Go-To-Market Positioning Sprint

Let’s talk positioning.

A lot of people say you shouldn’t compare yourself to the competition.

That’s nice thing to write on the internet, but it’s totally disconnected from the reality of anyone working in a sales, marketing, product, comms or leadership role. So, pretty much everyone.

In reality, we need to know everything about our competitive set. What’s working and what’s not? Their strengths, our weaknesses and opportunities to exploit. It all goes into how we position, who we target, how we build a sales pitch, an ad, in all of our content and even when we’re onboarding or upselling our existing customers.

Yet, more often that not, I talk to teams that haven’t done even the most basic positioning exercises. And it shows.

So, let’s fix that.

I use this progressive list of questions to guide positioning in some way or another in pretty much every client engagement. It’s a short sprint that’s useful across the org, especially for non-marketing teams like Sales and Product. Work however you want. Some like to work in this same doc. I like to use a workbook template I’br built over the years. I find it faster for filtering and focus when sharing to multiple teams.

The full guide is below, but feel free to grab this doc and my workbook template as well.

Ways To Use

Go To Market + Product Marketing: marketing, sales and product teams can use these to build the key inputs for all things marketing and sales content and assets.

ABM/Lifecycle Marketing: sales, marketing and CX/CS teams use these as inputs to building out the targeting, messaging and offers for your target audiences, both prospects and existing customers.

Onboarding/New Customer Welcome: sales, marketing and CX/CS teams can take advantage of the early relationship attention to re-educate and reinforce the buy decision using the key positioning points from these sheets.

Audit/Optimization: need a fresh look at how you’re positioned in the market, how it’s changed and how you’ve changed? Go back through this exercise to update the inputs that will refresh the rest of your assets.

Positioning Inputs

Core Problem: What problem(s)/challenge(s) are you solving?
1. Shoot for at least three tangible problems. These could be:
  - Problems your specific product/solution addresses
  - Industry-wide problems
  - Customer-experienced problems

Competitive Landscape: Who is the competitive set?
1. List 3-4 companies that provide a reasonably similar solution to these problems.
  - Document with main site links and 1-2 top search results examples of each for later reference.
2. List 2-3 strengths and 2-3 weaknesses for each of these companies.
  - Product-specific strengths/weaknesses?
  - Company-level capabilities?
  - Pricing and market positioning insights?
Your Thing: What are your solutions?
- What is your product/service?
- What is your origin story or motivation for building this?
- Describe how your thing solves the 3-4 key problems
- How does it address these?
- What outcomes does it provide?
Your Strengths/Unique Value Proposition(s)
1. Side by side to the competitive set, what are your unique strengths and potential weaknesses against them?
2. Summarize and rank by value. These are your unique value propositions.
Target Audience: Who cares about this? Who will use this and what value do they get?
1. Think of at least 3-4 target buyer types. Don’t start with demographics. Start with business vertical, example company, company role, key issues/challenges, decision criteria.
General Positioning
1. List your target buyers. Map their challenges/needs to how your product specifically solves it for them. Describe the value they’ll get from your product for each of these versions.
Revenue Model: what way(s) do you plan to make money? How much will is cost?
Go To Market Base: what channels and tactics can you use to reach your customers?
1. Customize the list to each of the buyer types from above.
2. Add 1-2 example tactics in each channel.
Unfair Advantage: do you have one to leverage?
1. Examples to consider…
2. First mover?
3. Technical advantages?
4. Team/founder-specific advantages?
5. Market access or network advantages?
6. Unique insights or methodologies?

Target Audience/ICP Build

Refining How You Define Your Thing
1. What is your product/service?
2. What is your origin story or motivation for building this?
3. What problems does it address?
4. How does it address these?
5. What outcomes does it provide?
Defining Your Audience
1. Who has the same problem that your thing solves?
  1. Be specific and think of the different types of people. IT, Finance, OPS, Procurement, Founder, VP, Director, Marketing, etc. Each has a different set of needs and problems that relate to your product.
2. What kinds of companies do these people work for? Use reference brands.

Tactical Positioning Build

Define your specific solution.
1. Build a matrix that maps the specific buyer type to their issues and the solutions your thing provides. Be specific as it relates to their POV.
2. What outcomes can each of these buyer types expect from your thing? Be specific across a few dimensions and how it relates to their business. Think $/Commercial, Operational, Technical, etc.
Define your tailored offers.
1. Think beyond cost here. Tell the richer story. Build a specific offer linking each of your problems, solutions and expected outcomes for your product/service.

Have at it. I hope this helps.

And if you have any questions or want to work together…

Get In Touch: Sean Wilkins

My TL;DR for New Dads

When I was prepping to be a dad, pretty much every book and article I read or piece of advice was terrible. They set such a low bar for guys.

It was stuff like “Oh, you’re gonna be a dad soon? Well, you should really step it up and help around the house more. Stat by washing the dishes one night a week.”

Mind Blown!

And when I talked to older guys I worked with at the time they all said stuff like “you really can’t do anything to help out those first few months. It’s all about the mom.” Or, “newborns just kinda boring. Kids don’ get fun until they’re five or older.” 🤦

None of this made sense to me. It set such a low bar, and I know I wasn’t the only one out here looking for something better.

