Positioning Your Offer

How to translate what you do into the language the prospect uses to describe what they need

After a discovery call you know what the prospect needs. The gap between knowing what they need and getting them to say yes is often about positioning, whether what you offer sounds like the thing they are already looking for.

This lesson is about translating your skills into the language the prospect actually uses to describe their problem.

The Gap Between What You Do and What They Need

You build websites with Claude Code. You build apps. You build agents. You automate workflows.

That is what you do. But here is the thing: nobody ever woke up and thought "I need a Claude Code website." They woke up and thought "I need to stop losing clients to agencies" or "I need my booking system to stop driving me insane" or "I need more enquiries from my website because right now I am getting none."

Positioning is the bridge between how you describe your work and how they describe their problem.

The strongest positioning statement connects directly to what they said on the discovery call. It echoes their words back in a way that shows you understood exactly what they are dealing with.

The One-Paragraph Offer Description

For every service you offer you need a one-paragraph description that names who it is for using a specific description and not "businesses of all sizes," names the specific problem it solves, describes what you deliver and how long it takes, and names the outcome they can expect.

This is not a marketing tagline. It is the paragraph you would use in a proposal, in a DM when someone asks what you do, or on a sales call when you describe what you are proposing.

Using @MARKETING.MD — write a one-paragraph offer description for what I do.

This is not a marketing tagline. It is a precise professional description I would

use in a proposal or when someone asks exactly what I offer.

My service: [WHAT YOU DO]
Who it is for: [SPECIFIC AUDIENCE FROM MARKETING.MD]
Problem it solves: [THE MAIN PROBLEM]

What I deliver: [SPECIFIC DELIVERABLES — a website, an app, a system, etc.]

Timeline: [HOW LONG IT TAKES]
Expected outcome: [WHAT THEY GET ONCE IT IS DONE]

Write it in my voice from the voice section of @MARKETING.MD.

No corporate language. One paragraph, 4 to 6 sentences. This should sound like

I am explaining it to a smart friend and not writing a brochure.

Write one of these for every service you offer. Add them to SALES.md under "What I Sell."

Customising the Pitch for Each Prospect

The one-paragraph offer description is your starting point. On a proposal or in a conversation you customise it based on what the discovery call told you.

Run this after your discovery call summary from the previous lesson:

I have completed a discovery call. Here is my call summary:

[PASTE DISCOVERY CALL SUMMARY]
My standard offer description: [PASTE YOUR ONE-PARAGRAPH DESCRIPTION]

Rewrite the offer description to match what this specific prospect needs.

Use their language — the specific words and phrases they used to describe their

problem. Connect my deliverables directly to the outcome they described.

Keep it under one paragraph. Do not invent features I did not describe — only

reframe what I actually do in terms of what they actually need.

This makes your proposal feel like it was written for them specifically because it was.

The "Why Me" Section

Every proposal needs to answer the question the prospect is privately asking: "Why should I trust this person with my money, specifically?"

The answer is not "because I am great at this." It is evidence. Specific evidence.

Use Claude to pull together the right evidence for each proposal:

• Using @MARKETING.MD and @SALES.MD — help me write a short "Why me" section
• for a proposal.

The prospect's situation: [SUMMARY FROM DISCOVERY CALL]
The specific problem I am solving: [FROM CALL SUMMARY]

From my experience and past work, the most relevant things to include are:

• [LIST 2 TO 3 SPECIFIC THINGS — a result you got for someone similar, a project
• you built that is relevant, a technical detail that shows you understand the problem]
• Write a short paragraph of 3 to 5 sentences that positions me as the right choice
• for this specific project — not in general but for this exact problem.
• Evidence-based. No generic claims like "I am passionate about delivering results."

If you are early in your career and do not have much to point to yet, use the things you have built in this programme, be honest about your experience level, and compete on price or a short paid pilot project rather than overpromising.

Knowing When to Say No

Positioning also means knowing when your offer is not the right fit and being able to say so clearly.

The temptation early on is to say yes to everything. This always backfires. Projects that are outside your wheelhouse take three times as long, pay less per hour of work, produce worse results, and are miserable to do.

Some signals that a project is not a good fit: the scope keeps expanding in the conversation before you have even agreed to anything, they need something you have never done and there is no time to learn it, their expected timeline is so short you would have to cut corners, their budget is so low that charging your rate would mean doing this for almost nothing per hour, or they have been through several other providers and it is always the last person's fault.

If you reach the end of a discovery call and feel this, say it directly: "Based on what you've described, I don't think I'm the right fit for this and here is why. I think you'd be better served by [ALTERNATIVE]."

This is a harder conversation than saying yes. It builds more trust than any portfolio item.

Adding to SALES.md

## What I Sell
[SERVICE 1 ONE-PARAGRAPH DESCRIPTION]

[SERVICE 2 ONE-PARAGRAPH DESCRIPTION — if applicable]

## When I Say No

Signs a project is outside my sweet spot:

• [YOUR RED FLAGS — scope creep early, impossible timeline, etc.]

Your Action Right Now

Write a one-paragraph offer description for your main service using the Claude prompt above. Read it out loud. Does it sound like you describing your work to a real person? Does it name a specific problem? Save it to SALES.md.