Are you able to describe the benefits of your product or service in a crisp, compelling manner? Many of the start-ups I’ve met struggle at this. The traditional positioning statement or “elevator test” can be challenging to write. But it’s the 60 most important words you should commit to writing.
It tells people what you do, who it’s for, why it’s important and why it’s better than the competition, all in just a few words that can be shared on a short elevator ride. When working on a position statement I am often reminded of a quote attributed to Samuel Clemens, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead.”
If you’re wondering why “60 words?” The last three positioning statements I’ve helped develop averaged out to 60 words.
When positioning your product or service, the iconic statement by Geoffrey Moore in his landmark book “Crossing the Chasm” remains the gold standard to best describe a compelling new product or service in two sentences.
- For (target customer)
- Who (statement of the need or opportunity)
- The (product name) is a (product category)
- That (statement of key benefit – that is, compelling reason to buy)
- Unlike (primary competitive alternative)
- Our product (statement of primary differentiation)
This includes all the facets of who, what, and why, needed to describe the critical benefits your new product or service is bringing to the marketplace. The first sentence contains the first four bullets, and the remaining bullets go to the second.
When drafted, this short two sentence statement can act like a Swiss army knife in a start-up. It helps R&D better define the MVP. Marketing and sales can have more productive conversations and tests product-market-fit with early adopters, and potential customers. Conversations with journalists, analysts, and industry experts can be clearer. Virtually, everything you do can gain focus from these two sentences, and it helps everyone in the company stay on the same page.
I had the opportunity to learn firsthand just how important this two-sentence statement can be in my first sales role and then again when co-founding a B2B software company.
I started my first job in sales at a small software reseller in Boston named CADD Edge. Tim Preston, the owner, believed very strongly in sales training and that positioning our business and our products in our market and differentiating us from our competition were critical to our success. When I joined, Tim’s business was changing. He had just signed a new product that was coming to market called SolidWorks. His existing bread and butter products were also quickly heading towards obsolescence.
One of the most impactful things Tim did for my success outside of sales training was to give me a copy of “Crossing the Chasm” to read. Soon after, we started having conversations about sales efforts, positioning the products we represented, and positioning the company. These conversations happened in almost real time after giving seminars or long days of calling cold and warm leads or after a day on the road meeting with prospects and existing customers.
During our conversations we would often use the framework developed by Moore to position a product or service. This enabled us to continuously tweak and refine every aspect of the business. These efforts led to Tim’s business becoming one of the largest SolidWorks resellers that year. Over the years, CADD Edge continued a path of rapid growth and leadership in its market, and through several mergers and acquisitions, CADD Edge is now part of the largest reseller of its kind in the world.
Much of the early success at CADD Edge can be attributed to the relentless pursuit of positioning the company for success. This effort drove sales process, customer success, relationships with key partners, and the differentiation between us and our competitors.
After three years at CADD Edge, I got the start-up bug and left to co-found a B2B software company. One of the first things I did in my new venture was brush off the copy of “Crossing the Chasm” Tim gave me to develop a positioning statement my new business partner and I could use to define the data management solution we were bringing to market in a field already overcrowded with competitors.
In this relentless pursuit of positioning a new product, we talked with potential customers, especially potential end users. We also prototyped every aspect of the back-end and user interface of our product to make sure we could deliver the user experience that would redefine our market in a customer-centric manner. Many of the words from our two-sentence positioning statement ended up in our case studies, our product demo, and our reseller’s presentations to their customers. Using the positioning we developed allowed us to build a sales and marketing engine that quickly overtook our competitors in North America and Japan and were planning our European efforts when we were purchased.
If you have not written your 60 compelling statement or revisited it lately, maybe it’s time. Also, ff you are struggling to put your 60 compelling words together and would like some help, feel free to contact me at jim@justsalestalk.com.
