You may recognise some of this
- The homepage is understood by the five people who wrote it.
- The proposal has twelve pages of method and one line about the result for the client.
- A happy client wants to recommend you to a colleague and cannot explain what you do.
- Swap your logo with a competitor’s and nobody notices.
The science is there in each of these cases. It is explained from the inside out, in methods and capabilities, while a buyer is looking for their own problem and a reason to choose you. That is a proposition problem. It shows up as price pressure, long sales cycles and a founder who has to be on every call.
The Positioning Scan
In one week you see what a buyer understands of your company from what they can actually see: your website, sales materials and LinkedIn. What your CEO knows and nobody has written down does not count. That difference is often the most useful finding.
What comes next depends on what the scan finds: sharpening the proposition, improving the execution or guiding your own marketer. You can also take the scan and continue on your own.
Five elements, scored
- Proposition clarity
- Do you know who this is for, and what they get?
- Customer focus
- Is the story about them, or about you?
- Pricing power
- Does the story justify the price?
- Differentiation
- Is what makes you different actually visible?
- Credibility
- Can a prospect verify your claims before they call?
What you have after one week
- You see your company the way a buyer does. What lands, what gets lost, with quotes from your own pages and decks.
- One clear place to start. Your next euro of marketing goes to the thing that matters most, instead of a new website or campaign that hasn't been decided on.
- Something you can use that week. A rewritten example from your own materials, such as your homepage header or the opening of a proposal.
- One hour with your management team. We go through the results together, so “They don’t get what we do” turns into a score everyone looks at the same way.
- A brief for whoever does the work next. Your own marketer, an agency or me.
EUR 2,500, typically ready within a week of kick-off.
Continue with me within three months and the full amount is credited.
Book a Positioning Scanor email jesse [at] jessemoerkerk.nl
What changed at Triskelion in 90 days
Triskelion is a CRO and TNO spin-off. As interim marketing manager I rebuilt the proposition with the scientific team, around the question a client comes in with.
- Two targeted articles on cereulide testing. Two days later ChatGPT named Triskelion as the first specialist lab.
- Search impressions grew 76.6%, and organic search became the largest source of visits, at 42%.
- New clients started calling without a prior relationship, referring to content they had found themselves.
“Jesse brought clarity and focus to our complex topics & technologies and helped us turn them into a clear, convincing narrative.”
Who you will work with
I have worked inside science companies, as interim marketing manager at Triskelion and as marketing manager at biotech scale-up In Ovo, where I worked with the CEO on positioning. Before that I spent years in brand and communication, at T-Mobile and as creative director at Wavemaker for brands such as IKEA and Bavaria.
I work as an independent consultant, interim or project-based, from a few weeks to several months.
“Jesse is extremely good at breaking down your technical story, sharpening it, and turning it into a very clear and understandable proposition for everyone.”
“You, sumo? Too small.”
That is what a Japanese customs officer told me when I arrived in Tokyo to do sumo. She laughed, stamped my passport and waved me through. I stayed, lived in a sumo stable with some of Japan’s top wrestlers and later wrote Sumo op Kantoor, a book about patience, humility and hierarchy at work.
Sumo and science have one thing in common. Both make perfect sense from the inside and very little from the outside. My work is translating one for an audience that has never been in the ring.
Questions about the Positioning Scan
What is a Positioning Scan?
A written assessment of how well your website, sales materials and public communication turn your science into a proposition clients understand and choose. It scores five elements: proposition clarity, customer focus, pricing power, differentiation and credibility.
Who is the Positioning Scan for?
CROs, laboratories and biotech companies with strong science and a story that still speaks from the inside out, about methods and capabilities instead of what the client stands to gain.
Who is the Positioning Scan not for?
Companies without public communication yet, such as a startup in stealth, because there is nothing a prospect can see to score. Anyone looking for a design review, because the scan looks at what your communication says and leaves how it looks to designers. Anyone who wants guaranteed leads, because the scan shows where the story loses clients and the leads come from the work that follows. And companies outside science, because my method and examples are built around labs, CROs and biotech. If you already know what is wrong and mainly need hands for execution, you can skip the scan. I also work interim.
What does the Positioning Scan cost and how long does it take?
The scan costs EUR 2,500 and is typically delivered within a week of kick-off, including a one-hour session with your management team. If you continue working with me within three months, the full amount is credited.
What do I need to provide?
Very little. One kick-off conversation of about an hour, plus your presentations and sales decks. I work mainly from what a prospect can already see: your website, sales materials and LinkedIn.
What happens after the scan?
That depends on what the scan finds. Usually it leads to one of three routes: sharpening the proposition, improving the execution or guiding your own marketer. I can also do that work interim. You can also take the scan and continue on your own.
