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Positioning: How to Win More Clients
November 6, 2024 · Bradley Jacobs
I've started and sold companies, launched Uber Eats in new markets, and consulted on the side. If you ask me the one thing that decides whether your business works, it's this: how you position yourself. Not what you do. How you tell people what you do. That, plus actually putting yourself out there, is the whole game.
Here's the annoying part. Even the best marketers I know struggle to do this for their own business. So if you can't nail your own positioning, you're in good company. Let me walk you through how I think about it.
Why this is so hard for experts
It's ironic. The people who are great at marketing other companies are usually the worst at marketing themselves. I've watched it happen over and over. Even if you're the best marketer alive and this is literally what you do for clients, it's almost impossible to do well for yourself.
The fix is to treat your own positioning like a client project. Same rigor, same objectivity. Run yourself through the exact exercises you'd run a client through. We all need a taste of our own medicine.
Narrow down, even when it feels wrong
Everyone celebrates the “jack of all trades.” For positioning, that instinct will kill you. You can't be everything to everyone. It dilutes you to the point where nobody can tell what you do or who you do it for.
Picture me saying, “Hi, I'm Bradley, I'm great at strategy, operations, and helping you scale.” Sounds fine, right? It's useless. Am I a product guy? An engineer? A marketer? An ops person? You're left guessing, and confusion never turns into a signed client.
Lead with the problem, not your services
This is where most people go wrong. They lead with what they sell instead of the problem they fix. Flip it. Instead of “I offer digital marketing services,” open with the problem: “Are you pouring money into marketing and have no idea which channels are actually working?”
That lands because it hits a real pain point. It's the gap between “I do fundraising” and “I help founders fix the cash flow problems keeping them up at night.” One is a service. The other is the 2am worry your client actually has.
A quick story: the LinkedIn post that flopped
A consultant I know posted on LinkedIn about launching his agency. Over 100 likes, a pile of comments, and zero clients. Why? He listed everything: digital marketing, marketing leadership, SEO, automation and email, paid media, web dev, analytics.
That list doesn't separate him from a $5/hr Upwork freelancer on one end or a world-class SEO specialist on the other. It names no problem and no specific value. The takeaway: your positioning has to make the problem you solve and the value you bring obvious.
The exercise: mine your past for gold
So how do you actually write a positioning statement that lands? Here's the exercise I use:
- Write down the problems you've solved in past roles. Shoot for 50. Even 5 is a start.
- Next to each one, note the kind of company you solved it for (Series A fintech marketplace, 5-year-old B2B SaaS, and so on).
- Look for the patterns. Which problems do you actually like solving? Which ones moved the needle most?
- Build your positioning around those problems and the types of companies you solved them for.
When I was consulting, mine was built on launching Uber Eats in new markets. I could say, flat out, “I know how to launch a marketplace from scratch and scale it globally. I've done it, and I can help you avoid millions of dollars in mistakes.”
The “how” can wait
It's tempting to jump straight into how you do the work. Hold off. The how comes out later, in the conversations and the proposal. Your opening job is to name the problem you solve and the value you deliver. Hook them on a problem that resonates first, then get into your approach.
Putting it together
Good positioning comes down to five things:
- Name the specific problem you solve. Not “I do digital marketing,” but “I help companies find and double down on their most profitable marketing channels.”
- Say who you solve it for. “I work with Series A to C B2B SaaS companies that have hit a growth plateau.”
- Point to your unique experience. “I've scaled three SaaS companies to $50M ARR, so I know the playbook for breaking through a growth ceiling.”
- Lead with the problem, not the service. “Frustrated that growth has stalled even though you keep spending more on marketing?”
- Save the how for later. Once the problem hooks them, then you get into your approach.
Your positioning isn't supposed to appeal to everyone. It's supposed to land hard with the specific people who need exactly what you do. The big money is in the companies that will pay you to help them skip the mistakes and the guesswork, because you've already been through it.
Focus on the problems you've already solved and the value you bring, and you'll end up with a positioning statement that cuts through the noise and speaks straight to the clients you want. That's how you win.
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