The Positioning Manual for Indie Consultants
"I wish I'd written this book."
-Blair Enns, Author of "The Win Without Pitching Manifesto"
"Many people write about positioning, a smaller number really understand it, and then there’s Philip. While you might craft the perfect positioning by applying the principles in this book, you will certainly learn how to develop and test hypotheses in the future. Essentially you’ll learn how to learn, and that’s the best positioning there is."
-David C. Baker, author of "The Business of Expertise"
The Positioning Manual for Indie Consultants gives you a high-level understanding of how specialization and positioning work in the context of an indie consulting business. With this understanding, you will be well-equipped to make a foundational strategy decision for your business.
This book argues that focused expertise and increased visibility & trust are the keys to a more successful indie consulting business. The book describes how specialization accelerates all three.
This book assumes that you can tolerate a medium to high level of risk when you specialize.
What This Book Is NOT
- If you're looking for a step-by-step recipe, you will find this book vague or unhelpful.
- If you're looking for a book that has had the author's idiosyncratic voice edited out of it, or if you expect an author and consultant to also be a master graphic designer, you will be disappointed.
- If you're looking for advice on positioning a product business, look elsewhere; this book speaks specifically to indie consulting services businesses.
What This Book IS
- An argument that earning visibility and trust are what marketing really is for indie consultants.
- A guide to the 5 ways you can specialize, and an argument that specializing in a platform is especially risky.
- An overview of how you earn visibility as a specialist.
- An argument that you might want to think of your first specialization as a "beachhead" that you build into something bigger or more impactful over time.
- An explanation of the risks that effect specialization.
- An overview of how you earn trust as a specialist.
- A walkthrough of the process for deciding how to specialize, with a link to a free, ungated more detailed process on the author's website.
- A supportive guide to the fears you might feel while specializing.
- An overview of updating your website and other marketing to reflect your specialization.
(I hope this book's pricing maximizes accessibility, but if $9 USD is a barrier for you, then I've made sure libgen has an option.)