Are you perceived as you really are?

Are you perceived as you really are?

All customers archive you in a slot in their minds.

There are two types of positioning: active and passive.

ACTIVE means that the position you want to occupy in your customers’ minds must pre-determined in YOUR mind.

YOUR mind comes first.

You should have a very clear idea of how you want to be perceived.

And there must be congruency between the way you want to be perceived and the way you are.

You cannot pretend to be perceived as - say - a big oil manufacturer, if you can only produce 1000 bottles of oil per year.

(Years ago I met with a prospect who wanted to penetrate the market with his oil production. When we asked him about his production capacity, he shares a ridiculously low number. Looking at our astonished expressions, he proudly added: “And I can double that by renting my cousin’s plants!”)

Anyhow, back on track…

If you cannot picture in your mind how you want to be perceived, and you’re not congruent, a very bad thing will happen: you will be positioned anyhow, either by your competition or directly by your customers and prospects.

That’s what I call PASSIVE positioning.

Customers and prospects will consciously or subconsciously decide that you belong to slot “A-26”, and they’ll archive you at that slot in their mind.

Whenever they’ll need something related to A-26, your name will come first.

In all other cases, you’ll be considered as the second, third… N-th alternative. NOT as the go-to company.

Is slot A-26 the one you’d like to occupy?

Choose your slot and work hard to do it.