Saying what you are in one sentence

Before any channel work, we run this. It takes an hour and it decides everything downstream — a campaign for a company that cannot say what it is will be a well-executed campaign for nobody.

The questions, in order

1. 1What category are you in? Not what you would like to invent — what a buyer already has a budget line for.
2. 2Who is the alternative? Usually not a competitor. Usually a spreadsheet, an agency, or doing nothing.
3. 3What do you do that the alternative cannot? One thing. If you have three, you have not chosen.
4. 4Who is it most true for? The narrower the answer, the better every ad you write afterwards.
5. 5What is the proof? A number, a customer, a demo. An unprovable claim is a claim you cannot lead with.

The sentence

Then it is one sentence, in this shape:

For [who], [product] is the [category] that [the one thing], unlike [the alternative].

It will be ugly. It is not copy — it is the thing copy is written from.

How you know it is right

Two tests. Somebody outside the company can repeat it back after hearing it once. And a salesperson can say it on a call without wincing.