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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Messaging and Positioning Template: Testing
Use our testing template to refine your messaging and positioning for impact
Learn specific methods and questions to test to refine powerful messaging and positioning with our template for social impact leaders.
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This is part 7 in a series below.
This is a series about building and testing your messaging, positioning, and value proposition
#1 - Messaging & Positioning Template for Social Impact Leaders
#2 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Core Unmet Needs
#3 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Ideal Client Profile
#4 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Differentiator
#5 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Marketplace Category
#6 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Overcoming Objections I (Proof & Use Case)
#7 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Overcoming Objections II (Offers)
#8 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Testing
#9 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Learning from Data
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Testing for Commitment: True Signal
People often say they're interested in what you offer, but rarely take action. This happens because folks tend to avoid potential awkwardness or conflict.
To address this, we need to nudge our audience towards making a big decision, like a purchase, and then dig into their reasoning.
Getting to the "why" usually means having real conversations.
While marketing data or user experience testing can show you what people do, it often misses the why behind their actions. Once you're confident in your value proposition through these personal chats, your marketing and UX efforts are likely to pack more punch.
You might need to have dozens of conversations to really get it. This process ultimately turns you into an expert on your target audience, understanding what makes them tick and how they make decisions.
At Joyful Ventures, our innovation advisors specialize in helping social impact leaders like you create people-first innovation that maximize your and your organization’s impact.
Step 1: Clarity and Concision
Now that you've drafted your core positioning, it's time to sharpen your message into something that really clicks with your customers and prospects.
A) Use Their language
To connect more authentically with your audience, immerse yourself in their language. Draw from sales and customer notes on how they describe their problem or pain point.
If you’re lacking these, explore resources like Google’s “People also searched for,” Ahrefs, and Google’s keyword planner, or forums where they hang out (such as mailing lists, conferences, or online facebook groups) to discover the phrases that resonate with them.
By adopting their terminology, you can create a stronger bond and differentiate yourself from competitors.
B) Sharpen with AI
Consider how AI can help simplify your complex ideas into clear, engaging language.
Use tools like ChatGPT or Claude to generate tailored content by providing details about your target audience. If you don’t like those tools, consider Grammarly and Hemingway App to enhance clarity and ensure that every word contributes effectively.
For more on prompts to try, revisit the tips in Messaging and Positioning Template for Social Impact Leaders
C) Use Comprehension Tests
Finally, test your message through “comprehension tests.”
Share your materials with family, friends, or colleagues for 10-15 seconds and then ask them to recall what they saw and understood. Then immediately refine based on that discussion and see if comprehension improves.
Try this with multiple “friendlies” until comprehension is clear from the get go. Prioritize people you can get quick feedback from. For comprehension, it matters less that they’re your target segment, even if that is ideal.
Ultimately, this feedback will help you identify any confusing elements and refine your message until it aligns with your intended communication. The short duration also reflects real-world scenarios where audiences often engage with materials quickly.
Step 2: Sales Discovery - Core Unmet Needs
Now that you’ve spent a bit of time removing obvious ambiguities, it’s time to refine through sales discovery, which is typically the first step of any 1x1 sales process.
You're aiming for two things here: beefing up your evidence on what you think their unmet needs are, and seeing how well your value proposition hypothesis lands with your segment.
Uncovering and validating core unmet needs is the heart of the discovery process. We explored this in depth in prior posts in the series, and now we've got a set of questions to help you dig into these needs.
Here's the key: make these questions your own. Reword them, mix them up, and find a way to ask them that feels natural to you and your audience.
It's about finding your conversational groove. This takes practice, but it's worth the effort. Your goal is to make the interaction feel genuine, not like you're reading from a script.
Ultimately, spend about 50-75% of your time on discovery and 25-50% on solution testing. Adjust these ratios based on how confident you are in your assumptions.
A) Priority questions
When it comes to priority questions, focus on three main areas.
Improvement areas
First, pinpoint where customers are actively seeking better solutions. Ask them about their top priorities or goals where they need more help or improvement.
Remember, the key here is that you’re looking for unmet needs and gaps. Just because something is important to them doesn’t mean it is something they’re looking for help on it.
Stakes
Next, quantify the stakes. Understanding the consequences of inaction - and the potential rewards of solving the problem - can be incredibly powerful. This also helps you double check this is truly an important need worth diving into versus discovering 20 minutes into exploring the need that it wasn’t very meaningful at all.
Ask about the financial impact on their business or their clients if the issue isn't addressed. Where it feels natural, try to get specific numbers and how they arrived at them.
Limitations
Finally, uncover the limitations of their current solutions.
