- *** ## title: Book: The Positioning Manual for Technical Firms v1 8 - The Positioning Manual for Technical Firms v1.8 - Created: Jan 28, 2017 12:54 AM - Tags: Book, Klib - Updated: Jan 28, 2017 12:54 AM - [Philip Morgan](https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8\&camp=536\&creative=3132\&field-keywords=The%20Positioning%20Manual%20for%20Technical%20Firms%20v1.8\&linkCode=ur2\&tag=llll1-23\&url=search-alias%3Dbooks) - 41 highlights - Without a well-designed product that meets a real need or desire in the market, you don't have a product business--you have a mess. - you have no "unfair advantage" over that competition, and you depend fundamentally on luck or an extraordinarily helpful professional network to bring you in contact with clients who are a great fit for you. - your business development becomes like "selling water to a thirsty person in a desert" rather than "selling ice to an Eskimo". - "expensive problems" may be ones where solving the problem produces an impressive return on investment (ROI), or a significant cost savings. - partners are entitled to an equitable share of the results of the partnership. Partners get to speak up for themselves when they don't like the terms of the agreement, while vendors have to "go along to get along" or risk being replaced. - If the options for replacing you are very limited, you naturally have much more power in the relationship. - In conclusion, remember that finding a narrow market position is the most efficient way to deal with the common issues that lead to a “feast/famine” cycle in your business. - Positioning was very simply and elegantly defined by Al Reis and Jack Trout as “owning a word in the mind”. - It increases the business value of the services you deliver. It meaningfully differentiates you from the alternatives to hiring you. - some businesses benefit from a lot of specificity in their focus and others do not need as much specificity to maximize the business value they deliver to clients. - To develop this expertise as rapidly as possible, they would need to narrow their focus to one or a very few types of clients and a smaller problem domain so they’re not constantly multitasking between different types of clients and problems. - their clients have a very meaningful reason to choose them over lower-priced competition. Why? Because by specializing in a type of client or type of problem, it’s more likely that they have more experience and skill and almost certain that they will build up that experience and skill quickly - what business value would this firm add by becoming more specific in this way? - real business value. - you need to know your clients quite well and select the best positioning strategy. - If don't know which people at prospective clients you should get to know better, you don't know your target market well enough. - If, after finding people who will talk to you you don't know what questions to ask, then you don't know the problem domain well enough. None - You will iterate your market position over time. Your business will change by acquiring new capabilities, growing into new areas of interest, and by outgrowing old specialties. That is 100% normal, and in fact is desirable--it keeps things interesting. - Your clients and the markets they operate in will change. The fortunes of their companies will rise and fall, new technologies will dramatically change the competitive landscape, and your buyers will come and go to various positions at various companies. This is 100% normal and also can be an advantage that broadens your network as your buyers introduce you to their new employers. - In fact, it must change if you are to keep growing, remain competitive, and develop your career. Expect to revisit your positioning every 12 to 18 months, and make significant changes to it every 18 to 36 months. - Developing your positioning can happen very quickly, but organizing your marketing around your new positioning and getting that new marketing in front of buyers all take some time, generally 3 to 12 months. - A "target market" that large is not homogenous enough, not reachable enough, and has no core shared set of experiences that both galvanizes them as a group and allows you to market to them effectively by speaking their language or becoming an insider. - Leadership comes with many, many benefits, some of which I will explain later in this manual. For now, trust me when I say you want to be a leader in your area of focus. - The more similar the circumstances two people are facing, the more effective a referral between them will be. - The best explanation of this I have ever seen comes from Crossing the Chasm, by Geoffrey Moore. The excerpts below explain how word of mouth operates and why. Although Moore's book is focused on getting a technology product from early market to mainstream adoption, the sections on choosing a beachhead market to accelerate velocity across "the chasm" between early adopters and mainstream users is 100% applicable to a professional services business looking to lower the cost of sales, boost profits, and increase selectivity. - One of the primary assets that will help you achieve a leadership position is word of mouth. - Winning over one or two customers in each of five or ten different segments--the consequence of taking a sales-driven approach--will create no word-of-mouth effect. - Your customers may try to start a conversation about you, but there will be no one there to reinforce it. By contrast, winning four or five customers in one segment will create the desired effect. - Professional services buyers are often unwilling to take a risk on an outsider or an unproven firm. - The "nobody got fired for hiring IBM" effect is still very much in effect today. - But, in truth, mainstream customers like to be “owned”— it simplifies their buying decisions, improves the quality and lowers the cost of whole product ownership, - and provides security that the vendor is here to stay. They demand attention, but they are on your side. As a result, an owned market can take on some of the characteristics of an annuity--a building block in good times, and a place of refuge in bad--with far more predictable revenues and far lower cost of sales than can otherwise be achieved. - Moore, Geoffrey A. (2014-01-28). Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition (Collins Business Essentials) (p. 85). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. - “funded startups that need a Rails back end for their new app”. - Conservative buyers want a "known quantity", or a "sure thing". No one can better claim those attributes than the market leader. The old saying "No one got fired for hiring IBM" refers to the implicit trust IBM had as a direct result of their market leadership - Market leaders get quite a bit of free publicity. Their dominant position makes them the "go-to" for conferences seeking speakers, reporters seeking expert quotes, interns seeking internships, and so on. - ”We build marketing systems that help independent authors build their own audience." ”We help professional eBay sellers make more money." Notice that independent authors and professional eBay sellers are audiences where the members would think of themselves primarily as members of that audience. That's one tricky difference between an audience and a market segment: companies are usually only a member of one market segment, but they are usually members of multiple audiences. - How they talk about themselves personally and their business will hold the keys to how you reach other prospects like them. - look to industry insiders to show you the way. - Market segments almost always have corresponding professional associations or industry events. The type of people who organize professional associations, conferences, and other business gatherings are natural connectors, and they rarely miss a viable opportunity to create an event that brings together people who have something in common. In fact, the best "hack" for mapping out the segments within a market is to do some Googling to discover all the events related to a market segment. If there's a current, thriving event that corresponds to a market segment you're thinking about focusing on, there's a good chance that that market segment is big enough to support at least a few professional services firms focused on serving it. - The strategy canvas gets to the essence of what a desirable market position is all about: aligning with the stuff your clients care about and ruthlessly eliminating the other stuff. This creates differentiation and a strong, relevant value proposition that clients vigorously respond to.