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April 18, 2024
April 18, 2024
Bob Wright, a B2B positioning expert and partner at Firebrick Consulting Inc., describes himself as a “possibilitarian.” In other words, he helps B2B tech companies develop positioning strategies and narratives that wake up the market with a fresh viewpoint and clearly articulate the transformational nature of their products.
"I get excited about positioning because every single company is a puzzle," Bob said. "It’s a high wire act, and I enjoy the variety and the intensity and showing companies a bigger version of themselves."
A facilitator, presenter and marketing expert, Bob enables B2B products and executives to build category leadership and drive differentiation. Bob and his firm have helped some 400-plus B2B tech companies, including Aruba, Calendly, Cisco, GitLab, New Relic and Workday, to disrupt markets, trailblaze new categories and drive substantial valuations.
In a recent interview with me, Bob outlined both his craft and recent trends that have elevated positioning to become a strategic lever for CEOs—all of which drives scale-up and dominant market positions. What follows is an edited version of our discussion:
First off, what is positioning and why does it matter?
Positioning is the place your company or product holds in the minds of your buyers. For example, if you think of cars and look at a Lamborghini, that luxury vehicle occupies a different place in your mind than a Hyundai. Positioning is key, particularly for B2B tech buyers, because these are considered decisions, with a number of buyers and influencers involved.
Positioning helps tech companies separate themselves from the pack in today’s crowded, noisy markets. Strong positioning creates urgency in sales cycles, turns ‘nice-to-have’ products into ‘must-haves’ and releases larger multi-million-dollar deals. Positioning builds category leadership and shapes buying criteria. This is important because category leaders enjoy two to four times the valuation of their competitors. I see a trend occurring where forward-thinking CEOs realize they must have a strong narrative to compete and bring their strategies alive. Positioning has become the CEO’s North Star to focus the company.
How does positioning differ from branding and messaging?
Within the B2B market, all three—branding, positioning and messaging—are important. But, there is a lot of confusion in the market about their roles. Branding is the corporate identity—it’s the visual identity, the voice and tone of your brand, which may last for five to 10 years. Messaging is the description of your products.
As I’ve said, positioning is different. Positioning is shaping a category and building category leadership.
<split-lines>"Marketing has leveraged positioning more narrowly as fodder for campaigns. Today, every category leader must have a strong narrative, elevating positioning to a strategic initiative."<split-lines>
Which stakeholders should be involved in a B2B positioning initiative, and why?
In the last few years, more and more positioning engagements are being initiated by CEOs and boards. The CEO is the executive sponsor for a positioning initiative; the CMO runs the process. But, if you do it well, positioning is a cross-company endeavor and should involve all aspects of the company—the executive team, sales, product, customer success, and strategy.
In the past, marketing has leveraged positioning more narrowly as fodder for campaigns. Today, every category leader must have a strong narrative, elevating positioning to a strategic initiative. The good news is that CMOs see positioning as a key lever and the fastest way to impact company strategy and revenue growth.
<split-lines>"What’s really fundamental to breakthrough positioning is shifting from a product-centric conversation about ‘how the product works’ to a buyer-centric conversation on ‘why the product matters.’"<split-lines>
Do you have any positioning principles that you always apply to your work?
Absolutely, the number-one positioning principle is: ‘It’s not about you.’ No company wants any more tech. Executive buyers don’t care how the product works; they want to know ‘why it matters’ to them.
What’s really fundamental to breakthrough positioning is shifting from a product-centric conversation about ‘how the product works’ to a buyer-centric conversation on ‘why the product matters.’ Winning positioning ‘sells the problem,’ not the product features. This is key: Own a problem—and be the provocative, informed source of the problem your solution solves.
Is positioning more of an art or a science?
I think it’s a combination of both. It requires a process as well as an art or craft, which is hard to do. How do you come up with a narrative—two words of a single sentence—to encapsulate all of this? How do you stay creative with your language and develop a viewpoint that wakes the market up? Can you be a provocative business leader within the context of what’s happening in the marketplace? That’s what takes the craft and the magic. But it must be grounded in a very thoughtful, industrialized process to build a container for the magic to happen.
What are the key signals indicating the need for positioning?
Usually, it can be an inflection point that’s calendar-driven, meaning there’s a sales kickoff or industry event and the executives have nothing new to say. Another event driving positioning is a launch or major release of a new product.
An additional signal pointing to the need for positioning is when we see sales reps take 38 slides and a demo to explain the product or every sales person is using a different deck. Other times, category leaders or market makers are threatened by competitors that suddenly appear to take advantage of the success of the emerging category. Pricing discounts and feature wars mean commodity, undifferentiated markets, which are bad places to be for most tech companies.
Then, there is the impact of mergers and acquisitions, as in: ‘I’ve acquired a company and suddenly 1+1=3. Who are we now, and what’s our shared vision?’ That also drives the need for positioning.
Finally, we often see product-led growth (PLG) companies eventually hop up to the enterprise and that’s when they’ll need positioning. Enterprise executive buyers are not using the product, so they need a conversation on ‘why it matters.’ The positioning shifts from ‘how it works’ to drive mass adoption to ‘why it matters’ to drive enterprise expansion. We’re seeing a lot of momentum from PLG companies needing this type of positioning.
How can positioning be measured? And when can you deem a project ‘successful’?
There are several primary metrics. From a revenue perspective: Has the positioning helped the company engage an executive buyer? Has their win-loss ratio improved? Have sales cycles collapsed, say, from six months to one month? Has positioning increased the average selling price of a deal? Does the story help sales command and justify a premium price?
There are also some category metrics, which may take longer to show up. For example, are the market analysts beginning to adopt your language or viewpoint? Is your company moving to the upper right-hand quadrant of the Forrester Wave or Gartner’s Magic Quadrant? Finally, is everyone in the company aligned and singing with one voice? Is everyone ‘on message?’
<split-lines>"I always say, when you’re tired of telling the story, that’s finally when the market is picking it up. It takes relentless, consistent reinforcement across all audiences."<split-lines>
Positioning is critical brand infrastructure. But how, exactly, does it ‘interact’ with broader brand communication functions such as PR or employee communications?
It’s critical, and a lot of companies fall down on operationalizing the positioning. It has to be connected to the brand and support those visuals, tone, themes and taglines.
When rolled out, positioning needs a formal launch plan, it’s not a single event. You need to decide on the rollout plan to multiple audiences—and build momentum over time. That means specific plans for employees, customers, your business development representative, the direct sales team and market or financial analysts. And of course, the positioning narrative and messages are content you use to drive campaigns and content strategy through various marketing channels.
I always say, when you’re tired of telling the story, that’s finally when the market is picking it up. It takes relentless, consistent reinforcement across all audiences.
