Define your product’s positioning by articulating how it uniquely delivers value. Focus on being the best at something specific for a particular customer segment.
Deliberately define your product’s positioning rather than assuming it’s obvious. Always consider your product within the competitive landscape, avoiding isolation.
For tech companies, identify and dominate an underserved subsegment of the market. This strategy allows for initial success and provides a foundation for future expansion into broader markets.
Initially narrow your target market to a segment where you have a distinct advantage. This allows you to establish dominance before strategically expanding your reach.
Define your niche where you can be the absolute best, even if it’s a small market initially. Develop a clear expansion pathway to progressively larger markets.
Start by dominating a market segment too small for established leaders to notice. Gradually expand your market boundaries to challenge and eventually compete with larger incumbents.
Identify your unique, differentiated value that no competitor offers. Frame this value within a context that is easily understandable and relevant to your target customers.
To define positioning, first identify competitive alternatives. Then, articulate your differentiated capabilities and, crucially, explain the specific business value those unique features provide.
Avoid the mistake of only listing product features; instead, clearly explain the benefits and ‘why’ those features matter to the customer’s business. Help customers translate features into tangible value.
Frame your positioning to clearly answer “Why pick us over competitors?” Empathize with the buyer’s difficult decision-making process and differentiate your offering accordingly.
When crafting B2B sales narratives, ensure your story explicitly addresses “why pick us over the other guys.” Traditional “hero’s journey” storytelling often omits this crucial competitive comparison.
Develop a sales story that positions your product within the broader market, clearly illustrating where you fit and how you compare to alternatives. This helps customers understand competitive differentiation.
In sales conversations, discuss alternative solutions and competitors’ approaches, rather than solely focusing on your product. This educates the customer and highlights your unique advantages.
Structure B2B sales storytelling to empower customers to make confident decisions by outlining the entire market and the trade-offs associated with each solution, including your own.
Be aware that B2B deals frequently end in “no decision” due to buyer indecision and fear. Your positioning and sales process must actively help customers confidently make a choice.
Acknowledge that fear of making a bad decision is a primary driver in B2B purchases. Position your product as the safe, justifiable choice to mitigate this fear for buyers.
When competing against market leaders, understand that choosing your product is perceived as risky. Emphasize unique advantages or niche suitability to justify the perceived risk.
Study research on B2B customer indecision, such as “The Jolt Effect,” to understand its prevalence (40-60% of deals end in no decision). This knowledge should inform and shape your B2B sales and positioning strategies.
Recognize that B2B purchases involve multiple stakeholders (5-11 on average). Tailor your approach to address the diverse needs and concerns of each individual in the buying committee.
Tailor B2B communication to specialized buyers. Do not “dumb down” messaging for a general audience, as it only needs to resonate with the specific target customer.
Use positioning to establish immediate context for your product. This helps customers quickly understand what the product is, its purpose, and why it’s relevant to them, serving as a conversation starter.
To stand out in a crowded market, communicate your product’s essence, value, target audience, and differentiation with extreme clarity and succinctness. This helps break through the constant noise.
Develop and articulate a distinct point of view on the market and the problem you solve. Guide customers to understand the problem from your unique perspective, leading them to see your product as the optimal solution.
For truly innovative or emerging products, actively define the market category and its vocabulary. Coin terms for the category and key concepts to shape customer understanding and gain a competitive advantage.
In emerging markets, educate customers to become aware of problems they didn’t realize they had. Once problem awareness is established, present your product as the solution.
Identify key influencers and advisory bodies (e.g., Gartner, Deloitte, podcasters) that your target customers consult. Invest in educating these influencers to ensure they understand and position your product favorably.
Establish positioning as a cross-functional team effort, involving product, marketing, sales, customer success, and support. This ensures alignment and incorporates diverse customer insights for a robust strategy.
Designate marketing as the steward of established positioning to ensure consistent application across all sales and marketing communications. This maintains alignment post-decision.
Assign a person or team to monitor market changes and advocate for re-evaluating positioning when necessary. This ensures your strategy remains relevant and effective over time.
When fundraising, articulate a long-term vision for market expansion and revenue growth. For immediate business goals, focus on being the best in a small, specific area to secure initial deals.
Conduct thorough customer discovery by interviewing potential customers to validate market assumptions before product development. This helps ensure you’re building something people will pay for.
If customers frequently ask to “go back to the beginning” or appear confused during sales pitches, it indicates weak positioning. This signals a need to clarify your product’s fundamental context and value.
A sign of weak positioning is when customers incorrectly categorize your product or compare it to irrelevant competitors. This requires re-framing your product’s context to guide accurate comparisons.
If prospects understand your product and competitors but question its value or why they should pay for it, your positioning fails to convey sufficient benefit. Re-emphasize the unique value proposition.
Do not treat positioning as a superficial marketing exercise involving just new words. Ensure positioning is deeply understood and integrated across sales and product teams to reflect the true value of the product.
Avoid attempting category creation if your product clearly fits an existing market category. Forcing a new category can confuse customers and make selling more difficult than leveraging an established, albeit niche, position.
When selling products that prevent negative outcomes (e.g., cybersecurity), focus your sales pitch on the benefit of prevention rather than technical features. Emphasize how your product ensures the customer avoids undesirable consequences.
Recognize that effective B2B marketing skills are primarily learned through hands-on experience within companies. Practical application and on-the-ground learning are crucial for success.
Structure your career and life to focus on your strengths and what you excel at, minimizing time spent on weaknesses or undesirable tasks. This approach leads to greater satisfaction and impact.
Assess your positioning by measuring how quickly new prospects grasp your product’s purpose, differentiation, and value. Good positioning leads to rapid understanding and “aha!” moments.