AMA: HubSpot Director of Product Marketing, Adrienne Joselow on Competitive Positioning

My favorite example is Adidas video which shoes that yes, a runner can sprint through the desert in Nike shoes -- but a camera man with 50 additional pounds of equipment and wearing Adidas can keep up with him. It strikes the balance between saying, we respect your product and - ours is as good or better. Really clear value, clever approach, not so dimishing as to take away from the credibility or respect associated with Adidas' brand. Companies can absolutely straddle the line. It's about solving a new problem, solving a problem differently, and disrupting the status quo. The way to do this is focus on the benefit / new value you are delivering rather than simply tearing down a competitor. We offer extended value (strong) vs. they're not as good as you think they are (weak). There's a new way to think about this (stronger) vs. they're thinking about it wrong (weaker). The Bounty ad in the above blog also does a great job of this - no specific paper towel brand is the problem, any brand that isn't using Bounty technology is. Compelling stuff!

There are a few rinse and repeat assets that work well for us in competitive. For products with a significant rep-assisted motion, having competitive comparison cards helps distill complex products into key capabilities, highlighting parity and differentiation to help overcome objections and convey additional value. Competitive teardowns, a more comprehensive exercise in support of the above, help drive a deep, shared understanding of competitive priorities (hint: select a few key competitors, don't mop the ocean) and consistent competitive positioning across marketing teams. 

Customer listening is a critical investment in any product marketing program. For us, we've taken a number of different approaches to customer listening in my time here. From direct customer conversations, to focus groups, to ongoing market research (qualitative and quantitative), listening to our customers is critical for our success (and, more importantly, theirs!). One thing we've recently explored and will continue to build into is to draft off of an existing organization wide program - the customer advisory board - to further engage those folks, as well as folks that were interested but not selected for this program. Highly recommend getting thrifty like this to drive efficiency for your teams while also keeping a pulse on customer needs, pain points, value, and market perspective. Get listening! 

This is a great question because: fortune favors the focused. In our world, there are thousands of SaaS offerings on the market. Many offer competitive products and capabilities to us. However, only a select few come up frequently in head-to-head deals where win-rate meaningfully impact our performance. That's where we focus (for established, rep-assisted SKUs). For newer, product lead growth (not reliant on a sales team / without win-loss data) this is more of a GTM strategy question. What does the market look like, who dominates share, what are you trying to disrupt. Fewer competitors in greater focus will help organizations far more than trying to cover all possible alternatives. Focus (and win) where it counts. 

You can't rely only on the narrative. But a strong one, especially one that frames up the problem and value you deliver as different / outsized, is critical to competitive success. But you know what else you need? Claim chowder. Proof points. Quantified impact. What actual results has your product proven to deliver? Weaving these into the narrative will help to make it more real, tangible, and create a sense of urgency for your audience. 

We develop personas in three degrees depending on the need: lightweight, qualitative, and quantitative (statistical). Each of these populate a similar framework: demographic details (job title, geo if applicable, age range, etc), responsibilities/needs/jobs to be done, challenges/pain points, Worth mentioning that a companion framework, the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), is often created to establish firmagraphic targeting to complement. Competitive insights are typically not included in our persona frameworks (though I hold space for exceptions here in rare cases - i.e. if credentialing on a certain product is part of a job responsibility). Instead, generally, our competitive insights are cultivated and applied in conjunction with the above. From a Challenger model, we aim to reframe the problem, introduce new/improved impavt as a result, and ultimately reveal value. 

Competitive win rate! This requires reps to record (and for your CRM to have a field for) competitor (existing -rip and replace - or exploring - head to head). This is the most direct way to see if you are moving the needle against your core competitors. Secondary metrics may include things like analyst and review site achievement (i.e. G2 ranking) or traffic and search relevance for comparrison pages (i.e. a competitive landing page). This answer is highly dependent on which data exists in your CRM - if competitor is not trackable, secondary metrics are a good proxy / directional indicator. 

Make it snackable. Make it easy to remember. Make it impactful. Show the impact of reps applying this to amplify awareness and usage. Reps spend their days diving into a multitude of different businesses with divergent needs, goals, and deal stages. The more adaptable, simple, straightforward your competitive intel is, the more likely it is to be leveraged and applied. As a separate note (personal pet rock): use the term comparrison cards, not battle cards. Sales is hard enough without suggesting to them (implicitly) that they're in a battle (violent). We are in product marketing, words matter, choose the right ones.