Build the Full MDP

Key Points:

0:00 – Workshop Wednesday Opening
Courtney opens the call with Gary and explains that he will walk through material coaches can use going forward.

1:05 – MDP Topic Introduced
Courtney explains that today’s session will cover deeper elements of Market Dominating Position.

1:30 – 5×5 MDP Creation System
Courtney introduces the 5×5 MDP Creation System and mentions that there is also a 5×3 version.

2:00 – Jumpstart 40 Connection
The session connects MDP to Jumpstart 40 and other elements already available inside the software.

2:53 – Advanced-Level Training
Courtney explains that this is not only beginner content. It is especially useful for coaches who want a deeper understanding of MDP.

3:11 – MDP Is Foundational
Courtney says Market Dominating Position is foundational to building a coaching practice and helping clients build stronger businesses.

4:23 – Business Coaching Is About MDP
Courtney simplifies business coaching as helping your own company or your client’s company strengthen its market position.

5:30 – Five Pillars From Jumpstart 40
Courtney identifies the five pillars: foundations, more leads, more conversions, more transactions, and more profits.

6:04 – Business Academy Videos
Courtney points coaches back to Business Academy videos two and three for deeper MDP training.

7:01 – Definition of MDP
Market Dominating Position is defined as any value-added, customer-perceived benefit or combination of benefits that differentiates a business from competitors.

7:44 – MDP Happens in the Mind of the Customer
Courtney emphasizes that market dominance is about how prospects and customers perceive you, not necessarily being the largest company in the market.

8:28 – Ideal Client Profile Matters
The MDP only works when it is built around the ideal clients you want to influence.

9:29 – Differentiation vs. Commoditization
If you are not differentiated, you become common. If you are common, your product or service becomes a commodity.

10:15 – No Competition in the Client’s Mind
A strong MDP can make you feel like the only logical choice to your ideal client.

11:03 – MDP Is Not Just a Statement
Courtney explains that the MDP statement is only one piece and should come after several strategic layers.

12:02 – Step One: Strategic Position
The first step is determining the strategic position you want to hold in the marketplace.

12:30 – Identify Niche and Unmet Need
Coaches must understand the niche, ideal client, and unmet needs they are positioned to solve.

13:12 – Step Two: Primary MDP
The second step is determining the primary MDP, which is the company’s core advantage.

13:33 – PAS as a Core Advantage
Focused.com coaches have a unique core advantage because they have access to the Profit Acceleration Software and the training around it.

14:00 – Competence Creates Confidence
The more competent coaches become with PAS and the training, the more confidence they develop, which becomes part of their advantage.

14:30 – Step Three: Supporting Business Model
The third step is determining how the business will deliver its products and services to the market.

15:00 – Delivery Model Choices
Delivery can include in-person, virtual, one-on-one, group, flash coaching, and other models.

15:31 – Step Four: Secondary MDP Elements
Secondary MDP elements reinforce the primary offer and include resources like group coaching, flash coaching, and Jumpstart 40 strategies.

16:00 – MDP Statement Comes Last
Courtney explains that the MDP statement or elevator pitch should be created only after the earlier strategic work is clear.

17:00 – Do Not Start With Pretty Words
The MDP statement should not be created by guessing, using flashy language, or simply asking AI to produce a catchy line.

18:33 – Different Niches Need Different Pitches
If a coach serves 10 different niches, they likely need 10 different pitches.

19:44 – MDP Does Not Mean Statement
Gary points out that Market Dominating Position includes market, dominating, and position, but none of those words mean statement.

20:38 – Statement as Description
Courtney compares the MDP statement to a description of a person. It describes the business, but it is not the whole business.

21:45 – The Statement Changes by Audience
The way you describe your MDP can change based on who you are speaking to.

22:34 – Five Pillars of Business Strategy
Courtney shows Jumpstart 40 and connects foundations, leads, conversions, transactions, and profits to business strategy.

23:33 – Do Not Forget SSP
Courtney introduces SSP: Service Selection and Pricing, explaining that this is where value is created.

24:04 – 5×5 MDP Creation Process
Courtney shows how the five MDP creation steps map against the five pillars of strategy.

25:30 – Strategic Position Across the Pillars
The target niche and unmet need shape the foundation, lead targeting, conversion relevance, demand fit, and profitability focus.

27:27 – Primary MDP Creates Pricing Power
A strong primary MDP creates a core promise, stronger conversion hook, value anchor, and pricing power.

