A crystal clear position statement can help you differentiate yourself from your competitors, particularly because so few of them have effective position statements or position statements at all.
Firms list many market sectors on their websites. It’s not unusual to see 10-plus market sectors.
The message to a potential client is that you do everything. Is it, though, at the risk of losing them?
Range and breadth show your expertise, but, what are you great at?
And more importantly, how can what you are great at, help those you want to be your next client?
A position statement is an internal document.
Its real value lies in the process, of making it.
Positioning determines strategy. You use it to align your team. To hone your areas of focus and your near-future marketing strategy.
It requires careful language to convey that you are not a generalist.
First Steps
Focus on what you have built already.
Begin with the question, how would your clients describe you?
Capture what your firm does. Sum up your very essence at this moment.
Don’t burden yourself with the permanence of what you write. Your market position is malleable and evolving. And so your mission statement is a living document.
It will change, with you.
Articulate your market sectors
Be as clear and honest as possible about what market sectors you are truly in.
Write them down.
Look at them. Honestly. ..and edit if needed.
Then articulate your strongest market sector, at this moment.
Who are your peers in this sector?
What is unique in what you bring to the marketplace?
Then, ask yourself, honestly, “so what?”
Edit as needed. Then ask again… “so what?”
and again, until you get to the core meaning of what is unique in you and your firm.
You have a gifted and brilliant team who draw from their experience to provide your perfect clients with exactly what they need when they need it.
Focusing so much complexity into brief text that captures all you believe in and stand for, all you are, and all you want to be requires intense thought.
It requires putting it all out there in writing.
Then, repeatedly edit until you have distilled your thoughts to core meaning.
Meaning that aligns you and your team.
Meaning that inspires and drives your decision-making. That affects the work you pursue.
It helps you understand if you are expanding, or are you fortifying your current position.
Most importantly, it helps those you want to work with understand why they want to work with you.
Review the past five years of your work.
What projects are you most proud of, and why?
What holds the most meaning as you reflect on your recent work?
What was profitable?
What brought joy?
Now consider your answers alongside your thoughts on who you are as a firm and who you say you are in your marketing effort.
Do they align?
If so, great! You’ve got this!
Your best focus is on optimizing.
Optimize for clarity.
Optimize to help your perfect client, find you.
And when they find you, optimize your approach to programming and your work plan to show them how right they were in finding you.
If your answers and statements are confused, then use these steps to write your mission statement. And use it to empower you.
