Thanks for all the responses! I’m delighted to see this sparked some lively debate.

If you missed yesterday, we’re debating which consulting quadrant Seinfeld’s Newman was playing in when he came in to rid Elaine’s muffin top bakery of the growing piles of remnant muffin stumps (by eating them himself).

First off, note that your client doesn’t care how you classify on this matrix.

What matters to the client is:

• The problem gets resolved
• The rate is in line with the cost of the problem

Further, Newman could’ve helped Elaine from any quadrant:

Spaghetti-thrower

• E.g. Newman markets himself as able to make any problem go away, for a custom price

Tradesperson

• E.g. Markets himself as a junk-removal service, for $500 per occurrence

Special ops

• E.g. Markets himself as a food disposal service for restaurants & bakeries, for $500 weekly

Trusted fixer

• E.g. Markets himself as a problem solver for distressed businesses, for a custom price

Again, the client doesn’t care what archetype he’s following.

Rather, the archetype represents Newman’s decision about how to position himself in the market to find clients like Elaine.

So let’s see what he chose.

Elaine tells us in the episode Newman markets himself as:

“The Cleaner: I make problems go away”

Based on this positioning statement, I’d classify him as a spaghetti-thrower:

• Customized offering - any problem, custom solution
• Generalist - no qualifier on who he serves

Important lesson here: you CAN get work as a spaghetti-thrower.

Newman’s positioning spoke to Elaine’s circumstance, and as a result, Newman was able to close the deal.

However, this deal may not be particularly replicable.

How many similar emergencies can he count on?

And could he even manage to handle (eat) more than one?!

If not, did he charge Elaine enough on this single engagement to make this a viable business for himself?

Perhaps he could attract more clients by specializing.

Perhaps that specialization could allow him to charge even higher rates.

Then again, we don't know his business goals. Perhaps he’s fine operating where he is.

The takeaway? There’s no single “right” way to position yourself.

In fact, balancing your product, your target market, and your messaging could net hundreds of different positioning options across the 4 archetypes.

The key is to be intentional in testing out positioning hypotheses against your business goals, and then be open to adjusting as needed.

As such, the Consulting Quandary framework can be considered a starting point for positioning, not an answer key.

💡

-Wes