I am about to sell you something.
But let’s see if I can teach you something, too.
Not how to sell. But how to listen to your market and create a thing you think they want, and offer it, and find out if it works.
This is what entrepreneurs do: We’re like scientists. Our hypotheses are products; our experiments are offers.
Is this product true? we ask.
Then we design an offer, pitch it to the market and find out.
You are the market.
Here’s the pitch.
NOW MORE THAN EVER
Last week’s Just Business email had the most replies I’ve ever had.
Read it here, if you missed it. But the gist was this:
➡️ Search engines like Google don’t send traffic to your website any more.
➡️ Instead, they tell your customer about you and your competitors – right there in the AI window.
➡️ Upshot: Your customer chooses between you and someone else. Without visiting anybody’s website.
The risk here is that AI doesn’t mention you at all. You’re not even in the conversation.
The opportunity is that someone could get in the conversation who didn’t used to be – not because they’re the market leader or sink tens of thousands into SEO, but just because they’re interesting.
That someone could be you.
Last week I called this being “listworthy,” and it’s not just about how big you are or how optimized your website is – though those things still matter like they always have.
But something else matters now, too: What sets you apart from other companies that do what you do?
The answer to this question is the key to your positioning. It’s always been the heart of your whole business strategy. It’s always been a part of why your clients choose you.
But now, it’s a part of how your clients find you too.
That makes positioning matter more than ever.
YOUR UNSOLICITED ADVICE
I don’t have a big email list.
But a ton of you replied to last week’s email. You told me your own positioning, or you asked a question. You said thank you. You asked for a link to share.
At least two of you told me my headline was terrible and almost stopped you from reading any more.
Every one of those replies is a great compliment. Any time somebody bothers to engage at all, you know you’ve hit a nerve.
Jay Acunzo calls this “unsolicited response rate” – a measure of the number of people who responded to your content without being told to. It’s a made-up metric (but they all are, right?) that reminds us of a deep, important truth:
The best way to see what people care about is to watch what they do when they can do whatever they want.
Nobody had to hit reply, but many did. My URR was around 5% last week.
That’s massive.
That’s you saying I piqued your interest.
That’s you telling me “positioning for AI” is a thing that makes you act.
And that’s my cue to try and sell you something.
LET’S EXPERIMENT
Conveniently, positioning is something I have done for 20 years. I love it.
The “for AI” part is new – for every person on the planet, if they’re being honest. There are tools to do the research and I know how, but I’m going to get better and better as I do it.
I want that.
So I yesterday I built an offer, and it goes like this:
If you give me an hour, a few dollars and a little trust,
I’ll tell you how AI is understanding you,
I’ll help you decide how you WANT it to understand you,
and I’ll give you marketing copy and an action plan to make that happen.
That’s it. That’s the pitch.
I’m calling this the “AI positioning sprint,” and you can read the step-by-step on this webpage.
It’s going to take a day or two of my time and an hour of yours. Experience and a little research tell me this is worth something like $2500 – but this is an experiment, remember. I’m finding out (1) if my market wants to buy a thing like this, and (2) if I can deliver it as efficiently as I think I can.
In experimentation mode, the data is as valuable as the money.
So I’m pricing this at $600 for the first person who says “yes.”
And then I’m raising the cost every time I book the service, until people stop saying “yes.”
At that point I’ll know a lot more about what people want and what they’re willing to pay for it. I’ll know if delivering on this offer is fun, if it leads to the kinds of work and relationships I like. And I’ll know if it’s long-term profitable.
I get the data.
And a couple of you get clear, fast positioning, built with AI in mind, fast, for cheap.
How am I doing?
QUALITY IS NOT A VARIABLE
I’m using the science analogy in this email, so I should make one thing clear before I go: If you hire me to do this, doing it is not an experiment.
Your positioning is a thing I’ve done already many times. I have a process. I’m not taking your cash and fooling around.
This offer – the email you’re reading right now, and the landing page that clarifies it – that’s the experiment.
Proven work. Unproven offer.
A person buying or not buying tells me something about what people do or do not buy. In business, that’s the thing you want to know.
So go ahead. Tell me.
If the AI positioning sprint sounds like a thing you want to pay for, sign up from this page.
If not, don’t.
The data’s helpful either way.