29:14 – MDP Is Continuous Improvement
Courtney explains that even major companies are still working on their MDP. It is never fully perfected.

30:20 – Different Messages for Different Stages
Lead generation messaging, sales decision messaging, referral messaging, and pricing messaging all serve different purposes.

31:22 – Premium Perception and Pricing
The way you communicate value must match the price. A premium offer with bargain pricing creates incongruence.

32:31 – 5×3 MDP Value Delivery
Courtney introduces the 5×3 version, which maps service, selection, and pricing across the five pillars.

34:18 – Three Ways Value Is Experienced
Value is experienced through service, selection, and pricing.

35:41 – Service Categories
Courtney outlines service categories including convenience, speed, education and training, purchase risk, quality, security, and safety.

36:29 – Location as a Differentiator
Location can create uniqueness because no two physical businesses can occupy the exact same space at the same time.

37:14 – Convenience and Delivery Services
Convenience includes availability, order processing, delivery services, mobile services, payment terms, and other ways to reduce friction.

37:45 – Movie Theater Example
Courtney shares a movie theater example where adding child-friendly options made it easier for parents to attend movies.

38:47 – Selection Levers
Selection includes breadth, depth, models, versions, bundles, upgrades, and other ways to build a stronger offer mix.

39:36 – Pricing as Value Delivery
Pricing is part of value delivery because value is what a customer receives compared to what they pay.

40:20 – Service Mapped to the Five Pillars
Courtney explains how service standards, referrals, reviews, trust, convenience, renewals, and premium pricing connect to the five pillars.

42:11 – Selection Expands Entry Points
A broader product and service selection creates more entry points for leads and more ways to serve different buyer stages.

43:09 – Forgotten 99%
Courtney explains that a wider offer set helps coaches reach people beyond the 1% to 3% who are ready to buy now.

44:00 – Cross-Sell and Upsell Opportunities
A deeper offer mix creates more opportunities for cross-selling, upselling, bundles, and upgrades.

44:40 – Do Not Use Only 5% of PAS
Courtney warns coaches not to treat PAS like software they barely use. The deeper they go, the more they can offer.

45:26 – Go Deeper Into PAS
Coaches are encouraged to explore AI Dojo, templates, tools, and other resources to strengthen their true MDP.

46:07 – Understand Your Client’s Clients
Courtney explains that coaches must understand their own clients’ needs, but the real power comes from helping business owners understand their end-user customers’ hot buttons.

47:06 – The Real Trump Card
The strongest move is helping business-owner clients reinvent their businesses to deliver unique and superior value to their customers.

47:44 – Pricing and Margin Rules
Courtney explains that poor margins, thin margins, or negative margins prevent a business from becoming sustainable.

48:23 – Pricing Packages and Tiers
Pricing strategy includes entry offers, tiers, payment plans, subscriptions, memberships, and value-based pricing.

49:09 – Margin Optimization
Stronger MDP allows for better cash flow, stronger margins, and greater pricing power.

49:50 – MDP Creates and Delivers Value
Courtney summarizes that service selection and pricing create and deliver value, and value is what buyers pay for.

50:52 – Focused.com Built the Foundation
Courtney explains that Focused.com has built strategies, systems, technology, processes, and training to help coaches build stronger enterprises.

51:20 – More Conversions
Conversions depend on relevance, trust, value fit, preemptive objection handling, and easy decisions.

51:57 – Elegance Over Fragile Efficiency
Courtney defines elegance as efficiency without fragility, warning against cutting so much that the system breaks.

53:01 – One-Page Summary
Courtney shows a one-page summary tying together value delivery, strategy pillars, and MDP creation.

53:29 – Gary’s Question on Implementation
Gary asks how coaches should begin using this without becoming overwhelmed, both for themselves and with clients.

55:10 – Start With the Simulator and PAS
Courtney explains that coaches get a two-minute MDP video in the simulator report, then deeper implementation steps in PAS and Business Academy.

56:04 – Coaches Are Wiser Than They Think
Courtney says coaches at Focused.com already understand more about business and MDP than they may realize.

56:44 – Do Not Get Lost in Verticals
Instead of focusing too much on industry, age, gender, geography, or demographics, coaches should focus on hot button issues.

57:45 – Focus on Problems You Can Solve
The core niche for coaches is business owners who want to grow revenue, profit, and cash flow.

