Thursday, October 29, 2026
Jim Collins found that companies which broke away from average performance could name, with brutal precision, what they could be best in the world at. Here's the three-circle test and the goal that pairs with it.
Picture the elevator ride. Someone asks what your business does, and the doors are closing. If what comes out of your mouth is "we do great work for a range of clients across a few industries," you've told them nothing — and down the hall, your closest competitor is composing a one-line answer that tells a buyer everything. You already know how this ends: a prospect picks the other business, and months later you find out the only real difference was that they could say, in one sentence, exactly what made them worth choosing. You can do that too. You've just never had to put it into one line before.
The villain here isn't your competitor. It's the generic sentence every business in your category already uses: quality service, competitive prices, people who care. It sounds safe because everyone says it, and it's dangerous for exactly that reason — it hands the decision to whoever's cheapest, because you've given a buyer nothing else to choose you on. I saw the opposite work in a client session with a talent agency. The founders tried version after version of what they did, until one line survived the room: "We represent New Zealand's finest talent." Six words, and it passed what I call the elevator test — say it once, and a stranger knows exactly who you are and who you're not. The same exercise, run from real customer interviews rather than a founder's gut feel, gave two other clients their own one-line position inside a single working session.
This is a simplified version of the positioning work Jack Trout and Al Ries first set out in 1981: you don't win by being better at everything, you win by owning one specific position in a buyer's mind. Here's the map, in three questions.
"Talking with Kevin the first time was so valuable and we were learning so much. Within an hour Kevin had us thinking about our business and our goals in a totally different way. In fact we were supposed to be catching a flight but we decided it was more important that we continued the meeting with Kevin."
— Angus and Cameron, Flatpack Co
Almost every owner I sit down with knows positioning matters. Almost none of them have written theirs down, for a simple reason — it feels like a marketing task, not an urgent one, so it sits behind the quote that's due today and the staff issue that's due now. That's precisely the gap an outside eye closes: not by inventing a clever slogan, but by sitting in the room with you and your actual customer interviews until the one true sentence surfaces. It usually takes less time than the next sales call you're dreading.
This isn't for you if you're happy sounding like everyone else in your category — competing purely on price is a real strategy, if you can out-discount businesses with deeper pockets than yours. It's for you if you're ready to own one sentence and build everything else on top of it.
If you've never written your one-sentence difference down, that's usually the first thing we fix.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Most SME strategies are really just revenue wishlists with no diagnosis behind them. Here is the three-part test that separates a real strategy from a wish, and what to fix first if yours fails it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
94% of small businesses using AI across multiple functions have cut spending on marketing, data and bookkeeping, and they are more confident than ever. Here is the three-question audit to run before you cut judgment along with the invoice.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Chasing a poor-fit customer to hit a year-end number rarely pays off. Here is the Right-Fit Growth Filter SME owners use before saying yes.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
High satisfaction with your business coach does not guarantee progress. Here is the yearly Re-Contracting Conversation that keeps coaching sharp.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
We'll sort it in the new year is quietly stalling more small businesses than any competitor. Here is the Now-or-January Test that fixes it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
A 10 percent discount can need 46 percent more sales volume just to break even. Here is the Quota-Protection Plan for small business sales teams.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Referred customers buy four times more often, yet most happy customers are never asked. Here is the Post-Purchase Sequence that fixes it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Your best quarter can hide the same problems as your worst one. Here is the five-step Success Audit SME owners use to pressure-test growth before it plateaus.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
You just gave someone a raise to keep them, and they left anyway. A new US survey shows a 21-point gap between what owners think keeps their team and what actually does.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Small Business Saturday falls just 27 days before Christmas this year, one of the shortest holiday windows in years. Here's the three-step margin check to run before Q4 locks in your pricing mistakes.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Acquiring a new customer costs five to seven times more than growing revenue from an existing one. Here is the share-of-wallet audit that finds it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Most coaches say yes to everyone who can pay them. Here is the real test for whether a business coach is actually right for your business.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
The average knowledge worker gets barely an hour of uninterrupted time a day. Here is the meeting-free day protocol that gives your team room to think.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
A verbal yes is not a closed deal, and more than 40 percent of B2B deals stall in the gap between agreement and signature. Here is how to close it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Ninety percent of blog content gets zero traffic from Google, and most SME blogs are no exception. Here is the content-market fit audit that fixes it.