Negative definition is the part of the content that openly states who the product or service is not suitable for, where its limits lie, and when it is better to choose another solution. Companies avoid it for fear of putting customers off, but in practice it works the other way round. In sales terms, it filters out inquiries that would end without a deal anyway, and it increases the trust of those who remain. In generative search it also has particular value: the assistant compares options and needs criteria by which to exclude some of them. If your limitations are not stated anywhere, the model will either guess at them or place you where you do not belong. Formulate them factually and without self-deprecation – minimum order size, industries you do not serve, situations where your solution is needlessly expensive. You will get fewer inquiries, but significantly better ones.
See also: Content gap in retrieval, Conversational funnel, Canonical brand answer.
