Most companies lose winnable deals because they're positioning themselves at the wrong level of the conversation. While competitors focus on feature comparisons and generic value propositions, the brands that consistently command premium pricing and customer loyalty have discovered a more sophisticated approach: differentiating on how well they help customers execute critical steps within their essential jobs.

At thrv, we use our proprietary and patented Jobs to be Done (JTBD) method to reveal how to build positioning strategy using Job Step Performance Differentiation—a methodology that moves beyond surface-level selling points to create genuinely defensible competitive advantages. This definitive guide shows how we help our portfolio companies identify the specific moments where customers struggle most, measure performance against those struggles, and craft go-to-market messaging that resonates at the deepest level of customer need.

Table of Contents

• The USP Problem: Why Traditional Positioning Fails the Modern Buyer
• From Features to Jobs: Our Strategic Shift That Changes Everything
• Our Customer Job Mapping Process: The Foundation for Differentiation
• Job Step Performance Analysis: Where True Competitive Advantage Lives
• Building CES-Driven Messaging Hierarchies That Convert
• Our Implementation Framework: From Analysis to Market Execution
• Measuring Success: KPIs for Job Step Performance Strategy
• From Traditional Positioning to Equity Value Creation
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The USP Problem: Why Traditional Positioning Fails the Modern Buyer

Traditional unique selling propositions create an illusion of differentiation while leaving companies vulnerable to competitive disruption. The fundamental flaw? Most USPs focus on what companies have rather than what customers actually need to accomplish.

Consider the typical B2B software positioning: "Our platform offers advanced analytics, intuitive dashboards, and seamless integrations." This approach assumes buyers evaluate solutions by comparing feature checklists. But research from the Journal of Business Strategy reveals that effective product positioning provides "excellent sales prediction capabilities" precisely because it aligns with how customers actually make decisions.

Buyers don't purchase features—they hire solutions to help them complete important jobs in their professional lives more effectively. When positioning speaks to the job rather than the tool, companies create competitive advantages that competitors can't easily replicate.

Our Jobs-to-be-Done Revolution

Our proprietary and patented Jobs-to-be-Done method transforms positioning from inside-out thinking (what we built) to outside-in strategy (what customers need to accomplish). This shift has profound implications for how our portfolio companies communicate value.

Clayton Christensen's famous milkshake study illustrates this perfectly. A fast-food chain discovered that customers "hired" milkshakes not for taste or nutrition, but to make their long, boring commute more interesting and satisfying. This job-defined positioning led to product innovations—thicker consistency for longer consumption time—that had nothing to do with traditional food metrics but everything to do with customer success.

For our portfolio companies, this means repositioning solutions around the professional jobs customers need to complete rather than the technical capabilities they've developed.

From Features to Jobs: Our Strategic Shift That Changes Everything

Our modern positioning strategy begins with understanding that customers don't buy products—they make progress in specific situations. This progress happens through a sequence of steps that collectively accomplish an important outcome in their professional lives.

Identifying the Core Job

The customer's job represents the fundamental progress they're trying to make. For example:

• A marketing director's job might be "evaluate campaign performance across channels"
• A supply chain manager's job could be "ensure inventory availability during demand fluctuations"
• A sales leader's job often involves "qualify prospects efficiently to focus on high-value opportunities"
  
  

Each core job breaks down into discrete steps that customers must execute to achieve their desired outcome. Understanding these steps reveals where solutions create the most meaningful advantage.

Our Job Step Hierarchy

Customer jobs follow predictable patterns:

• Define what needs to be accomplished
• Locate necessary resources or information
• Prepare inputs and conditions
• Execute the core activity
• Monitor progress and performance
• Modify based on results
• Confirm successful completion
• Store outcomes for future reference
  
  

Our positioning strength comes from identifying which steps matter most to customers and where solutions allow superior performance compared to alternatives.

Our Customer Job Mapping Process: The Foundation for Differentiation

Our effective job mapping requires systematic research to understand how customers currently accomplish their core jobs and where they experience the most friction. This process reveals positioning opportunities that traditional competitive analysis misses entirely.

Step 1: Define the Core Job

We start by identifying the fundamental outcome customers hire solutions to achieve. We use this framework:

Job Statement Structure: When [situation], I want to [outcome], so I can [benefit]

Example: "When quarterly budget reviews approach, I want to evaluate our marketing spend effectiveness across all channels, so I can optimize resource allocation for maximum ROI."

