🧭 Selling & marketing · E-book
The Person They Ask For
Positioning yourself so the right work finds you
The Person They Ask For
Positioning yourself so the right work finds you
Your name
A4 · this is a layout preview in the “Gallery” design. When you generate, the studio writes every chapter in full, paints the cover and chapter art, and composes a downloadable A4 PDF with your name, bio and store link on it.
Being able to do anything sounds like an advantage until you watch a buyer choose between you and four other people who also say it. Positioning is not a smaller business. It is a clearer one, described in a way a stranger can repeat to a colleague. This book is about arriving at that description honestly.
What's inside
- 1Why Generalists Compete on PriceShows what happens in the buyer's head when nothing distinguishes the shortlist, and why the cheapest quote wins by default. You will be able to see where your own enquiries are being decided.
- 2Three Ways to NarrowCompares narrowing by audience, by problem and by method, with the trade-offs and risks of each. You will pick the axis that fits your evidence rather than the one that sounds most impressive.
- 3Reading Your Own Back CatalogueUses your past projects, referrals and repeat clients as data about where you are already strong. You finish with a shortlist of positions supported by work you have actually done.
- 4The Sentence People RepeatTurns the chosen position into one plain sentence that survives being passed on second-hand. You will have a line you can say at a dinner table without explaining it twice.
- 5Rebuilding Everything Around ItWorks through the site, the profiles, the intro paragraph and the portfolio so they all point the same way. You will end with a change list you can complete in a weekend.
- 6Work That Falls OutsideHandles the enquiries your new position excludes, including when to take them anyway and how to do so without muddying the message. You will have a rule for the exceptions before they arrive.
- 7Reviewing the PositionSets an annual review so the position tightens or moves with evidence rather than mood. You will have a short set of questions and a date in the diary.
A sample from chapter one
Being available for anything is not an offer
When a buyer cannot tell two suppliers apart, they use the one difference they can see, which is the price. That is not a failure of taste on their part. It is a reasonable response to a shortlist of people who all describe themselves as experienced, reliable and passionate about their craft. If nothing else separates you, the cheapest quote is the sensible choice.
Positioning removes you from that comparison by making you the obvious answer to a narrower question. The narrowing feels like loss while you are doing it, because you can picture the work you are turning away. What you cannot picture is the enquiry that never reached you because the person recommending suppliers could not remember what you specifically do.
- List the last ten enquiries and mark which ones asked about price in the first message.
- Look for the client type that came back twice; repeat business is evidence, not sentiment.
- Test your sentence by asking a friend to repeat it back a day later without prompting.
- Change the first line of every profile before you touch the website, because that line does most of the work.
Key takeaways
- A narrower description does not reduce the work available to you; it changes who thinks of you first.
- Your strongest position is usually already visible in the projects that went well and came back.
- If your positioning cannot be repeated accurately by someone else, it is not yet a position.
The studio writes every chapter from this outline, paints the art and hands you a PDF you can sell the same afternoon.
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