The Chasm Positioning Formula
Technology leaders who have specialised and committed to THIS problem — respect the incumbent, outclass the peers.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 88%
Moore claims the positioning statement for a chasm crossing is literally the same shape every time, which makes it one of the rare fill-in-the-blank strategic artefacts. You sit between two competitor classes: incumbent vendors who own the domain but lack the technology, and technology peers who have equal or better technology but no commitment to the domain. Your position is the intersection: the technology leader who has specialised in this problem.
Origin
Geoffrey Moore, from the Crossing the Chasm playbook; presented on this episode as 'the positioning formula is absolutely the same every time.'
Core principles
- 01Two competitor classes exist in every beachhead: the incumbent (knows the business, lacks the tech) and the technology peer (has the tech, has no domain commitment).
- 02Positioning is a claim about commitment, not about features.
- 03Explicitly respect the incumbent — you are not asking the buyer to rip them out, which would raise risk in a risk-averse decision.
- 04Be aggressive only about the narrow quadrant you have claimed: anyone who enters it gets crushed.
- 05This works precisely because the segment is narrow. The claim is unfalsifiable at the Fortune-500 level and unbeatable at the segment level.
How to run it
- 1
Name the incumbent vendor and concede the domain
Identify who is currently serving the segment with the deteriorating band-aid fix. State openly that they understand the business and that you have huge respect for them — but they do not have the new technology and cannot solve this problem.
Pro tip Explicitly saying 'we're not asking you to kick them out' removes the biggest risk objection in the room.
- 2
Name the technology peers and concede the technology
Identify competitors with technology as good as yours, possibly better. Concede it. Then draw the distinction: they are not committed to this domain — they would not recognise the customer's problem in a lineup.
Watch out Do not try to win on a technology superiority claim you cannot defend. Win on commitment, which you can.
- 3
Claim the intersection and defend it absolutely
State the position: we are the technology leaders who have specialised and committed to solving this problem. Then make the quadrant claim: nobody is going to handle this problem, with this technology, the way we will. Anyone who comes into our quadrant, we will beat.
Pro tip Pair this with the over-commitment close: we will take this problem off the table and we are not leaving until you're satisfied.
Watch out This positioning only holds while you stay narrow. Widen the segment and the domain-commitment claim evaporates.
In the wild
Moore's phrasing for the peer competitor: 'we also have respect for our peers but frankly they wouldn't recognise your problem in a lineup.' The technology is comparable; the domain understanding is not.
→ The buyer's decision criterion shifts from technology comparison (where you may lose) to problem commitment (where you win by construction).
Against pharma's incumbent document vendors (who understood pharma but had no document database) and against general database vendors (who had the tech but no commitment to drug approval filings), Documentum occupied the intersection: the technology leader specialised in new drug approval documentation.
→ A defensible, uncontested quadrant that let it dominate the segment and then expand along adjacencies.
Common mistakes
Positioning against the incumbent as an enemy
Asking a pragmatist to rip out a trusted incumbent multiplies the perceived risk of a decision that is already risk-bearing. Respect the incumbent and carve out only the problem they cannot solve.
Positioning on technology superiority
Your technology peers may genuinely have better technology. A positioning claim you cannot defend collapses in the buying committee. Commitment to the domain is the claim only you can make.
Is it for you?
Best for
B2B founders and marketers writing positioning for a specific beachhead segment during a chasm crossing
Not ideal for
Tornado-phase horizontal positioning, where the category is established and the fight is over market share, not domain commitment
From the transcript
“your positioning is we are the technology leaders who have”
“we have huge respect for your incumbent vendor we're not asking you to kick them out they just can't solve this problem”
“if anybody comes into our quadrant we're going to kick their ass”
From the episode
Geoffrey Moore on finding your beachhead, crossing the chasm, and dominating a market