Step 2: Map the Complete Job Sequence

We document every step customers take from recognizing the need to achieving the desired outcome. We interview current customers to understand their actual process, not assumed workflow.

For the marketing evaluation example:

• Determine evaluation timeframe and scope
• Locate data from marketing platforms
• Ensure data accuracy and completeness
• Calculate performance metrics
• Identify patterns
• Compare results against goals and benchmarks
• Validate findings with relevant stakeholders
• Store analysis for future reference
  
  

Step 3: Research Customer Struggle Points

For each job step, we investigate where customers experience difficulty, spend excessive time, or achieve inconsistent results. These struggle points represent the greatest positioning opportunities.

We use Customer Effort Scores to quantify difficulty levels. CES measures the percentage of customers who report that it's difficult to satisfy each job step based on three criteria:

• Effort required to complete the step
• Speed of execution
• Accuracy of results
  
  

High effort scores indicate unmet customer needs and valuable targets for differentiation.

Job Step Performance Analysis: Where True Competitive Advantage Lives

Our Job Step Performance Differentiation focuses positioning on the specific moments where customers struggle most and where solutions deliver measurably superior results. This approach creates defensible advantages because competitors must match not just features, but customer outcomes.

Our Performance Analysis Matrix

We evaluate every job step across four dimensions:

Customer Effort Score (CES): What percentage of customers find this step difficult?

Competitive Performance: How well do current solutions address this step?

Solution Impact: How much improvement does our approach provide?

Business Value: What's the financial impact of improvement?

Steps with high customer effort, poor competitive solutions, strong differentiation potential, and significant business value become positioning focal points.

Calculating Competitive Advantage

For each high-priority job step, we measure performance improvement using concrete metrics:

• Speed improvement: "Reduce analysis time from 3 days to 2 hours"
• Accuracy improvement: "Increase forecast precision by 23%"
• Effort reduction: "Eliminate 15 manual data collection touchpoints"
  
  

These specific improvements become the foundation for compelling positioning statements that resonate with buyer priorities.

Speed and Accuracy: Our Universal Differentiators

All meaningful job step improvements ultimately improve speed or accuracy of execution. We position solutions around these measurable benefits:

Speed-focused positioning appeals to customers facing time pressure or capacity constraints. We emphasize how solutions accelerate job completion while maintaining quality standards.

Accuracy-focused positioning resonates with customers where mistakes create significant consequences. We highlight how our approach reduces errors and increases confidence in outcomes.

Building CES-Driven Messaging Hierarchies That Convert

We transform job step analysis into messaging that connects directly with customer struggles. This approach creates positioning statements that feel immediately relevant because they address the specific difficulties buyers experience in their current situation.

Primary Messaging: Address the Highest Effort Job Steps

We start with the job steps that generate the highest Customer Effort Scores. These represent the most compelling positioning opportunities.

Instead of: "Our platform provides advanced data visualization capabilities"

We use: "Stop wasting entire afternoons manually pulling performance data from six different marketing tools"

Our approach connects directly to customer struggle and positions solutions as relief from effort rather than additional capability.

Secondary Messaging: Quantify the Improvement Experience

We support primary messages with specific metrics that demonstrate improvement magnitude:

"Marketing teams using our platform complete quarterly reviews in 2 hours instead of 3 days, with 95% accuracy compared to 73% accuracy from manual processes."

This quantified approach makes the value proposition concrete and credible while addressing both speed and accuracy concerns.

Our Implementation Framework: From Analysis to Market Execution

We implement Job Step Performance Differentiation through a systematic process that transforms customer research into market-ready positioning strategies.

Phase 1: Research and Analysis

Customer Job Mapping: We conduct interviews with current customers to understand their complete job sequence and identify struggle points.

CES Measurement: Our AI-powered platform analyzes customer feedback and behavior to generate Customer Effort Scores for each job step.

Competitive Assessment: We evaluate how well current market solutions address high-effort job steps.

Phase 2: Strategy Development

Differentiation Identification: We pinpoint where solutions provide measurable advantages in speed or accuracy compared to alternatives.

Messaging Architecture: We create hierarchical messaging that leads with highest-effort job steps and supports with quantified improvements.

