The goal of market positioning is to gain a sales advantage over your competitors by occupying a distinct and advantageous place in the minds of buyers. If done correctly, the dividends are huge. History has shown that well-positioned brands—like Apple, Whole Foods, and Tesla—grow faster and have fatter profit margins than their poorly positioned competitors.

Good market positioning offers benefits to any brand, including law firms. However, getting your positioning right isn’t easy. It requires that you consider lots of difficult questions, like which market segments to target and which ones to cede to the competition. Answering these questions is especially difficult for law firms, many of which have a consensus-driven culture and serve a broad array of client types.