The Altar of Positioning

I worship at the altar of good positioning. But seems like my friends agency was praying to the wrong god.

Last month, I watched them almost die. Not because of bad people or weak skills though (They employee solid talent!)

They got murdered by tiny cuts in the form of “innocent” client requests.

The thing that broke them was this fintech client. A "simple email sequence" that turned into two months of hell.

The client wanted conversion optimization. My friend thought he was selling brand storytelling. Nobody figured out the disconnect until they were bleeding money and their creative director started having panic attacks.

I told him to look at every project from the past year. I asked him

Fourteen out of fifteen times: absolutely.

But that last one was different.

They'd built these behavioral email sequences for a productivity app that turned freemium users into paying customers. This led to conversion rates jumping ~240%. That single project made 40% of their profit on 8% of revenue.

They’d accidentally created something nobody else could do; email sequences designed around how productivity software users actually behave.

But instead of doubling down, they kept chasing easier money. Fintech clients who wanted "general email marketing." Easy to sell, impossible to defend and guaranteed to become scope nightmares.

Long story short, now they only specialize in behavioral email sequences for SaaS companies with freemium models.

It sucked. They said no to a $75K brand campaign that week. Then a $45K website project.

For three months, their pipeline looked empty. But the clients they did take knew what they were buying. Projects finished on time because everyone understood the deal. No more fintech disasters.

Six months later, they raised their minimums 60% and have a waitlist.

Positioning isn't marketing bullshit. It's how you run operations.

Good positioning makes delivery predictable. Bad positioning makes everything harder. Every project feels different. Every client call turns into explaining what you do.

Most ops problems start before you touch the work. They start when you take money from people who don't get what you actually sell.

Just think back to when someone on your sales team overpromised. And then you as the operator had to underdeliver.

If you fix that first, everything else gets easier.