchestration, and skill than we’re anthropologically used to.

In fact, time sensitivity is an important part of the definition of GTM:

Time-sensitive positioning, branding, targeting, and publicity activities bring a new brand, product, or service to market. GTM is usually oriented around a launch date and consists of two primary phases of pursuing visibility: before-launch and post-launch.

Because it’s an inherently challenging form of marketing, GTM (a) focuses on the ideal, early adopter segment of its total addressable market and (b) relies on advertising and other forms of paid media that may eventually be discarded in favor of earned media and word-of-mouth marketing.

That definition helps understand what GTM but what if you are leading or consulting on a GTM initiative.

Also, GTM:

1. is based on strategy but depends more on tactics 
2. requires a special kind of multi-campaign project management
3. makes relationship-building extremely important
4. requires coordination of product development and marketing
5. forces you to trust your gut

In other words, neither strategy nor planning is enough (though they’re prerequisites).

*    *    *

When someone says, “we need a go-to-market strategy,” reframe that immediately. It’s a Go-to-Market leader that is needed.

Leading a GTM initiative is a matter of rapid humility and empathy. Can you help 2,3, dozens or even 100s people on your side be better at what they do? It’s also the ability to cut problematic people out immediately, trust new people immediately, and apologize over and over for having to “change the date.”

Not every strategy consultant is cut out for leading GTM, especially if you prefer solo engagements over team activities. Nor will every project manager thrive here, no matter how well you understand complex B2B technologies and the markets for them. Instead of relying on strategy or plans, you rely most on people and intuition.

You love and find calm in the chaos.

The secondary question is, “what’s the go-to-market strategy?”. The most important question is, “who’s leading the charge?”.

Hmm.. maybe there’s a stone-age analogy here after all?

Have a great weekend (:
Rowan

The positioning, branding, targeting, and publicity strategy that brings a new brand, product, or service to market. GTM is usually oriented around a launch date and consists of two primary phases: before-launch and post-launch. Because it’s an inherently challenging form of marketing, GTM usually (a) focuses on the ideal, early adopter segment of its total addressable market and 

Young doctors from Western Europe assemble on a warm July evening in a southerly wine region. They’ve traveled half the country to see one another again. They’re pleased, eager to catch up, and receptive to whatever news one another might bring.

One is an anesthesiology resident with a polymath’s temperament. He remarks, “I’d like to try freelancing. Not become a freelancer, but just try it on the weekends or something. To see what it’s like”.

To which his fellow new anesthesiologist responds, “but doesn’t it seem pointless? In medicine there is purpose. But what meaning is there in freelancing?”

The second man may once have considered some form of freelancing, after employment as a medical advisor in the industry that has created more freelancers than any other: software.

The garden is mostly manicured green lawns and sits between a family home and a vineyard. Later the doctors will camp there but meanwhile, there is ample time to contemplate the meaning of life.

The others generally agreed that the insurmountable problem with freelancing is that it would feel meaningless, citing examples of dissatisfaction from among friends and acquaintances. One second-hand friend in PR felt stuck in the mud; her life lacked meaning.

I get this – freelancing without making the transition to indie consulting is a hellish livelihood.

*    *    *

As you can see from the conversation, the term freelancing has become shorthand for a very particular set of creative and technical B2B services delivered remotely via a laptop. These are mostly:

• design, of many sorts 
• copywriting
• content writing/editing
• software coding
• marketing/PR

You and I know that the list goes on to include specialized PM work, platform specialization, DevOps, data management, and many more. But for the general public, freelancing is more like what “the freelancer” character from a TV show does.

I’m assuming, for example, the young physician meant that he wanted to try doing what the proverbial freelancer does, such as design, rather than freelancing as a doctor.

But freelancing actually means providing any relatively high-value services, specific outcomes, or other deliverables in response to requests from clients. Sometimes, done right, this ends up being a viable livelihood. And sometimes, done right, it confers location-independence.

But these young docs have a valid question. What’s the point of merely responding to other people’s efforts to make more money?

*    *    *

Here’s the thing: it is ultimately pointless to do anything but farm, build housing, and otherwise secure one’s physical health and safety..

… if you are stuck at the lowest rungs of human experience.

In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we first need food, water, shelter, warmth, rest, security, and safety. If we don’t get them, everything else is pointless.

From that perspective, Maslow’s higher rungs of self-fulfillment are a fool’s errand. 

But what if most of the Western world already has the basics needs and craves more – craves feelings of accomplishment, achieving one’s potential, creative expression? And craves not passion, but finding a way to consistently enter a flow state through work?

Then they usually create some kind of business that helps get them down that path. (Alternative: find a patron – government, church, or university). People who start independent businesses, from dry cleaners to machine learning startups, are creative problem solvers because that gives them meaning in the Maslow-ian sense.

Part of the business development job of an indie consultant is finding people who crave that higher level of self-fulfillment through their business ventures. If your expertise is relevant and you can accurately diagnose their problems, ghen you can climb Maslow’s pyramid with them as a guide. 

Freelancing is only relevant (and it is very relevant) because it lets you hone the skills you must have to become that guide.

My best,
Rowan

My older articles tend to make me cringe or even disagree with myself. But some still have useful ideas.

