AMA: Guidewire Software VP Product Marketing, Axel Kirstetter on Competitive Positioning

I recommend three documents. 1. an inbound competitive document, covering things like product differentiators, win/loss analysis, pricing and type of open roles. 2. a separate document summarizing industry commentators, analysts or review sites. 3. Finally, a document that focuses on your category definition and messaging within. I call this outbound positioning document. The first establishes a competitive baseline. No FUD. Nor hearsay. Only qualitative statements. Times 4-6 competitors. this s ...Read More

Here is a controversial statement: value communication beats narrative design. I know narrative and storytelling is a big topic in the product marketing world. But, I would encourage any reader here to invest in their ability to communicate value. here is why. From a sellers' perspective its nice to tell a good story. It has a feel good factor. And its nice to hear your own voice. However, one is focused on an output. A better story. But, the purchasing process is a rationale decision. A buyer n ...Read More

At a high level Sales needs to operate on three planes. Defending against weaknesses, driving towards strengths and disseminating fear. Long written thought papers are the wrong format. I believe in short simple bullet points supported by an explanatory video to get the message across. Ultimately it is the seller that needs to deliver the message. in person or over tele / video call. It is also helpful to draft answers for email based communication. Only challenge with that is that it leaves a t ...Read More

I think of competitors in two ways. 1. alternatives. Excel the classical example here. An alternative way of achieving the same 2. similar / same product offerings targeted at the similar / same buyer. This last part around targeting and segmentation is important. Tesla and F150 are both electric cars. But do they really compete? They focus on different market segments. Further when it comes to specific insights there is a short-term and a long-term perspective. Long-term, take a look at balance ...Read More

I believe in a simple exercise: what are you good at. this is the category you want to operate in. Its table stakes. if you want to be in the electric car business and you cant design a chassis and a battery you have a problem. what are you better at. this is where you are competitive. say your battery comes in 3 sizes. 0.5 hrs to full charge. 2 hours to full charge. 10 hours. what are you unique at. UNIQUE! something that nobody else does. Irrespective of charging speed your battery and chassis ...Read More

this is such a good question. comp intel is not a one time activity. its ongoing. same with positioning btw. I separate 3 things: Information collection, information analysis and information dissemination. For the latter i recommend no more than 2x per year. Ideally around key events, like annual sales kick off or annual customer event. Why? Quite simply because Sales can't absorb more. They need to retain so much information as is that its genuinely difficult to absorb more. In terms of analysi ...Read More

I love this question as it puts competitiveness into context. If you can't find anything about a 'competitor' how is a prospect going to know anything about them? No information on review sites. No analyst overview. No social proof or testimonial. No website. No LI profile. No ads in support of key words. No financials. No incorporation records. No participation at industry events. How will a buyer buy from an entity that is hard to find. Answer: they were contacted by the competitor. An outboun ...Read More

When your company only has one product, the product positioning is the company positioning. The next growth phase would be a portfolio of products. Say we are are the professional services cloud with one product for accountants another for consultants another for lawyers and finally one for bankers. Here the value offered by the product can differ to the value of the company or brand in other words. the idea should be 1+1+1+1=5. Finally, when you have multiple portfolios the issue becomes more o ...Read More

Pricing and CI are two separate side of the same coin. Easiest way to win more business is to reduce your price. But that has consequences for revenue. Ultimately one product with different price points is aimed at a different cohort where price sensitivity, functional preferences and quality expectations get re-established. Let me keep with my electric car analogy from another question. Chassis and battery are a given as stakeholder. If now lets say you offer a service whereas you can change yo ...Read More