Crafting Your Positioning Message
SUMMARY
Do you get all tongue-tied when someone asks you what you do, or does it flow naturally and easily for you so that they walk away with the right idea?
Well, stick with me because this week I want to help you attract the right people into your world with your message.
People want to know why you do what you do before they want to know what you do.
People need to know you, like you, and trust you before they buy into anything you might have for them. So, the purpose of your message is for them to get to know YOU—not just what you do. And even though you will be letting them know what you do, it goes deeper than that.
So, what is your message? Firstly, what’s your higher purpose? Why are you doing what you do? Then, use the formula I will give you to craft your positioning message. That’s what sets you apart. That’s what takes you from being just another carbon copy to being authentically you and getting people’s attention.
Well, that’s it from me for another week. Join me again next week as we continue to work through these nine crucial shifts and step into another one of those areas—productivity. I’ll see you then.
TRANSCRIPT
Do you get all tongue-tied when someone asks you what you do, or does it flow naturally and easily for you so that they walk away with the right idea?
Well, stick with me because this week I want to help you attract the right people into your world with your message.
Hi, this is Grant Herbert, Leadership and Sustainable Performance Coach, and today I want to continue our conversation around the shift in your positioning—going from invisible to being in demand—by helping you craft your positioning message.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about this concept called positioning. Whether you are in an employment situation, or running your own practice, it’s all about putting yourself out there in a way that attracts the right people, whether it be in your career and/or in the marketplace if you’re building a practice. To do that, we’ve talked about the psychology behind positioning and why we might think the way we do about something that people often call sales.
Last week, we talked about putting yourself in the spotlight. For many people, as it was for me, this is the biggest challenge: first, believing that you deserve to be in the spotlight, and then taking the steps to put yourself out there. Today, I want to continue this conversation to ensure that as you move forward, you’re putting yourself under the right spotlight.
I love what I do, and I love to share that with others, but as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, one of my biggest challenges was that people didn’t really know what I did. They would say, “Grant, we know whatever you do is great, but what exactly do you do?” I was sending mixed messages. It wasn’t succinct; it was very broad, leaving people to decide whether or not my message was for them. Looking back on my corporate career, the message I conveyed didn’t position me well either. As I moved into my own practice, I made sure to align who I was and what I did with the right people who needed to hear that and who I needed to work with. So, you need to get clear on who you are, why you’re doing what you’re doing, and who you want to serve with that.
One of the exercises I have my clients do in this area is this: Imagine I gave you 15 minutes, and that’s all you had. But in those 15 minutes, you had a global audience—every single person on the planet with a smart device, computer, or television could see and hear what you had to say. If that were the case, what would you want to leave them with? What would you want to tell them?
I guarantee it wouldn’t be some technical spiel about what you do that’s transactional and aimed at getting a sale. No, you’d want them to understand who you are, what you stand for, what you’re doing in the world, and why you’re doing it. We’ve talked about serving a cause—something bigger than yourself—and that’s where I want you to start when putting together your message.
People want to know why you do what you do before they want to know what you do.
So, how do you do that?
I have a simple process that I’ve been taught over the years, which I now use and have tweaked so that it works really well in professional services. The whole idea of your message is to do two things: attract those people you want to work with and repel those who aren’t the right fit. Now, when I say “repel,” I’m not talking about some elitist attitude. It’s just that they’re not the right people for you to serve. This is how you go from a broad message that gets drowned out with everybody else’s to something very succinct. I just jumped off a call with an organisation that asked me to clearly explain what I do, and it just flowed. Out of that, they were able to say, “Yes, that fits us.”
And that’s the whole purpose of your message.
Your message also needs to be in plain language—said in a way they would say it. A lot of times, we become marketers, and it sounds really great—we use words that match and rhyme, alliteration, and other fantastic things that look good on a billboard. But when you’re just talking to someone, it gets you some strange looks, and they think, “This person isn’t real. That’s not who they are; that’s what they do. They’re trying to sell me something.”
