There’s a question I ask talented creatives a lot, and it almost always leaves them blank for a few seconds: “in one sentence, what are you the best option for, and for whom?”. Not “what can you do,” which they answer right away with a very long list. What people would choose you for over anyone else. And there, silence.
That silence is the problem, and it isn’t a communication problem, it’s a positioning one. When you can’t answer that question, your client can’t either, so they lump you in with everyone else and decide by the only thing left to compare: price. Most creative people don’t compete on price because they charge little, they compete on price because they occupy no clear spot.
I’ll give it to you in one line and then take it apart: positioning is the spot you occupy in someone’s mind, and you don’t win it by adding up the things you can do, you win it by giving up almost all of them.
In short (TL;DR)
- Positioning is the specific spot you occupy in people’s minds, the slot they choose you for over someone else.
- You don’t win it by adding (everything you can do), you win it by giving up: choosing who you’re for and who you’re not.
- The generalist who does a bit of everything for everyone is invisible, which is why they compete on price with anyone.
- Specializing doesn’t make you smaller, it makes you selectable: you become the obvious choice for a specific group.
- The offer is what makes positioning tangible: one clear thing that gets bought, not a menu of everything possible.
- You define it by choosing who you’re for, what problem you own, what you leave out, and one offer that expresses it.
What positioning is (and isn’t)
Positioning isn’t your logo, your aesthetic, or your way of communicating. It’s the spot you occupy in someone’s mind when they think about solving a specific problem. It’s what makes your name the first to appear when that need arises, instead of one more on a list.
Don’t confuse it with brand. The brand is everything you are and project, wide and diffuse; positioning is a sharp decision inside that: who you’re for, what you solve better than anyone, what stays out. You can have a lot of brand (people like you, follow you, applaud you) and no positioning, and the symptom is clear: you’re well liked but not picked for anything specific.
And above all, it isn’t a description, it’s a choice. Describing everything you can do doesn’t position you, it dilutes you. Positioning yourself is deciding which slot you want in people’s heads, knowing that being in one means not being in the others.
Why the generalist is invisible
Here’s the intuition almost everyone has backwards. We think offering more things makes us more hireable, because that way we “fit” more places. The opposite happens. The more you cover, the less obvious you are to anyone.
Think about it from the other side. When someone has a specific problem, they look for whoever seems made exactly for that problem, not for whoever does it “among many other things.” The competent generalist always loses to the specialist, even when the generalist is better, because the client doesn’t buy capability, they buy fit. And whoever does everything fits nothing perfectly.
The result is that eternal fight on price. If you’re interchangeable, the only thing left to win with is being cheaper, and that’s a race you don’t want to run. You don’t lose projects for being expensive, you lose them for being indistinct.
Positioning is giving up
The hard part is this: positioning yourself well means giving things up. Choosing a spot is, by definition, not choosing all the others, and that’s dizzying because it feels like closing doors. You close some, the ones you didn’t want, and open much better ones.
The power is in the no. Saying “I don’t do this,” “this isn’t my person,” “this kind of project isn’t for me” is what makes you sharp. Every refusal hones the spot you occupy. People with strong positioning are recognized by what they reject as much as by what they do, because that rejection is what gives them shape.
And it doesn’t make you smaller, it makes you selectable. From a strong spot you can always widen: you earn authority in one territory and then stretch. From the middle, trying to be for everyone, nothing widens, because there’s nowhere to widen from. First you occupy a spot; broadening comes later.
From positioning to offer
Positioning lives in people’s heads, but it gets bought through an offer. And that’s where many lose it: they have (or sense) a spot, but they present it as a menu of everything they can do, and the menu undoes the positioning.
An offer is a concrete thing someone can buy, and it expresses your spot without you having to explain it. Instead of “I do branding, web, content, strategy and a bit of everything,” an offer says who it’s for, what problem it solves, and what transformation it leaves, and it’s understood in one sentence. If the client needs a catalog to know what you do, you’re forcing them to do the work of deciding for you, and many don’t, they leave.
