Last week, a consultant sent me a 1200€ proposal she’d poured hours into. The client ghosted, then after a while said “we went with someone cheaper”. In a word, classic.
However, plot twist: they didn’t go for a competitor that undercut by 10% – they bought a €54 book with a pre-recorded course instead.
She didn’t lose to a competitor. She lost to noise.
Yep, it’s 2025. Your prospects aren’t comparing you to similar experts anymore – they’re drowning in a swamp of free hacks, spreadsheets, that uncle who “knows a guy,” half-remembered vendors from 2020, ChatGPT, and the eternal champion of sales prevention: “Maybe Later.”
The Yellow Pages era is dead.
Your positioning isn’t just about standing out—it’s about not being compared to irrelevant options in the first place.
Here’s the simple model I use when positioning feels radioactive:
1. Flip the script: The question isn’t “why me?”—it’s “what conditions must exist for me to be the obvious choice?”
2. Disqualify deliberately: Say who shouldn’t hire you. Be explicit. Your clarity becomes their clarity.
3. Cost of inaction: Compare your fee to what happens if they do nothing, not to some random competitor’s invoice.
Positioning isn’t polish—it’s prevention. It stops the wrong conversations before they start. Decide which comparison shortlist you want to appear on. Then use that context to make your value unmistakable.