The short answer: a positioning is written with three Ps: the Person you solve a problem for, the Problem you solve, and the Period of their life in which you solve it. Everyone knows the first two. The third is the one almost nobody uses, and it is the one that decides urgency: same person, same problem, at two different moments are two completely different offers.

«Who do you work with?» «Professionals who want to grow.» Every time I hear an answer like that, I already know how that business is going: few clients, low prices, and the feeling of talking to an empty room.

It is not a talent problem. The positioning was written by half.

The first two Ps you already know

The Person: who they are, what they do, what world they live in. Not «professionals»: a person you could describe at dinner.

The Problem: what hurts right now, in the words they would use. Not «improve their communication», but «the pitch is in three weeks and I am not ready».

So far, any marketing course. And that is exactly where almost everyone stops.

The third P: the Period

In a coaching session, working on a client's positioning, the formula came out live:

«Same person, same problem, at two different moments. The period also defines the urgency.»

Take a singer who wants to protect their voice. Clear person, clear problem. But the same person with the same problem is worth two very different things at two moments: off season it is one thought among many, the week before a concert it is an emergency with a price.

The period answers the question your client is actually asking: why now? If your offer has no now, the market's answer is «interesting, I will think about it». Which is a polite no.

The toothache test

Nobody books a dentist for prevention with the urgency of a toothache. People pay when the urgency is felt, and the moment of pain is when your message has to show up.

Practical question: what is your person's toothache? In which period of their year or their life does it hurt? The pitch coming up, the new role just landed, the project about to start, the season opening. Your positioning lives there.

How to write it, in practice

One line, three Ps inside: I help [Person] with [Problem] when [Period].

  • I help singers protect their voice, in the weeks before a concert.
  • I help startups get understood by investors, while the round is open.
  • I help new team leads manage their former colleagues, in the first six months.

Notice what happens with the period inside: the price stops being a comparison with a thousand competitors and becomes the cost of not solving the problem now. And your content knows exactly when to show up.

THE RULE. Person, Problem, Period. Without the period there is no urgency. And without urgency you only sell with discounts.