The test is simple: a good offer makes the right person think “this is for me” instantly, and the wrong one rule themselves out. That’s not losing clients, it’s stopping wasting time on the ones who weren’t.
How to define yours
You don’t need a months-long process, you need four honest decisions.
Who you’re for (and who you’re not). Choose one specific person you serve better than anyone, and have the courage to name who you leave out. Without the “who you’re not for,” the “who you’re for” means nothing.
What problem you own. Not everything you solve, but the problem you want to be associated with, the one where you want to be the first option that appears. One, not five.
What you reject. Write down three things you do now and will stop offering. Your positioning is honed more by what you remove than by what you add.
One offer that expresses it. Turn all of the above into a single clear offer, explainable in one sentence, that the right person gets on the fly. If it doesn’t fit in a sentence, it isn’t there yet.
Where to start this week
Write, in a single sentence, what you’re the best option for and for whom. No list, no “among other things.” If it doesn’t come out clean, you already have the work: it isn’t that you can’t communicate it, it’s that you haven’t decided it yet.
And then make the cut. Take one thing you offer that doesn’t fit that spot, and remove it from how you present yourself this week. Just one. You’ll feel like you’re closing a door, and really you’re sharpening the one you want to open.
You won’t have the perfect positioning on the first try, and that’s fine, because it’s refined over time. What you can’t do is never choose. Start with one sentence and one cut, and tell me how it changes who starts looking for you.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between positioning and brand?
Your brand is everything you are and project; your positioning is the specific spot you occupy in people’s minds, the slot they choose you for over someone else. The brand is wider, the positioning is a sharp decision: who you’re for, what you solve better than anyone, and what you leave out. You can have a lot of brand and no positioning, and then people like you but don’t pick you for anything specific.
Doesn’t niching down close doors?
It closes the ones you didn’t want and opens the ones you did. When you do everything for everyone, you’re obvious to no one, so you compete on price with anyone. When you occupy a clear spot, you become the obvious choice for a specific group, and those people seek you out, pay better, and bring more like them. Specializing doesn’t make you smaller, it makes you selectable. You can always widen from a strong spot; from no spot, nothing widens.
How do I define my offer?
Turn your positioning into a concrete thing someone can buy. Instead of a menu of everything you can do, define one clear offer: who it’s for, what problem it solves, and what transformation it leaves. A good offer explains itself in one sentence and the client instantly gets whether it’s for them. If you need a catalog to explain what you do, you don’t have an offer, you have a list of services, and that forces the client to do the work of deciding for you.
Can I change my positioning later?
Yes, and it usually evolves. Positioning yourself isn’t signing a lifetime contract, it’s choosing a spot to play from now, with the information you have. As you learn what fits and what doesn’t, you refine it. What doesn’t work is never choosing out of fear of getting it wrong, because staying in the middle, trying to be for everyone, is the one position that guarantees nobody picks you.
Before you go
The whole idea fits in one line: if you try to be for everyone, you’re no one’s obvious choice, and no one’s obvious choice always competes on price.
Positioning yourself isn’t doing more, it’s giving up until it’s clear what you, and not someone else, are for, and then turning that into an offer that’s understood in one sentence. This week, write that sentence and make one cut. And tell me what changes when you stop being one more option and become the obvious one for someone.
References
- Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (1981) — the classic: positioning doesn’t happen in the product, it happens in the client’s mind.
- April Dunford, Obviously Awesome — positioning as the context that makes it obvious why you’re the best option for someone specific.
Reading recommendations
If you want to pull the thread of positioning and differentiation, three books:
- April Dunford, Obviously Awesome. The clearest, most current method for finding your positioning. Very practical.
- Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning. The book that invented the idea; why the battle is won in the mind, not in the product.
- Youngme Moon, Different. Why almost everyone differentiates the same way, and what it means to really stand apart.
* The book links use my Amazon affiliate: if you buy through them, I earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.