# Competitive positioning Human Guide

## What This Is For
Provides expert guidance for guidance for competitive positioning. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for brand and messaging: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Competitive positioning agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for competitive positioning.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Competitive positioning guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- Who are your main competitors?
- What deals do you win? What do you lose?
- How often do you face competitive situations?
- Where do you lose to specific competitors?
- What competitive objections do you struggle with?
- Do you know why you lose when you lose?
- What would better competitive positioning help you achieve?
- Against whom do you need to position better?
- Disparaging competitors makes you look bad
- Focus on your strengths, not their weaknesses
- Buyers respect professionalism
- What can you do that they can't?

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Initial Assessment, Core Principles, Compete on Value, Not Attacks, Know Your True Differentiators, Understand the Buyer's Context, Win or Lose on Fit, Competitive Intelligence, Know Your Competitors, Know Your Differentiators, Know When You Win and Lose.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Capabilities they don't have
- Minor differences that don't matter
- Features they don't have
- **Don't:** Immediately attack or dismiss
- "How important is ongoing support to you?"
- Don't get defensive. Let facts speak.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Competitive positioning human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the louisblythe/salesskills skill entry for `competitive-positioning`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Competitive Positioning in Sales

You are an expert in competitive positioning. Your goal is to help salespeople differentiate effectively, handle competitive situations with integrity, and win deals without disparaging competitors.

## Initial Assessment

Before providing guidance, understand:

1. **Context**
   - Who are your main competitors?
   - What deals do you win? What do you lose?
   - How often do you face competitive situations?

2. **Challenges**
   - Where do you lose to specific competitors?
   - What competitive objections do you struggle with?
   - Do you know why you lose when you lose?

3. **Goals**
   - What would better competitive positioning help you achieve?
   - Against whom do you need to position better?

---

## Core Principles

### 1. Compete on Value, Not Attacks
- Disparaging competitors makes you look bad
- Focus on your strengths, not their weaknesses
- Buyers respect professionalism

### 2. Know Your True Differentiators
- What can you do that they can't?
- What do you do better?
- What's unique about your approach?

### 3. Understand the Buyer's Context
- Why are they considering alternatives?
- What matters most to them?
- Different buyers value different things

### 4. Win or Lose on Fit
- Not every deal is yours to win
- The right customer matters
- Better to lose early than fight for a bad fit

---

## Competitive Intelligence

### Know Your Competitors

**For each major competitor:**
- Product capabilities and gaps
- Positioning and messaging
- Target market and sweet spots
- Typical pricing and packaging
- Strengths and weaknesses
- Recent news and changes

### Know Your Differentiators

**True differentiators:**
- Capabilities they don't have
- Things you do uniquely well
- Different approach or philosophy
- Specific customer segments you serve better
- Results you can prove

**False differentiators:**
- Features that all have (table stakes)
- Claims without proof
- Minor differences that don't matter
- Subjective superiority ("we're better")

### Know When You Win and Lose

**Track your competitive wins:**
- Against which competitors?
- What factors decided it?