Read the homepages of five competitors in almost any B2B technology category and you’ll find the same words: seamless, powerful, all-in-one, trusted, innovative, end-to-end. Often these are good companies with real differences. They just don’t sound like it.
I’m Glyn Hurll, a fractional CMO working with technology and B2B businesses, and positioning is one of the first things I look at in any engagement. When it’s unclear, everything downstream works harder than it should: campaigns underperform, sales cycles stretch, and pricing comes under pressure. Here’s how I approach it.
What positioning actually is
Positioning is the decision about who you’re for, what you’re the best choice for, and why. It isn’t a tagline or a brand refresh, though both should flow from it. Good positioning answers four questions clearly:
- Who is the ideal customer? Specifically, not “mid-market companies”.
- What would they do if you didn’t exist? That’s your real competition, which is often a spreadsheet, an incumbent supplier or doing nothing.
- What do you do that those alternatives don’t? Your genuinely differentiated capabilities.
- Why does that matter to the customer? The value those capabilities create in their world.
Why B2B technology companies struggle with it
In my experience, there are a few common causes:
- Fear of narrowing. Teams worry that focusing on a segment means losing everyone else. In practice, clarity attracts more of the right buyers, and the others weren’t converting anyway.
- Describing features, not outcomes. Product-led companies often position on what the software does rather than what changes for the buyer.
- Copying the category leader. Using the leader’s language makes you sound like a smaller version of them.
- Committee positioning. When every stakeholder adds a message, the result says everything and means nothing.
A practical process
1. Start with your best customers
Look at the customers who bought fastest, stay longest and get the most value. What do they have in common? Interview them: why did they choose you, what nearly stopped them, and how do they describe you to colleagues? Their language is usually better than yours.
2. Map the real alternatives
List what buyers would genuinely do instead. Include the status quo. Your positioning has to explain why you’re a better choice than these specific options, not an abstract market.
3. Identify your differentiated value
Separate what’s genuinely different from what’s table stakes. “Easy to use” and “great support” are expected. Look for the capabilities, approaches or expertise that alternatives can’t easily match, and connect each to a measurable outcome.
4. Choose your market frame
Decide which category or context helps buyers understand you fastest. Sometimes that’s an existing category where you’re the specialist for a segment; occasionally it’s a new framing. Be careful with creating categories: it’s expensive and slow.
5. Write it down, then test it
Capture the positioning in a short internal document, then test it in sales conversations, ads and landing pages. Positioning is a hypothesis until the market responds.
Carrying it through every touchpoint
Positioning only works if it shows up consistently: on the website, in sales decks, in product onboarding, in recruitment, in how the CEO talks at events. This is where many positioning projects fail. The work gets done, the document gets written, and three months later the sales team is still using the old deck.
As a fractional CMO, part of my role is making sure the positioning is adopted, not just agreed. That usually means rewriting core assets, training the sales team on the narrative, and building it into campaign briefs so agencies work from the same foundation.
Signs your positioning needs work
- Prospects frequently ask “so what exactly do you do?”
- Sales and marketing describe the business differently.
- You lose deals on price to competitors you believe are weaker.
- Your website could swap logos with a competitor’s and nobody would notice.
Next step
If your business is more different than it sounds, let’s talk. Book an introductory call and I’ll give you an honest first read on your positioning.