Understanding relative value

One of the positioning concepts founders have the most trouble wrapping their heads around is how to highlight their product’s value relative to the competitive alternatives, ie what people are actually doing now.

My favorite competitive alternative is the status quo, usually “do nothing and live with the problem.”

That is a legitimate competitive alternative for nearly all the companies I work with. In that context, though, you can see you the following attributes would fall flat:

• Easy to use (can’t possibly be easier than doing nothing)

• Inexpensive (probably not cheaper than doing nothing)

If you walk into a conversation talking about how cheap and easy to use your product is and the person you’re talking to is comparing it with the status quo of doing nothing (free and totally effortless), the conversation won’t go well.

Surely there is something your product does better than “ignore the problem.” Focus on that. Position around what your product does uniquely well compared to what your customers would otherwise be doing.

Oh, and P.S.: never position your product as “cheap.” It can be tempting, but it’s usually something you’ll regret, probably sooner than later.