How to measure positioning
You roll out new positioning. Someone asks "how will we know if it's working?"
Instead of saying "we'll know because we did the research and picked something true," the team builds a measurement framework. Language convergence metrics. Self-qualification scores. Decision velocity indexes.
And then you wait. Watching the dashboard. Tweaking the messaging. A/B testing the homepage. Adjusting the sales deck.
Three quarters later, the pipeline hasn't moved. The measurement framework becomes an excuse to never fully commit. You're always "validating" and "iterating" instead of just running the play.
IMO positioning can’t really be measured. You want "leading indicators." You want "instrumentation." You want a dashboard that tells you positioning is "working" before you have to actually commit to anything.
What you really want is permission to keep hedging.
Strong Positioning Doesn't Need a Measurement Framework. It Needs Conviction.
The companies with the best positioning don't measure it like this. They just...know.
Stripe didn't need leading indicators to know "payments infrastructure for developers" was working. Figma didn't need a dashboard to tell them "design is becoming multiplayer."
They picked a position that was obviously true, went all-in, and let the market catch up. The need for elaborate measurement is usually a symptom that the positioning itself is weak. You're instrumenting it because you don't actually believe in it.
What You Should Actually Do
If you want to know whether positioning is working, answer three questions honestly:
Would your CEO bet their reputation on this position in public? Not "iterate toward it" or "test it." Bet on it. If the answer is no, the positioning isn't ready.
Can a new sales rep explain it after one conversation? Not after two weeks of training and a certification program. After one conversation. If it takes more than that, it's too complicated.
Do prospects immediately self-select in or out? Strong positioning repels as much as it attracts. If everyone thinks they're your ICP, your positioning does nothing.
That's it. That's the measurement framework.
If you can't answer those questions clearly, adding more metrics won't help. You don't have a measurement problem. You have a conviction problem.
The Real Reason Teams Over-Measure and What to Do Instead
Most things in marketing can and should be measured. But positioning shouldn’t be treated like a science experiment. Instead, it should be a strategic commitment. While your CEO and VP of Sales is asking for metrics to prove the positioning is working, your competitor picks a position, goes all-in, and owns the category before you've even finished your "validation phase."
Good positioning doesn't reveal itself through measurement. It reveals itself through commitment.
The hard work should be focused on the positioning itself. You listen to dozens of sales calls, you interview the entire GTM team, you interview your best customers, your early adopters, your closed losses, your quickest and slowest deals. You identify patterns - when do faces light up? What are your reps saying that gets head nods? What’s a turn on? What’s a turn off? The experimentation and measurement should really be happening here. Vigorous head nods should happen across your GTM team before you head to market with a new positioning.
When you actually execute with conviction, the market will tell you immediately if your positioning is right. You'll feel it in sales calls. You'll see it in win rates. You'll hear it when prospects say "finally, someone gets it."
If the position is wrong, the market will tell you that too. And no amount of metrics will save it.
The question isn't whether your measurement framework is sophisticated enough.
The question is whether you're brave enough to commit to a position before the data gives you permission.
Why I started Untold
The beginning of a new year creates space for reflection and honesty. A moment to ask yourself what you actually believe, what you’ve learned the hard way, and what you want the next chapter to be about.
This year, I’m doing something different and starting something new. It’s called Untold. And it exists because I believe the future of marketing looks fundamentally different from the past.
The shift I couldn’t ignore
I’ve spent my career inside marketing teams of every shape and size. I’ve led small teams. I’ve built functions from scratch. I’ve operated inside fast-growing companies where the answer to every problem was “hire another person.” For a long time, that made sense.
Marketing scaled by adding people because execution was expensive. Campaigns took weeks. Research took months. Content required entire teams. Strategy often drowned under the weight of production.
But something changed.
Over the last few years, and especially recently, I noticed that smaller teams were moving faster than they ever had before. Not because expectations were lower, but because leverage was higher. AI didn’t just speed things up. It changed the equation entirely.
Execution is no longer the bottleneck it once was. You don’t need armies of people to ship good work. You don’t need bloated org charts to operate at scale.
The marketing organization of the future won’t be built around headcount. It will be built around strategy. A small group of strategic operators will set direction, define the narrative, design the foundation, and then let AI scale the rest. The leverage shifts from execution to judgment. From volume to clarity. From doing more to choosing better. I believe that deeply.
So I’m building a company that helps teams make that transition.
That’s why Untold exists.
Why I stepped away from a full-time role
Starting Untold also meant walking away from something comfortable (like a full time gig). There’s freedom in working for yourself. That’s always been true. But what surprised me most wasn’t the autonomy, it was the clarity. As an outsider, you can see things more clearly. You can name what’s broken without navigating internal politics. You can say the uncomfortable thing. You can focus on what actually matters, not what’s easiest to agree on.
For the past few months, I have been working with a handful of founders and small marketing teams on positioning and ongoing marketing strategy.
I found that incredibly freeing. Inside companies, even the best ones, there are constraints. Feelings. Incentives. History. Power dynamics. All of that shapes what gets said and what stays unsaid. Outside, your only obligation is to the truth and to the work.
I wanted that.
I wanted to help teams see themselves more clearly, faster. To cut through noise. To build narratives and foundations that actually hold as everything else accelerates. Untold is intentionally small for that reason. It’s not an agency built on volume. It’s not about output for output’s sake. It’s about helping companies articulate who they are, what they stand for, and how they scale in a world where execution is no longer scarce.
The personal reason
There’s also another reason I started Untold, and it’s a deeply personal one. In 2023, I had cancer. I went through chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, more surgery, and more chemo. I’m doing well now, and I’m incredibly grateful for that. But experiences like that change you in ways that are hard to fully explain. It makes one thing painfully clear: time is not guaranteed.
Your calendar. Your plans. Your assumptions about “later.” All of that can disappear in an instant. What I came away with wasn’t fear. It was clarity.
The freedom to structure my time the way I want to is empowering. The ability to choose how I work, who I work with, and what I give my energy to feels essential, not indulgent. Starting Untold is my way of honoring that clarity.
Looking ahead
Untold is not about building the biggest company possible. It’s about building the right one.
One that reflects how marketing actually works now. One that enables small, strategic teams to out-perform large ones. One that helps companies build narratives and foundations that AI can scale responsibly and intelligently.
If this resonates with you, I’d love to hear more about your business and how I can help. Email me at alison@telluntoldtales.com.
— Alison