Win Positioning Statement

---
name: win-positioning-statement
description: Writes a Positioning Statement from the five components of positioning, covering the competitive alternatives including doing it themselves with AI, your differentiated capabilities with proof, the value they make possible, who cares most, the category frame, and one line a contact can repeat. Use for "run win-positioning-statement", "nobody can explain what I do", "write my positioning", "why me and not AI", "one line about what I do", "how am I different", "positioning statement", part of the Claude Guide for Finding Clients Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Positioning Statement

## When To Use
Your network does not refer you because nobody can repeat what you do. People like you, but when a friend of theirs has the problem, your name does not come up. This answers: compared with what else the client could do, why you, in a line someone else can say?

## When Not To Use
If you are not yet sure who you are for, start with Ideal Client Profile. If the question is how you use AI in the work, that is AI Use Statement; if a prospect is pushing back right now, use Objection Response.

## Inputs
- Your Ideal Client Profile, or a short note on who your best clients are and what they hire you for.
- What clients did before you, or what lost prospects chose instead, in your words.
- 2 or 3 pieces of real work you could point to.
If you have none of this, I start from your current one-line description and two recent engagements, and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
The five components of positioning, as April Dunford sets them out on her site: competitive alternatives, differentiated capabilities, value, the customers who care most, and the market category. The order matters: you start from what the client would do if you did not exist, because that is what they compare you with. Today that list includes "we will do it ourselves with AI", and a statement that ignores it, or sneers at it, will not survive the first meeting.

## Workflow
1. Ask at most three questions: what did your last few clients try or consider before calling you, which piece of work you are proudest of and why, and what a past client would say you do, in their words.
2. List the competitive alternatives honestly: another firm or independent, hiring someone, doing nothing, doing it themselves, doing it themselves with AI. For each, note what it does well, so the comparison is fair.
3. Name the capabilities you have that those alternatives lack: method, access, judgement, experience of a situation, accountability. Attach proof from your real work to each, or mark it "needs proof".
4. Translate each capability into value in the client's terms: what becomes possible, faster, safer or decided because of it. Drop any capability you cannot connect to value.
5. Say who cares most about that value, from the profile: the situation and the role in the decision. Then choose the category frame that makes the value obvious; a familiar category with a clear angle usually beats a new label nobody searches for.
6. Write the one line a contact could repeat at a dinner, then two or three variants. Read each aloud; if it needs a breath or a buzzword, cut it. You pick one.
7. List the proof still needed, each item a case to write down next.

## Output Format
```markdown
# Positioning Statement
## Competitive alternatives
| What the client could do instead | What it does well | Where it falls short for them |
|---|---|---|
| [another firm / hire / do nothing / do it ourselves / do it ourselves with AI] | [fair point] | [gap, in client terms] |
## Differentiated capabilities and value
| Capability | Proof from your work | Value it makes possible |
|---|---|---|
| [capability] | [engagement, or "needs proof"] | [in client terms] |
## Who cares most
[Situation and role in the decision, from the Ideal Client Profile]
## Category frame
[The frame that makes the value obvious, and why]
## The line
- Chosen: [one sentence a contact could repeat]
- Variants: [variant], [variant]
## Proof still needed
1. [claim] needs [case or result to write down]
## Decision
[Your name] picks the line, tests it with [number] people who know your work, and settles it by [date].
```

## Done When
- "Do it ourselves with AI" is listed as an alternative and treated fairly.
- Every capability has proof or is marked "needs proof".
- The line has no jargon and fits in one breath.
- No competitor is named anywhere in the statement.

## Quality Bar
- Alternatives are described honestly, including what they do well; never sell against AI.
- Value is in the client's terms, never in a list of your methods.
- The category is one people already understand, unless you choose otherwise with reasons.
- Variants are offered, and you choose; I do not decide how you describe yourself.
- Every claim of difference has proof from your real work or is marked as still needing it.

## Next
Run win-productized-offer (Productized Service Offer) to package what you do into an offer.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).