Words: Adam Ketterer – Founder
Category(s): Branding, Positioning
Date: 23rd April 2026
There’s a bit of a debate in B2B tech positioning circles (okay, LinkedIn feeds) these days about the best way to run a positioning project.
No one doubts that decisions are the currency of positioning: Are we this or that kind of product? Are we for these or those buyers?
But how do we make those decisions? Are workshops a good way to get agreement or a terrible one? Should the team or agency or consultant make informed recommendations for you, based on a greater or lesser amount of research and analysis? Or should they guide you through the choices and poke you until you make your decisions?
Some offer positioning ‘sprints’. Some prefer ‘marathon’ for their running-based metaphor. It strikes me that the more hands-on, operational version of this decision-making work is a lot like the job a caddy does for a golfer. You know the course. You advise them how to play each shot. And you carry the bags.
This discussion of different approaches is important, and can certainly help to prevent companies from commissioning the wrong kind of process.
I’ve been there myself. When positioning projects take a funny turn because you suddenly realise that you and the client have what we might euphemistically call misaligned expectations.
And all the recent chatter about this stuff makes me think that the simplest way to get those pesky expectations set in stone is this: to be very clear about the outputs and outcomes of a positioning project.
(By positioning ‘project’ I mean the kind that companies buy from outside help, which is therefore usually time-bound. It lasts a number of weeks or months and then ends. Because if you want dedicated, ongoing support for the journey – like a Sherpa – you’re basically hiring someone.)
Positioning process outputs and outcomes
The output of most positioning jobs (what you get at the end of the process) is a definition of what the company actually is or, rather, what it wants to be known as – i.e. the position you want to occupy in a buyer’s mind. Maybe some tools and directions to start you on your journey.
The (immediate) outcome of the project (what’s actually changed in your world), on the other hand, is…not much. Real agreement on the above (not just line-toeing in a workshop), if you’re lucky. And, if you’re very lucky, a commitment from your leaders to do the hard work of making it real. Of achieving that position and defending it. Of following a positioning strategy to get you there, i.e. honouring the decisions you made during the consultation process.
Because a position is not a positioning.
A position is where you want to end up. It’s an X marking a spot on your customers’ (mental) map of your market. The other vague scribbles on the map are the positioning strategy AKA the route that might get you there.
Positioning is a doing word
Positioning is not (just) declarative. Defining your position and writing it down in an agreed arrangement of words – that’s fantastically important work, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not magic, and uttering your new positioning line or H1 copy three times in a mirror does not a positioning make.
Positioning is active. You must go out and do shit. You must bend the market to your will.
Positioning is an ongoing set of decisions and actions that happen long after the ‘positioning process’ is over. (It ultimately happens in the wilderness of your prospects’ brains, but let’s assume you can do everything in your brand, GTM, sales and marketing power to help them with that.)
So if you’re shopping for positioning support, our advice is to know exactly what you’re buying.
Are you buying a destination? A destination and a route? Help for the road?
We can tell you what you’re definitely not getting: a positioned company. Not yet.
The long, hard work of actually achieving and defending your desired positioning? That cannot be outsourced. That’s on you.
Help is on hand. You just have to know what you’re asking for.