Consumer products rarely shift positioning, where positioning shifts are expected and normal for B2B products. As a result, some of the key concepts related to positioning consumer products are completely irrelevant for B2B products. In my book Sales Pitch, I discussed the differences between the ways consumer and business products are purchased. Most consumer products are low-stakes purchases, bought by an individual making a choice that hasn’t been deeply researched. Business purchases, on the other hand, are frequently deeply researched and considered high-stakes purchases with a group of folks involved in the decision-making process.
The first example that popped to mind when reading this piece was ServiceNow and the way it repositioned itself a couple of times in the last handful of years.
Would you say this also applies to later stage start ups that have multiple products that are under the same solution? For example, multiple robot applications that solve for warehouse automation. Would each new robot application that we launch change our positioning?
Additionally, what about when add-on products get released? Can those products change positioning as well? I would love a newsletter or podcast ep focused on add-on products and cross selling and upselling.
Btw I love your content. It has helped me tremendously in my career. Purchased both your books and listened to every episode of your podcast. Looking forward to season 2!
Often a new add-on product doesn't shift our overall positioning that much. Sometimes it just reinforces or makes stronger a point of value we were already talking about. Other times, a new add-on (or even a feature) can really change the value for customers and in that case, we might have to shift the positioning to take this into account.
The same is true if we are positioning a "suite" of products together. Often adding a new product to the suite would give us additional value to talk about, but not always.
And thanks so much - I'm glad you found my stuff useful!
Great sharing, I will find that if our product may be for an entire functional department such as the sales department, when we combine different modules of the product with different usage scenarios, we may attract details from different large departments. Different functions, such as sales training or sales operations, but will this cause confusion in positioning, especially when some functions are released at the same time.
Thank you very much for your response; it has further solidified my understanding. Additionally, after reviewing questions from other users, my takeaway is that in positioning, the paramount importance lies in maintaining robust, enduring, and stable consistency. Emphasis on positioning suggests that even when introducing value-added products or features, the goal should be to augment value points without causing misalignment in positioning.
It isn't easy! The first thing is to make sure that you aren't trying to react to "phantom" competitors. Just because a product exists and sounds like your product, doesn't mean that they are necessarily landing on customer short lists. Until a competitor is causing you pain, you can ignore them.
If a copycat competitor starts to win deals from you then you are going to have to position against them. In general copycats can do some of what you do, but not all of it. You are going to have to make the case for why the differences matter.
Really appreciated reading this! What you've detailed is true of what naturally occured with my own B2B business (before reading your book and understanding what positioning is!). Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch have been some of the most influential business books I have read. Thank you and keep up the great work, April!
Hi April - I have predominantly worked on B2C products and thanks for giving us valuable insights into positioning of the B2B products. As you have mentioned, positioning of the B2B products needs a different approach altogether and it also requires mindset shift too!
Very insightful! Very helpful. I love the commitment to regular checkins on positioning. So needed in B2B.
It's super important to check in. If you don't you risk have to react to an change that slowly snuck up on you (never fun).
Great piece! Can't wait for S2 of the positioning show 🥳
Thanks - me too!!
The first example that popped to mind when reading this piece was ServiceNow and the way it repositioned itself a couple of times in the last handful of years.
Would you say this also applies to later stage start ups that have multiple products that are under the same solution? For example, multiple robot applications that solve for warehouse automation. Would each new robot application that we launch change our positioning?
Additionally, what about when add-on products get released? Can those products change positioning as well? I would love a newsletter or podcast ep focused on add-on products and cross selling and upselling.
Btw I love your content. It has helped me tremendously in my career. Purchased both your books and listened to every episode of your podcast. Looking forward to season 2!
Often a new add-on product doesn't shift our overall positioning that much. Sometimes it just reinforces or makes stronger a point of value we were already talking about. Other times, a new add-on (or even a feature) can really change the value for customers and in that case, we might have to shift the positioning to take this into account.
The same is true if we are positioning a "suite" of products together. Often adding a new product to the suite would give us additional value to talk about, but not always.
And thanks so much - I'm glad you found my stuff useful!
Great sharing, I will find that if our product may be for an entire functional department such as the sales department, when we combine different modules of the product with different usage scenarios, we may attract details from different large departments. Different functions, such as sales training or sales operations, but will this cause confusion in positioning, especially when some functions are released at the same time.
In these cases we need to be very clear on who the best champion is for what we sell and make sure that we are focusing on selling to them.
Thank you very much for your response; it has further solidified my understanding. Additionally, after reviewing questions from other users, my takeaway is that in positioning, the paramount importance lies in maintaining robust, enduring, and stable consistency. Emphasis on positioning suggests that even when introducing value-added products or features, the goal should be to augment value points without causing misalignment in positioning.
How do you retain your positioning when there are many copy cat new entrants?
It isn't easy! The first thing is to make sure that you aren't trying to react to "phantom" competitors. Just because a product exists and sounds like your product, doesn't mean that they are necessarily landing on customer short lists. Until a competitor is causing you pain, you can ignore them.
If a copycat competitor starts to win deals from you then you are going to have to position against them. In general copycats can do some of what you do, but not all of it. You are going to have to make the case for why the differences matter.
Really appreciated reading this! What you've detailed is true of what naturally occured with my own B2B business (before reading your book and understanding what positioning is!). Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch have been some of the most influential business books I have read. Thank you and keep up the great work, April!
Hey thanks so much and I'm glad you found my stuff useful!!
Excellent insights. B2B positioning needs fairly regular positioning tweaking.
Almost always!
Hi April - I have predominantly worked on B2C products and thanks for giving us valuable insights into positioning of the B2B products. As you have mentioned, positioning of the B2B products needs a different approach altogether and it also requires mindset shift too!
We just launched without a clear idea whether we are B2C or B2B at this stage. This certainly makes things clearer.
Selling is "Re"-positioning.