So, I started making notes and building something I could share with expectant dads, new dads, or dads just looking some more non-Boomer-ish advice. I call it my TL;DR For New Dads.

You have one job.
- Be the best version of yourself for your partner and your baby. This starts the moment you find out your partner is expecting.
- What do you need to work on, physically, mentally and emotionally over the next 9 months to be your best for your new family?
Take time off.
- As much as you can, and then some more. You will never get this time back. First impressions make a difference. Make sure you’re around to build a connection and help your partner. None of you will remember that “important” meeting, project or trip. They will remember you being there for them, or not.
- If you have paid leave, even partial, you have no reasonable excuse. Make it happen. Block the time, do the paperwork, start setting expectations with your company, coworkers, partners and clients.
- If you don’t get paid leave start saving and still plan to take time. It’s time you won’t get back, and it’s incredibly important to be there for your partner and baby.
You CAN help. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
- Pregnancy, birth, recovery, breast feeding, just being a new parent, is a massive physical and emotional burden. Put your partner and your baby first. Do something for them whenever, wherever and however you can.
- It starts the day you know you’re expecting. Your partner’s going through massive changes and will need help every step of the way. Look at what you can take off their plate on a daily basis. If you’re not helping around the house, it’s time to step up and be a man. Take on more cooking, cleaning, laundry.
You are NOT your parents.
- Let’s say it out loud, “You are NOT your parents.” And say it again.
- Everyday is an opportunity to be an amazing parent. If you have hang ups about your parents and your childhood, acknowledge them, define how you want to be different and move forward with those things in mind.
Don’t go bonkers on the gear.
- Babies grow fast, make big messes, and things get lost when you’re out in the world. And new parents overcompensate with too much gear.
- Go simple, or even second hand, when you can. Those expensive clothes? They’re going in the trash in 3 months. Go for simple uniforms and buy 5-10 of each. That $300 high chair? It’s no better than the $24 Ikea model and you can power wash the Ikea one.
Deep Breaths + Patience
- You’re going to get frustrated, even angry at times. Lashing out or shutting down does nobody any good.
- When you feel overwhelmed, angry or frustrated, don’t react. Take a deep breath, count to 5. Practice not reacting in the moment, it will serve you well every day of your life moving forward.
- You’re going to be pushed to your limits. Accept that. Recognize when you’re getting close and interrupt that. Count backwards from 10. Take deep breaths. Walk out of the room. Yelling and getting frustrated won’t work. You’ll only make your kid ore upset, and you’ll feel like an asshole after the fact.
Spend Time, Be Present
- Put the phone down. Cuddle. Ask questions. Listen.
- But, do take turns documenting with your partner. You will look back at those videos and photos regularly as you kid grows and they’ll bring you tremendous joy.
Tell them you love them. Every day, every chance you get.
Realize That You’re Actually Becoming A Better Person.
- One of the success markers, that most overlook or take for granted, is to recognize your own shortcomings and doing your best to not pass those along to your kid.
- Without a doubt, becoming a parent has made me a better person.
Document Regularly So You Don’t Forget
- Start a journal, or a new Note file, or an email string. Start writing little letters to your kid as they grow. Start documenting and marking the little wins, lessons, firsts, etc. See my posts on Core Memories for some examples.
- Buy that domain so they have their digital real estate.
- Get them an email address so you can start sending them these notes and keep that record.

There’s a ton more, but these are the most fleshed out right now. Maybe someday I’ll get around to actually writing that Dad Book of my own too.

Imposter Syndrome?

Yeah, imposter syndrome. We all know it. We all fear it. And most of us have been through it once or twice in our lives. And if you haven’t, well done you!

Since choosing to go solo and step off the corporate full-time job career path, I’ve felt that little bit of self-doubt and imposter syndrome creep up once in a while. I start to question my expertise, my capabilities, the value I can bring to clients, my own worth.

So much of our lives are focused on external validation, especially when it comes to our careers and work. We chase that next promotion, a higher title, a raise or some blue chip logo to add to our resume so we can prove “value” in some way to the rest of the world. But, since stepping out of that world, I’ve totally reshaped how I value myself, what I do and what I bring to the table.

And when that little doubty voice starts to creep in, I don’t hide from it or wallow in it, I take it as a wakeup call. A chance to reflect on my strengths, my experience and my capabilities, reconnect with my people, re-center on my vision and take things one step forward at a time.

Over the years I’ve used a four consistent exercises to battle Imposter Syndrome when it creeps up. I take some time to good deep and reflect on my career, my personal life, the people in my life and what I want to accomplish.

The four exercises are:

The exercises take me to a more positive headspace, rebuild confidence and get me centered on what to do next. They get me doing something positive and moving forward.

And as a fun exercise, I built these into The Imposter Syndrome Sprint. You can sign-up for the 5 day drip email course, or dive in headfirst with the full sprint guide here.

If you do give these a try, please let me know what you think. It’s my first time building out a short course like this and I want to keep riffing on it to make it better. Send me an email with your notes at seanrrwilkins@gmail.com.