58:24 – PAS as the Coach’s Cornerstone
The Profit Acceleration Software is a cornerstone of the coach’s MDP because it gives them unique capacity.

59:11 – Help Clients Solve Their Clients’ Biggest Problems
Coaches should help business owners identify the biggest problems their own customers have and build value around solving those.

59:59 – PAS MDP Question Three
Courtney points to the third MDP question in PAS, which asks how to create an MDP that solves clients’ biggest problems and satisfies their greatest desires.

1:00:50 – PhD-Level MDP, Grade-School Implementation
Gary frames Courtney’s session as PhD-level MDP strategy that should be implemented at a grade-school level first.

1:01:23 – Crawl, Walk, Run
Gary reminds coaches not to feel overwhelmed. This is a journey from crawl to walk to run.

1:02:11 – Closing
The call closes with the reminder to think in pieces and not try to master everything at once.

Five Key Takeaways

• MDP is not a statement. It is the strategic position, core advantage, business model, supporting elements, and message that make a business the logical choice.
• The MDP statement should come last, after the real business strategy is clear.
• Service, selection, and pricing are how value is created and delivered.
• A strong MDP improves leads, conversions, transactions, profit, pricing power, retention, and lifetime value.
• Coaches should not get lost in industry labels. The real niche is business owners with hot button problems the coach can solve.

Notable Quotes

“Business coaching is all about MDP.”

“There is nothing in business or in business coaching that is more important than the market dominating position.”

“If you’re not differentiated, you’re common.”

“If you’re common, you’re engaging in commoditization.”

“Dominance does not mean that you have the largest market share.”

“The statement comes out of who is your market niche and unmet need.”

“The niche will determine the pitch.”

“Do not forget SSP.”

“Value is what you receive compared to the price you pay.”

“Don’t be one of those persons who would be tempted to go with the surface level of the Profit Acceleration Software.”

“Understand your business owner clients’ needs.”

“Help them to recreate a business that will focus on their end-user clients’ hot button issues.”

“Elegance is efficiency without fragility.”

“You are already wiser than you think.”

“Focus on people who have problems that you can solve.”

Action Steps from the Call

1. Rewatch Business Academy videos two and three on Market Dominating Position.
2. Review the MDP section inside PAS.
3. Study Jumpstart 40 beyond the surface level.
4. Do not start with the elevator pitch.
5. First identify the strategic position you want to hold.
6. Define the niche or audience you want to influence.
7. Identify their unmet needs and hot button issues.
8. Determine your primary MDP or core advantage.
9. Use PAS as part of your unique advantage.
10. Build your competence with PAS so confidence follows.
11. Choose a supporting business model for delivery.
12. Decide whether your model is one-on-one, group, flash, virtual, in-person, or a combination.
13. Identify secondary MDP elements that reinforce your main offer.
14. Explore Jumpstart 40 strategies as supporting MDP elements.
15. Only then create your MDP statement or elevator pitch.
16. Create different pitches for different niches when needed.
17. Map your MDP through the five pillars: foundations, leads, conversions, transactions, and profits.
18. Review your service, selection, and pricing as value drivers.
19. Look for ways to increase convenience, speed, education, quality, and reduced risk.
20. Expand your selection through bundles, tiers, add-ons, and upgrades.
21. Use pricing to support premium perception and margin strength.
22. Help clients understand their own customers’ biggest problems.
23. Help clients create unique and superior value for their end users.
24. Avoid overwhelming clients with everything at once.
25. Implement MDP in simple stages: crawl, walk, run.

Resources & Tools Mentioned

• Workshop Wednesday
• Market Dominating Position / MDP
• 5×5 MDP Creation System
• 5×3 MDP Value Delivery
• Jumpstart 40
• Jumpstart 12
• Business Academy
• First 90 Day Segment
• Profit Acceleration Software / PAS
• Profit Acceleration Simulator Report
• Service Selection and Pricing / SSP
• Five Pillars of Strategy
• Foundations
• More Leads
• More Conversions
• More Transactions
• More Profits
• Ideal Client Profile
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Geographics
• Business Profile
• Primary MDP
• Secondary MDP Elements
• MDP Statement
• Elevator Pitch
• Group Coaching
• Flash Coaching
• One-on-One Coaching
• AI Dojo
• Templates and Tools
• Referrals
• Reviews
• Bundles
• Upsells
• Cross-Sells
• Subscriptions
• Memberships
• Payment Plans
• Pricing Power
• Lifetime Value / LTV