Can a positioning change be forced?

I was talking with someone about positioning recently, and he happened to ask something along the lines of whether it’s possible to force a company to change their positioning. In the context of that conversation, my answer was no — because I do not, as a consultant, have the power to force my clients to do something they do not want to do. It is entirely possible to do a workshop with me, get some fabulous new ideas about how the product and/or open source project could be positioning, and then ignore those ideas. Obviously, I don’t think that is advisable, but we all do things in life and business that are less than advisable.

Occassionally, I’ll have an investor introduce me to a portfolio company, saying something like “I really think you could help these founders.” When I get the founders on the phone, they don’t know why we’re talking or insist that their product is perfectly positioning.

First, you have to recognize there’s a problem

Changing a product’s positioning is like changing the product’s — and company’s, if there’s only one product — identity. Could you force a company to change its identity? Sure. If you’re the investor, you might be able to put conditions on a funding round or even push out a leadership team you think isn’t going in the right direction. But for the most part, changing positioning has to start with the leadership team recognizing that something isn’t working, and wanting to fix it.

The other way to think about this is… if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Poor positioning has symptoms, and they hurt. Most CEOs notice when they flounder around for 45 minutes trying to describe their product. Most founders notice when their sales conversions are low and sales cycles long. Most founders notice when they have customers who love the product but can’t seem to close any new deals.

If a company has no symptoms of poor positioning, obviously nothing should be done. If it does have symptoms of poor positioning, leaders need to recognize that the symptoms are there and try to address them.

The leadership blinders

One of the ways I provide value as a consultant is to bring in a fresh perspective and help the leadership team take off their blinders and recognize the other ways the product could be positioning. Though the leadership team / founders need to recognize the problem before working with someone like me is going to be helpful, they are often not the first ones to see that positioning and messaging isn’t working. This can be frustrating both for investors and for employees — the employees often see the problem first but can’t change anything until the leadership team recognizes that the old positioning isn’t working.

Look out for sabotage

When talking about who should participate in a workshop, I often says “anyone who could sabotage the new positioning.” New positioning is a strategy — it requires people to implement. Anyone who is critical to implementation needs to buy in to the new positioning. Could this be forced? Maybe. But it’s a better policy to make sure everyone understands why the positioning has changed and how it will be better for the company’s long-term health.

The bottom line: When it comes to positioning, it’s really hard to force a change on others. Changing positioning, and doing all the downstream implementation, requires the founders to buy in to the change at a very minimum. Really, the entire company should buy in.