Positioning. Proposition. What’s the difference?

When it comes to digital agencies and business development, the topic of positioning gets a lot of attention. And quite right too. Because if business development was a pyramid, positioning would be its foundation. It sets the sales and marketing agenda.

However, ‘positioning’ is often used interchangeably with ‘proposition’ or ‘value proposition’. Having done this myself, I’ve recently been pondering the difference. This is my take.

Simply put, positioning is what you do, how you do it and, most importantly, for who. It brings together your experience, expertise, interests, beliefs and values to create a point of difference or a specialisation. Done well, positioning leaves an impression; words, images or feelings that come to mind when one thinks about your agency:

“Ah, they’re the people that do great video for car brands…”

“Yes, they specialise in helping start-ups make their first million…”

“Yeah, I know those guys, they help FMCG brands tap into younger audiences…”

The proposition (or value proposition) is how you package this up so it resonates with the audience you are trying to talk to. It’s a clear, compelling and credible expression of the experience a prospect will receive by working with you. It might, for example, articulate the challenges they face, how you help solve them and the outcomes they care most about.

It’s rather like marriage. Positioning is deciding who you are going to spend the rest of your life with. The proposition is how you go about posing the big question, in the hope your future spouse says ‘yes’.

It stands to reason that crafting a focused (and therefore attractive) proposition will be more difficult if you don’t first work on positioning, in particular defining your audience. Only then can you answer the kind of questions that are critical to shaping your proposition, for example:

What are companies operating in this space trying to do?

What opportunities are they looking to exploit?

What is standing in their way?

Who is our main point of contact?

How would we describe their mindset, attitude or outlook?

How are they being measured?

Trying to answer these questions when you “work with anyone” is all but impossible. Imagine trying to come up with the perfect marriage proposal before you’ve actually decided who you are going to ask.

This is probably why so many agencies end up with a proposition that is inward-looking (“check out our awards”) and riddled with clichés masquerading as points of difference (“results-focused”, “transparent” and “passionate”, for example).

If you want to craft a better proposition, start with positioning. The two go hand in hand but one very much precedes the other.

What do you think? I’m often wrong (ask my wife) so if you think I’ve missed the mark, hit me up with your thoughts.