One is How to Do a Brainstorming Meeting. When I read over it today, I nodded yes to the TLDR:

• encourage or require agenda-driven, independent research in advance
• most attendees present ideas from research/information-gathering
• encourage precise thinking by enforcing brevity, such that no one speaks longer than, say, one minute 
• present meeting agenda items, including next-steps, as questions
• the title of the meeting itself is a question
• Use a meeting agenda template that hard codes these principles; mine’s here 

While I still agree with this question-driven framework for brainstorming meetings, it needs to be updated.

For one thing, the whole premise of a special “brainstorming” category for meetings might be flawed. Maybe all meetings should be for generating ideas? With some people you meet, there are always new ideas born. 

But I also have two concrete improvements to how to hold a brainstorming meeting.

First: I wouldn’t use a doc for the agenda. Instead, I’d use some kind of templated approach, be it from a group workboard such as Mural or from a PM tool such as Clickup or Asana.

Second: define your terms.

Ideation Through Writing Definitions

Defining the most important words to your area of inquiry will (a) align your meeting attendees and (b) provoke new ideas.

Case Study: Brainstorming Meeting on Sales Training for an Outsourced Sales Company

Let’s say you want to train your salespeople to sell value instead of features and benefits. In B2B sales this is called value selling, typically.

And let’s say you name the brainstorming meeting, per the question-driven framework, as this core question: “How Do We Train Sales People in Value Selling”?

Well, you and I both know the very first reaction: what do you mean by value selling? Can you define that?

You can. And I would actually start there as a group at the onset of the meeting. Of course, you might want to come prepared with a pre-thought out definition, such as:

definition of Value Selling

Having a conversation about the features and benefits of a B2B solution in terms of its objective and subjective value propositions

Which might lead you to ask, what is it not? Well, value selling is not pitching. What is pitching?

definition of Pitching

Selling by trying to impress with features, benefits, data, and discounts – rather than by selling value

Which might lead you to question what B2B Sales in general is? How is it different than other kinds of sales? What are its most salient aspect?

definition of B2B Sales

A type of human, conversational sales where multiple buyers collaborate to make purchase decisions based on their desire to acquire value

Which might be all the defining this meeting needs to find solutions. Because just by putting these three definitions next to one another, each starts to make a little more sense.

Who knows what the core question’s answer will be – probably learning to think about, focus on, and listen for painful problems. Because there solutions generate value. Or you might find an entirely different way to frame and word that solution.

The point is this, though: defining the terms you use in your brainstorming meeting doesn’t just get everyone on the same page, it makes you think.

Have a great week ahead,
Rowan

 

 

The creation of new solutions to important problems

Last week, I talked about your “business lexicon” as a diamond-in-the-rough asset you can polish – by transforming it into a micro-dictionary of original points of view.

This process happens naturally if haphazardly for anyone who publishes significant amounts of content. At some point, you must define your terms.

But what happens when you and your client, or you and your partner, collaborator, etc., hold differing definitions of the same term? Could it lead to your advice being ignored? Could it stall a project or weaken it with cross-purposes?

How do you resolve that conflict? 

You reimagine it for what it is: a non-conflict.

*    *    * 

I have found many definitions in the OED that are longer than 4,000 words; these have dozens of “senses,” the lexicographical terms for “meanings.”

When your definition of, say, “Big Idea” (eg. “what should the Big Idea behind this product launch be?”) differs from someone you are collaborating with on a venture, there’s not necessarily a conflict. There’s not a wrong definition (though there may be a less helpful one.) 

Instead, you are simply working with two different senses of the same word – in addition to the ones that the normal dictionary already provides for us. 

Controlling personalities love to, “get everyone on the same page.” That’s fine, as long as that page gets to have on it lots of competing/complimentary definitions – and ideas.

In A Technique for Getting Ideas, James Wood Young said:

We tend to forget that words are, themselves, ideas. They might be called ideas in a state of suspended animation. When the words are mastered the ideas tend to come alive again….Thus, words being symbols of ideas, we can collect ideas by collecting words.

For our purposes here, words (or terms) are bundles of multiple ideas. Including your own ideas and those of your fellow business wayfarers.

*    *    * 

David Ogilvy owned the term, “Big Idea.” Still does.

How did he do it? He published a definition.

And he did so better than anyone had or has since. You can read the original definition in its entirety in Ogilvy On Advertising, but here’s a brief excerpt:

Big ideas have talk value

Big ideas stretch brands

Big ideas transcend cultural and geographic boundaries

He also connected “Big Idea” with another marketing word he owned: “boring“. He remarked:

One of the greatest sins of marketing (and of many other domains, too) is to be boring. It is rude and disrespectful

and offered specific advice on how to be non-boring:

If you want to be interesting,
be interested.

Here’s the upshot: when Ogilvy met a differing definition of Big Idea (or marketing or advertising, etc), do you think he was boring – or interested?

One of the core capacities of a consultant is to be interested, especially when you run into an original and surprising definition of a term that is important to your business. Even if it differs from yours. 

Have a great weekend (:

Rowan

An anti-testimonial is truthful, balanced and critical. It begins with a doubt or objection that is then resolved. It may also include a wish for feature X or Y, or some minor unresolved complaint, as you’d expect when soliciting product feedback. Finally, anti-testimonials tend not to be published on the product/service website.

Anti-testimonials only work for valuable products and services; that being the case, they work much better than normal testimonials (100% flowery praise).

A cohort of professionals, with and without sales roles, with a unified understanding of positioning, value offer, and unified messaging