Reinvent your positioning
How to increase wins rates in today’s dynamic B2B SaaS world.
You’re a B2B SaaS buyer. Looking at the examples below, which do you buy?
Headlines from 2023 B2B SaaS companies
Positioning, like the keystone of an archway, bears the weight of your buyers’ future commitments. If poorly executed, you’ll create customer confusion.
When executed well, positioning builds cross-functional consistency.
Why?
Because at any time, different people across departments within your organization talk to current and future customers in varied contexts.
To understand this, let’s look at today in data:
2023’s dynamic B2B SaaS market context
In 1981, Al Ries and Jack Trout, wrote, Positioning, The Battle for Your Mind. They didn’t invent positioning, but it was the first book that documented a strategy for it. This management classic innovated sales and marketing. Now, 42 years later, it’s important to recognize what still applies and what’s evolved.
Concisely:
B2B has grown into a $14.26 trillion market in the US.
80% of B2B companies use buying committees for purchasing decisions.
Naming is important but much broader due to the creation of new categories.
So, how do you go about building modern positioning and making it stick?
First, let’s define what positioning is and what it isn’t. Then, let’s diagnose whether you have an issue.
Positioning is a business strategy that defines how your customers will know you and like what you do, and choose you repeatedly because they prefer you over your competition.
It explicitly states your value to a defined set of target customers (e.g., Ideal Customer Profiles) within a defined target market.
What positioning is and isn’t
The system’s complexity depends on your business stage or maturity.
For example, are you landing your first customer? Expanding into a new industry vertical or geography? Or do you want to increase customer retention?
The following chart shows goals, problems, objectives, and metrics by stage of business maturity.
Positioning evolves with business maturity
Foundational components of positioning are the company vision, market context, customer problems you solve or value drivers, and current product capabilities.
Positioning evolves with your product, customers, market context, and business sophistication. It isn’t static.
So, when should you rethink your positioning?
If you’re at an early-stage company, ask 10 colleagues what your company does. Do you receive 10 different answers? If so, there’s an issue.
At a later stage company, there's an issue if you notice significant digital waste, elongated sales cycles, or heavy customer churn.
If your business relies on tactics instead of a keystone strategy, it’s time to take another look.
In today’s dynamic B2B SaaS world, companies with strong positioning are winning.
Now is the time.
Tim Hillison, Founder & CMO of Entry Point 1, has launched over $1B in products and campaigns for global giants like Visa, Microsoft, and PayPal, and has led marketing for category-defining B2B SaaS companies across the US, EMEA, and APAC. He’s also spearheaded go-to-market strategy for Fortune 1000 clients at PwC and Cognizant Technology Solutions. Currently, he specializes in scaling startups and transforming scaleups. Find out more at www.entrypoint1.com.