Value Proposition Validation: We test messaging with target customers to ensure resonance and clarity.

Phase 3: Market Execution

Sales Training: We align sales teams around job-focused conversations rather than feature demonstrations.

Marketing Alignment: We align all marketing materials around customer jobs and struggle points rather than solution capabilities.

Content Strategy: We create educational content that helps customers understand and optimize their job performance.

Measuring Success: KPIs for Job Step Performance Strategy

We track specific metrics to measure the effectiveness of our Job Step Performance Differentiation approach:

Customer Engagement Metrics

• Message Resonance: Increased engagement with job-focused content compared to feature-focused materials
• Sales Conversation Quality: Longer discovery calls and higher qualification rates
• Customer Understanding: Improved customer ability to articulate their specific job steps and struggle points

Business Performance Indicators

• Win Rate Improvement: Higher close rates when positioning focuses on job step performance
• Deal Size Growth: Larger average deal sizes when value connects to business outcomes
• Sales Cycle Acceleration: Faster decision-making when buyers understand job-specific value

Competitive Advantage Metrics

• Differentiation Strength: Reduced price sensitivity when positioning addresses unique struggle points
• Customer Retention: Higher renewal rates when solutions demonstrably improve job performance
• Market Position: Stronger competitive position in segments where job step advantages are clear
  
  

From Traditional Positioning to Equity Value Creation

Our Job Step Performance Differentiation approach creates sustainable competitive advantages that translate directly into equity value for our portfolio companies. By focusing on measurable customer outcomes rather than feature comparisons, companies build positions that competitors cannot easily replicate.

This methodology transforms positioning from a marketing exercise into a strategic advantage that drives customer acquisition, retention, and pricing power. When customers clearly understand how solutions improve their most difficult job steps, they become less price-sensitive and more loyal, creating the predictable revenue growth that drives equity value creation.

Our proprietary and patented JTBD method provides the framework and tools necessary to implement this sophisticated positioning approach at scale, helping our portfolio companies build defensible market positions that create lasting value.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is Job Step Performance Differentiation?

Job Step Performance Differentiation is a positioning strategy that focuses on how well a solution helps customers execute specific steps within their jobs-to-be-done. Instead of competing on features, companies differentiate based on measurable improvements in speed and accuracy for the job steps where customers struggle most.

How is this different from traditional unique selling propositions?

Traditional USPs focus on what companies have built (features, capabilities, benefits). Job Step Performance Differentiation focuses on what customers need to accomplish and where they struggle. This approach creates more defensible competitive advantages because it's harder for competitors to replicate specific customer outcomes than to match product features.

What are Customer Effort Scores and how do they help with positioning?

Customer Effort Scores (CES) measure the percentage of customers who find specific job steps difficult to complete. High CES scores indicate where customers struggle most, revealing the best opportunities for differentiation. By focusing positioning on reducing effort for high-CES job steps, companies can create more compelling value propositions.

How do you identify the most important job steps for differentiation?

We evaluate job steps based on four criteria: Customer Effort Score (how difficult customers find the step), competitive performance (how well current solutions address it), solution impact (how much improvement is possible), and business value (financial impact of improvement). Steps that score high across all dimensions become positioning focal points.

Can this approach work for both B2B and B2C companies?

Yes, Job Step Performance Differentiation works for both B2B and B2C companies. The key is understanding that all customers, whether businesses or consumers, hire products and services to help them make progress in specific situations. The jobs may be different, but the methodology remains the same.

How long does it take to implement Job Step Performance Differentiation?

Implementation typically takes 2-3 months, including customer research, job mapping, CES analysis, and messaging development. However, companies often see initial results in win rates and customer engagement within 4-6 weeks of implementing job-focused sales conversations.

What role does AI play in this positioning approach?

AI accelerates the analysis of customer feedback, behavior patterns, and job performance data to identify high-effort job steps at scale. Our AI-powered platform can process thousands of customer interactions to pinpoint exactly where customers struggle most, enabling faster and more accurate positioning decisions.

How do you measure the success of Job Step Performance Differentiation?

Success is measured through improved customer engagement (higher content engagement, longer sales conversations), better business performance (increased win rates, larger deal sizes, faster sales cycles), and stronger competitive advantages (reduced price sensitivity, higher retention rates, improved market position).