This is crucial - if customers express significant frustrations, you've found a golden opportunity to help. Ask about outstanding challenges that keep them searching for better solutions, or what's not working with their current approach.
Again, if they give you a long list, identify what is most important and dig deeper. For instance, check how they’re actively trying to solve the problem to confirm it’s a real problem. Time permitting, try digging deeper to identify deeper root causes and solution constraints.
Summary
Unmet need component | Question Example |
Prioritize improvement areas, not just importance | What are the top priorities or goals you’re looking for more help or improvement? If they share a large list, ask them to rate each from 1-5 in terms of areas of help desired, and focus the rest on the top item. |
Quantify the stakes | What are some of the consequences on your finances if this isn’t addressed? What about your clients / community? Where it feels natural in this or future conversations, get at specific numbers and how they derived them. |
Uncover deep-seated limitations of their current solutions. | What outstanding challenges keep you searching for better solutions? What’s most not working about your current solutions? If they share a large list, ask them to rate each from 1-5 in terms of areas of help desired, and focus the rest on the top item. See if they’ve actually spent resources trying to solve the problem to confirm this is a real problem. Often they’ll share specific solutions; make sure you get specific names and costs. |
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B) Additional questions
Current Solutions
If you have time for additional questions, focus on identifying current solutions and workarounds, along with their associated costs. I deprioritize this over limitations because the top solutions often come out naturally in answering that question.
Sources of learning
Also, explore their sources of learning - where they find information about tools and strategies to address their needs. These insights can help you understand what you need to differentiate against and provide further evidence that this is a problem they genuinely need help with.
Summary
Unmet need component | Question Example |
Identify the top current solutions and workarounds — and their costs. | What are you doing to address this need today? Name specific strategies, tools, and workarounds How much time or money are you spending on (solutions mentioned above)? |
Sources of learning | Where did you learn about the specific tools or workarounds above? Provide specific names. Name specific publications, communities, conferences, organizations, or thought leaders to find solutions to these types of needs. |
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C) Short survey
To make this more efficient, strongly consider sending a survey in advance for them to fill out that has multiple choice sections, which you can create based on prior research and hypotheses. You can refine these over time as you learn more about your segment.
Learn more about how to create an effective voice of customer survey
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If you are comfortable, if they don’t fill it out, I would even recommend spending 5 minutes at the start to ask them to fill it out in order to make the most of your time and go deeper on certain topics.
This can also aid you dramatically in making the most out of you qualitative data, helping you understand puzzling areas to go deeper into in the conversation.
Step 3: Sales Discovery - Ask for a Commitment
Even though this is scary to do, it is a critical part of your sales discovery process.
When you ask for a meaningful commitment, you get clear feedback on where your value proposition and positioning most resonates or falls down.
Successes here increase your evidence quality score for specific positioning statements. Remember, actions speak louder than words.
A) Priority Questions
Meaningful Call to Action
Share a meaningful call to action (CTA) and gauge their engagement willingness on a 1-5 scale. For high scores, proceed to "sell" and request a significant commitment. This might involve scheduling a demo, obtaining a development partner letter of intent, securing a waitlist deposit, or ideally, an actual purchase—the strongest interest indicator.
If they express a high willingness, consider going through your normal sales process, making sure you schedule next steps with them before the end of the call.
Changes
Next, inquire about factors that would increase their willingness. Identify their primary motivator and main question or concern. These insights serve as valuable data points for refining your approach and addressing potential obstacles.
I use 10/5 sometimes because sometimes people are nice and say 5/5 and aren't willing to share further. This gives them an opportunity to speak freely without worrying they're going to hurt your feelings.
Magic Wand
The "Magic Wand" question uncovers hidden needs and aspirations.
By encouraging creative thinking, you can identify unmet needs or novel solutions overlooked by competitors.
This insight shapes your value proposition, addressing both current pain points and future goals. It positions your offering as a comprehensive solution rather than a minor improvement.
Summary
Testing commitment | Question Example |
Share a meaningful call to action (CTA) | From 1-5 (high), what’s your interest in [Meaningful CTA]? |
Value proposition feedback | What would take you to a 5/5 or 10/5? What most resonates that you can’t get elsewhere? |
Magic Wand | If you had a magic wand, what kind of skills/expertise or support/guidance would you wish for? |
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B) Additional Questions
Much like the section on pure discovery of unmet needs, these are very useful but can be deprioritized if you face time constraints.
Who else
Inquiring about who else would benefit serves two purposes.
It expands your network of potential customers, possibly revealing new market segments. It also provides insight into how your current audience perceives your value proposition. Gathering contact information promptly enables direct follow-up and personalized outreach.
This information helps adjust your messaging, emphasizing aspects that resonate strongly with your target market.
