How CEOs Extract Positioning Data From Client Calls

The Positioning Gold You're Losing in Every Client Call

The positioning data you need to differentiate your business is sitting in your client conversations right now. And you're losing every word of it.

Someone sends you a thank-you card. It sits on a desk. A client emails to say you've changed everything for their business. That email lives in one person's inbox. Your team takes a discovery call and learns exactly why prospects choose you. That insight stays in their head.

Meanwhile, you're in a strategy meeting asking: "What should we be saying about ourselves? How do we differentiate?"

The answer is in your business already. You're just not systematically capturing it.

After 25+ years working with L'Oréal, Colgate, Volkswagen, and Ryanair, I learned how brands build positioning: they don't make it up. They listen to how their market describes value, then amplify that language back.

The brands that win aren't necessarily the best. They're the ones who spotted what customers say—and built their entire positioning around it.

You're doing the exact same work with your clients. Except you're not capturing it.

Why Everyone Sounds Exactly the Same

I can spot generic language instantly. When leaders describe their work with words like "transformation," "excellence," "solutions"—they've defaulted to industry speak instead of client language.

What happens: You're deep in delivery mode. Thinking in frameworks, methodologies, systems. That's YOUR language—how you process expertise internally.

Clients aren't thinking that way. They're thinking: "I was drowning. Now I'm not." "I questioned whether I even wanted to run this business. Now I'm excited again."

That gap between how you think about your work and how they experience it? That's where undifferentiated positioning comes from.

I was working with a client recently who's scaling her business from multi-six to seven figures. Exceptional at delivery. Clients genuinely love working with her. But when it came to describing what she does, she'd fallen into exactly this trap—generic industry language that could describe anyone.

I stopped the conversation. "Tell me what's happening for your clients when they work with you. Not your methodology. What changes for them?"

She paused.

Clients come to her overwhelmed. Team dysfunction. Management crises. Questioning whether they even want to be doing this anymore.

She implements frameworks. Builds systems. Helps them restructure. Then? They have bandwidth again. Can think strategically instead of firefighting. Remember why they started the business.

They fall back in love with their business.

Bang on. That's not generic language. That's powerful, specific positioning that differentiates her from every competitor using "solutions" and "excellence."

But she didn't invent that phrase. It came from listening to what clients say when they describe working with her.

What's Really Happening in Your Client Conversations

Let's be honest about what you're sitting on.

You're brilliant in client conversations. Ask the questions that matter. Uncover real problems. Clients are grateful—genuinely grateful—for what you've helped them achieve.

That gratitude shows up as LinkedIn comments never screenshotted. Thank-you cards that go in drawers. Testimonial emails scattered across three people's inboxes. Discovery calls where prospects reveal exactly why they're choosing you, but no one writes it down.

I get it. You're running a serious business. You don't have time to be screenshotting social media or building testimonial repositories. Feels like admin work.

Except it's not admin. It's market positioning data.

The information you need to fix your positioning problem is flowing through your business right now. You're just not capturing it systematically.

The Two Questions That Change Everything

What I gave my client isn't a marketing exercise—it's fundamental business data that serves two purposes: better client service AND better market positioning.

Question One: "What changed for you?"

For existing clients, ask this systematically. Not what you did. What they experienced.

In client review meetings. When wrapping projects. During check-ins after implementing solutions.

"What changed for you between when we started and now?"

The answers are a goldmine. Your testimonial language. Case study material. Your positioning—in their words, not yours.

Question Two: "If you had a magic wand, what would your business look like in Q1 2026? And why isn't that the case now?"

For prospects AND current clients, ask them to describe their ideal state. Then ask about the barrier.

This reveals the real problem. Not the one they initially described. The obstacle preventing them from having what they want.

When you understand that barrier, you position yourself as removing it. Not solving a surface problem. Addressing the real obstacle.

My client needs her team asking these questions on discovery calls, in strategy sessions, during planning meetings. Because when you understand what prospects want—not what you assume they need—you can position yourself accordingly.

Why This Can't Just Be Your Job

Most leaders think visibility is the MD's concern. The founder's responsibility. Leadership's job.

Except you're not in every client conversation. Team members hear things you don't. Get emails you never see. They're on delivery calls where clients say things like "This changed everything."

Those insights are trapped.

Everyone on your team needs to be asking these questions. And you need one central place to capture the answers.

Not complicated. A Trello board. Notion database. A field in your CRM. Somewhere every team member can drop:

• Client quotes about what changed
• Screenshot testimonials
• Photos of thank-you cards
• Discovery call notes about what prospects want

Make it dead simple: "If a client says something brilliant, screenshot it and drop it here."

What Happens When You Build This System

Once you systematise this, three things change:

You solve the "what should we post about?" problem. Instead of inventing content, you're mining client language. Look at your repository and see: "Last ten clients came to us for these reasons. This is what changed for them. This is their exact language."

That IS your content strategy.

You identify patterns you couldn't see before. When only leadership captures insights, you get individual data points. When your whole team feeds a central system, you spot patterns:

"Three clients this month used the phrase 'fell back in love with my business.'" "Every new client in Q4 came to us because of team dysfunction." "Five testimonials mention 'finally having bandwidth to think strategically.'"

Those patterns are your positioning. What differentiates you from competitors using generic language.

You can report on it. Go into your CRM and pull information: "Why did new clients reach out last quarter?"

That informs which services to emphasise, how to train your team on messaging, what language to use in business development, where real market demand sits.

This isn't marketing. This is strategic business data that happens to fix your visibility problem.

What This Looks Like in Practice

The before and after:

Before: "What should we post about this week?"

After: "Four clients said they 'fell back in love with their business.' That's our positioning."

Before: "How do we differentiate?"

After: "Last ten clients came to us because of team dysfunction destroying morale. That's our focus."

Before: "What do clients value?"

After: "What changed in their words: 'I have bandwidth now.' 'I can think strategically.' 'My management team has confidence again.'"

The information was always there. You've just systematized the capture.

Where to Start

If you're reading this thinking "We're losing market data every day," do this:

This week, choose your system. Trello, Notion, your CRM. Set up one place where team members capture client language.

This month, train your team on both questions. Make it part of how they work, not an additional task.

This quarter, review captured insights monthly. Look for patterns. Pull out differentiating language. Use it in positioning, content, business development.

Your expertise deserves recognition at your level. But recognition starts with systematically capturing what's flowing through your business right now.

Stop losing what clients say. Start building the system that captures it.

Your generic positioning problem will disappear.

After 25+ years in strategic communication for L'Oréal, Colgate, Volkswagen, and Ryanair—working on high-stakes negotiations and award-winning campaigns—what qualifies me to advise on this: I've seen how global brands build positioning. They don't make it up. They capture what their market says, then amplify it back.

You can do exactly the same thing.

Ready to stop losing positioning gold in client conversations? My Strategic Visibility for Ambitious Leaders service helps established CEOs, MDs, NEDs, and senior consultants leverage their expertise into the online authority it deserves. This isn't about building a personal brand—it's about strategic communication that ensures your visibility matches your professional success. Book a strategic consultation to discuss how systematic positioning can transform your market advantage.