Let’s redefine ‘positioning’ as ‘confidence’.

Confidence is a better word because it focuses our actions in a way positioning doesn’t. You can’t develop confidence without considering all aspects, though.

This isn’t about being all things to all people.

• It’s about having the ruthless confidence of being one thing to one person, particularly in the B2B space.
• Have confidence in the commercial value of taking a position.
• Have confidence in the geographical or a competitive space in which to operate.
• Have confidence in the psychological aspect, the mind share that you want, based on the proposition that you’re articulating.
  

Customers can spot confidence from a mile off, and they like it

A display of confidence connected to accuracy generates a customer reaction.

Take the Google Maps pin. It’s absolute and bold. Customers therefore trust it. It’s not a shrug and a vague ‘up this road I think’. It’s not hedged on where you would like the nearest Burger King to be. It shows with total confident unambiguous accuracy that something is happening right here.

How to improve business confidence

The right target breeds confidence internally and clarity externally.

If we know what we’re about we feel confident because we genuinely own the space. If the space is too large we feel less confident. Owning a smaller space is usually better than being a less confident player in a larger space. Focus on your people. When they have confidence and certainty, so will the market.

Align around a symbol

What is the equivalent of the map pin for your business? The confident, unambiguous, assertion that you own this? The symbol or statement that your people and your market understands, and that can drive your business forward?

Often, it will be your brand message.

Aligning around a brand message or brand vision can provide much needed certainty, which is why your brand message is so vital to your business performance.

It doesn’t just make you sound good. It makes you look good too. From a mile away.

It’s a projection of your confidence.