Mailing list
Offering updates via a mailing list effectively maintains engagement over time. This approach allows sharing of valuable content, product updates, and industry insights, establishing your brand's expertise.
Analyzing engagement metrics from these communications deepens understanding of content that resonates with your audience. This information refines your value proposition, highlighting aspects that generate the most interest and response.
Frustrations
Understanding frustrations with your call to action provides crucial feedback for improving conversion. Identifying specific deterrents helps address concerns directly in your value proposition. This may involve clarifying benefits, tackling common objections by adding a bonus (see prior item in the series), or streamlining the commitment process.
Using this feedback to refine your approach can enhance the effectiveness of your calls to action and strengthen your overall value proposition.
Skill feedback
Finally, recognize that sales discovery is a skill that improves with practice. Dedicate 1-2 minutes at the end to request brief feedback, enabling you to enhance your technique for future interactions.
Testing commitment | Question Example |
Ask for lower commitment calls to action | Who else do you think would get value from our solution? Get name / contact info immediately if possible. Would you like to be kept up to date? I can add you to a regular mailing list and stay in touch about what I learn. |
Biggest frustration or issue with CTA | What do you hate most about [meaningful commitment]? |
Skill feedback | What would you recommend that I change for next time? What most resonated from our conversation? |
Marketplace Category | How would they describe your solution to a colleague? Who (or what workaround) do they see as your natural competitors? |
Sources of learning | Where would they expect to see the product discussed? |
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Step 4: Scaling outreach
Scaling outreach is about casting a wider net to further improve your confidence. But it works best when you've got a solid hypothesis to test.
Consider these methods if you're struggling to reach your target segment or if you're short on time, though keep in mind they might require some financial investment.
A) Surveys and Recruitment Platforms
Surveys to your larger list can be a great way to gather info from a larger group. They're good for collecting data, but not so hot for driving conversions.
To fix that, include a call to action that asks for a meaningful commitment. Make sure you've tested your questions in your sales discovery conversations first, so you know they're clear and on-point. If you're short on time for interviews, surveys can quickly pinpoint areas to dive deeper into.
You can also use specialized platforms to access your target market using services like User Interviews, Wynter, or Maze.
B) Communities
Think about where your target audience hangs out. Could be organizations, online or offline communities, events, nonprofits, or even just coffee shops and bookstores.
Partner with these spaces and contribute based on what you know about their needs and your strengths.
Start by attending and volunteering, then ramp up to things like guest posts, educational content, workshops, or developing small tools that support their goals.
After you've provided value, ask for feedback. If it feels naturally positive, maybe even ask for a testimonial.
For more on supercharging your outreach and finding your niche, see From Crickets to Conversions: Founder-Market Fit as Your Superpower
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C) Online Testing
There are quite a few ways to test things digitally to help you capture the advantages of scale. Here are a few best practices:
- Digital marketing campaigns: These let you test your message and conversion goals right away. Start marketing now in your identified go-to-market channels and see if people are taking your desired meaningful action after seeing your value proposition. Yes, you might "lose" some prospects, but don't let perfect be the enemy of good. You can always create campaigns to target "lost" prospects later.
- Post-conversion questions: Use these to better understand “the why.” You can embed these within the customer journey, use chatbots, or create automated follow-up emails. The easier it is for users to provide information at relevant times, the more likely they are to respond.
- Painted door tests: Consider using tools like painted door tests to quickly gauage interest in new offerings before fully developing them. This involves creating a landing page or advertisement for an idea that doesn't yet exist and measuring user engagement to assess demand. Just remember, this needs a large sample size and some upfront infrastructure to set up.
- A/B testing: This is a systematic way to test your messaging, comparing different options to see what works best. Tools like Optimizely can help you tweak things on your website or product to see what impact different options have on your goals. This is hard to do, however, if you don’t have a large sample size.
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Next: Systematically Learning from Data
Now that you've got these tools and exercises for testing commitment, you might be wondering, "What's next?"
A common challenge is making sense of all the data you've gathered, especially messy qualitative data.
How do you sift through it all to figure out your most promising segments and leads?
Don't worry, we've got you covered.
The next section will give you some practical tools to explore your data and turn those insights into action. We'll help you connect the dots and identify the opportunities that are really worth pursuing.
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See the next article in the series below
This is a series about building and testing your messaging, positioning, and value proposition
#1 - Messaging & Positioning Template for Social Impact Leaders
#2 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Core Unmet Needs
#3 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Ideal Client Profile
#4 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Differentiator
#5 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Marketplace Category
#6 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Overcoming Objections I (Proof & Use Case)
#7 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Overcoming Objections II (Offers)
#8 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Testing
#9 - Messaging & Positioning Template: Learning from Data
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