People need to know you, like you, and trust you before they buy into anything you might have for them. So, the purpose of your message is for them to get to know YOU—not just what you do. And even though you will be letting them know what you do, it goes deeper than that.
They need to know why you’re doing it. They should feel the passion you have for what you do. From that, they’ll like the conversation and potentially like you—not in the sense of approval addiction that we’re all moving away from, but they’ll think, “Yes, I could work with this person. I like them. That was a conversation I enjoyed.” And the trust comes after that—trust comes in following up and doing what you said you were going to do and all those things we’ve talked about before.
So, to do this, let’s use a formula. I love formulas and processes that say, do this, then this, then this, and you get what you want. You don’t have to second-guess it. This formula helps you get clear on who you are and what you do. Then you can take that and use it in your world, in your marketplace, in your organisation, in your career—wherever you want to get your message out.
People want to know that you can help them. They want to know that you can take them from where they are now to where they want to go. Those 4 forces we’ve talked about—their current frustrations, their fears of what might happen if they don’t fix those frustrations, and their aspirations—are key. But first, you need to understand what they want right now. They need to see how what you say aligns with their current situation and future aspirations. As you put your message together, these elements will help them do that.
The first thing you need to do is tell them who you help.
The best way for someone to qualify whether or not they need to work with you is to let them know who you work with. Now, this might sound easy and logical, but there’s a reason why we sometimes don’t do it. Particularly when we need to get clients, we might fear leaving money on the table, so we try to help everyone. But if you help everyone, you’re not a thought leader. If you help everyone, they don’t know whether they fit because they want someone who can fix their specific problem. We talked about being relevant and solving new problems last week.
So, who do you help?
For me, I help professional services leaders, so people know that if they’re in professional services, I’m the person who could help them. That’s the first part.
The next thing you need to do is tell them what you help them do.
There are 2 things we can do here, and this is where those 4 forces come back into play. We need to use what we’ve learned about their psychology to explain how we align with being the solution. When someone interacts with you and realises you know more about their problem than they do, and then you start talking about the solution, they picture you as someone who could solve their problem. They’ll think, “You can get rid of my frustrations; you can give me what I want, alleviate my fears, and help me on the journey to where I want to go.”
So, what is it that you help them do? For me, I help them increase their influence, income, and impact without all the stress and conflict.
And that’s the next element we want to talk about: what you take away from the process.
We’re either moving towards what we want or moving away from pain, and your message needs to reflect that. So, “I help [whoever it is] to do [this] without [this].” The last element relates to their aspirations—“so that.” Whatever it is that your perfect-fit client wants or the people you want to work with, you need to understand what they want long-term. All the preliminary upfront work—“I help [whoever] to do [this] without [this]”—is not of any value unless it takes them on the journey. So, “I help [whoever it is] to do [this] without [what they don’t want to do] so that they get what they want long-term.”
That’s the message you want to get across.
Now that you’ve got all that together, here’s what I want to help you with: this isn’t what used to be called an “elevator pitch.” In fact, I think people still call it that. You’re probably never going to have a conversation with someone and say, “I help [whoever] to do [this] without [this] so that they get [that].” It’s too much information. But what it does is let you understand who you help, what you help them with, and why they want you to do that. And that’s the key to positioning yourself. It’s the key to putting yourself in the right places, speaking on the right stages, and talking about the right issues because you have clarity. You know what type of people you need to put that message in front of, and it’s going to help them stop scrolling and see you because you’re standing out. You’re speaking their language, using their language palette, as we’ve discussed.
So, what is your message? Firstly, what’s your higher purpose? Why are you doing what you do? Then, use the formula I’ve given you to craft your positioning message. That’s what sets you apart. That’s what takes you from being just another carbon copy to being authentically you and getting people’s attention.
Well, that’s it from me for another week. Join me again next week as we continue to work through these nine crucial shifts and step into another one of those areas—productivity. I’ll see you then.
