Product Positioning Strategy 📦

So, this week we’re talking about products. I know, a nice change from a lot of the AI stuff isn’t it …hehe! 😅 

For everyone working with products, product positioning defines how your product is the best in the world at delivering value to a specific set of customers. It's an input to almost everything in marketing and sales, from messaging to sales pitches.

Weak positioning leads to confusion, longer sales cycles, and lost deals.

On the other hand, strong positioning leads to sales meetings where customers quickly grasp your value proposition and are ready to discuss pricing and implementation details.

This approach, is developed through years of experience in B2B tech companies, provides a structured way to articulate your product's unique value and appeal to the right customers.

Identify Competitive Alternatives

These aren't just direct competitors but also include competitive alternatives–how customers solve the problem today without your product. Understanding these alternatives is crucial for effective positioning.

For a customer service software company like Help Scout, competitive alternatives might include:

• Shared email inboxes (e.g., [email protected])

• Generic help desk software (e.g., Zendesk)

• Manual processes or spreadsheets

• Legacy systems not designed for customer service but being used for that purpose

• Doing nothing (in rare cases)

Define Your Differentiated Capabilities

Next, identify the unique features and capabilities that set your product apart from the competitive alternatives. These should be things that your competitors can't or don't offer.

The key is to identify capabilities that solve real, pressing customer problems.Perhaps, in a lifestyle-based visual manner?!

For Help Scout, differentiated capabilities might include:

• A user interface that looks like a familiar shared inbox

• Advanced features like prioritisation and assignments

• A focus on delivering a fantastic customer experience rather than just reducing costs (customer is always first as that drives revenue)

• The ability for customers to choose their preferred communication channel (email, chat, phone)

• Personalised interactions (e.g., addressing customers by name instead of ticket numbers)

• Features designed to improve customer loyalty and increase purchase size

Translate Capabilities Into Customer Value

This step is crucial for turning features into benefits that resonate with decision-makers. Most product Guru’s emphasises that this is often the hardest step, as value is in the eye of the beholder and may take time to emerge as a clear competitive advantage. So, don’t over think this!

To uncover true value, conduct win/loss analysis interviews with customers. Ask about their decision process, what triggered their search for a solution, and why they chose you over alternatives. Real feedback drives REAL future business and not business analysis fatigue or oversight.

Ask customer feedback questions like:

• What were you doing before you started using our product?

• What made you wake up one morning and decide you couldn't keep doing it that way?

• Who else did you consider, and how did you make that list?

• Why did you choose us and not the other options?

• Now that you're using the product, has anything surprised you (positively or negatively)?

The value of Help Scout's familiar shared-inbox interface is that it's easy for sales reps to get up and running quickly. There's no lengthy training period, so a business can use it immediately, avoiding a backlog of tickets during implementation. I know, you all sales man/woman reading this went “PHEW!” on that front 😉

Help Scout's customer-centric product positioning looks like this:

• Capability: Focuses on delivering amazing customer experiences

• Value: Improves customer loyalty, increases purchase size, enhances referrals

• Further value: Drives business growth rather than just cost reduction

Define Your Target Customer Profile

Based on the value you provide, identify the characteristics of customers who will care most about that value. This will help you focus your marketing and sales efforts on the right prospects in your target market. 

Remember, in B2B, you're not trying to sell to everyone but to those who best fit your unique value proposition. This is KEY to making strategies work for you!

Choose Your Market Category

Finally, select a market category to help customers quickly understand what you do and set the right expectations. This category should align with your value proposition and target customer profile.

You want to help customers put you in a mental box, so they know who to compare you to and what to expect. 

Instead of generic "help desk software," Help Scout might position itself as "customer service software for growing e-commerce businesses." Similarly, a CRM system could be positioned as a "CRM for investment banks" and a database product as a "data warehouse" to communicate its specialised capabilities better.

I know I may have waffled on about Help Scout a lot (I swear this isn’t a paid endorsement for them 😅) but its hoenstly one of the best softwares I’ve personally found. If you have any others, I’d really love to hear about them!

I hope these strategies and knowledge digest helped you, even if only one part helps you sell more products or better your product positioning!

Q&A

• So, are you ready to harness the power of using product positioning for your business?

• Do you have any pain points I can help you with smoothing out regarding product marketing strategy?

• Which of the above areas do you think you could utilise from the most and how would it impact your product business?

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:

1. Book a {10 MINUTE} Business Power Call with me, to arrange working together to make your social media videos stand out online as I tweak your approach, and analyse how to improve your current video, business strategy or marketing.

2. Don’t have time to create great content or marketing yourself? Focus on your business, whilst we focus on creating the content and marketing that you’ve always dreamed of. Get in touch to find out more.

Until next Friday, love to you all!

My Partner Services
Sky Adsmart  | Cheekymonkey Marketing  |

Fire an email back to me at [email protected] and let’s keep the chat going 👌🏻