Repositioning an established business is harder than starting

Aug 27
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

Starting from nothing, positioning is simply a choice. Repositioning an existing business means changing something that already exists in other people's heads.

Customers know what you do. Staff know how things work here. Referrers recommend you for particular jobs. All of that has to move, and none of it moves because you redesigned the website.

1. Repositioning an established business means changing existing beliefs

Understand what you are actually up against.

Years of accumulated impressions among customers, staff, suppliers and referral sources. Those impressions are the asset you built and the obstacle you now face, and they update slowly regardless of what you publish.

2. Be clear about why you are doing it

Repositioning is disruptive, so the reason should be substantial.

Margins eroding on your current work, a market declining, a better opportunity visible, or the business having drifted into work you do not want. If the reason is boredom or a slow quarter, the answer is probably something less drastic.

3. Start from where your reputation is already strongest

The path of least resistance and the most likely to succeed.

Look for the work you already do well, enjoy, and earn most from, and move toward that rather than toward something unrelated. Repositioning that extends an existing strength is credible; repositioning into an unconnected field is starting over with extra baggage.

4. Bring the staff with you first

The most commonly skipped step and the most damaging to skip.

Your team answers the phone and does the work. If they do not understand or believe the new position, they will describe the old business to every customer who asks, and the change will never reach anybody.

5. Move gradually rather than announcing a transformation

Sudden repositioning alarms existing customers.

Shift the emphasis, lead with the new work, change what you pursue, and let the old work reduce over time. A firm that appears to have abandoned what its clients buy provokes exactly the wrong conversation.

6. Tell your existing customers directly

They will hear about it and should hear it from you.

A straightforward explanation of what is changing, what it means for them, and whether you will still do their work. Silence allows them to assume the worst, which is usually that they are no longer wanted.

7. Update the referral sources deliberately

Referrers are working from old information and will keep sending old work.

Contact the people who recommend you and tell them what you are focusing on now. Otherwise you will spend two years declining referrals for work you no longer want, which damages those relationships more than the conversation would have.

8. Change the substance, not just the presentation

The failure mode of most repositioning exercises.

New words on the website while the service, pricing, process and capability remain identical. Repositioning that is only presentational is discovered quickly, and it converts a positioning problem into a credibility problem.

9. Give it long enough and measure the mix

Repositioning takes considerably longer than anybody expects.

Track the proportion of revenue coming from the new position, the type of enquiries arriving, and what referrers send you. Judge progress over a year or two, and expect the enquiry mix to shift well before the revenue does.

Write down what you want the business to be known for before changing anything outward-facing. Repositioning conducted without that written down drifts, because every individual decision seems reasonable in isolation.

Conclusion

Recognise that you are changing what other people already believe, which is slower and harder than establishing something new.

Be clear about a substantial reason for the change, build from the strength you already have rather than moving somewhere unrelated, bring your staff with you before anybody outside notices, shift gradually instead of announcing a transformation, tell existing customers directly what it means for them, deliberately re-brief the people who refer you, change the actual substance rather than only the wording, and measure the revenue and enquiry mix over a year or two rather than a quarter.