AMA: Ramp Former Head of Product Marketing, Joe Abbott on Competitive Positioning
June 23 @ 10:00AM PST
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Ramp Former Head of Product Marketing, Joe Abbott on Competitive Positioning
Top Questions
Joe Abbott
Brex VP of Product Marketing • June 22
I'll start by saying - having a solid competitive positioning framework with a few buckets for your entire universe of competitors helps immensely. I think this is the only way to build a competitive function from scratch with a lean team. e.g. Competitor X, Y, and Z fit into Category A and can g......Read More
694 Views
8 requests
How do you obtain competitive intelligence on a competitor's product that has very little public-facing marketing around it?
I'm about to just call and ask them if they still sell it.
Joe Abbott
Brex VP of Product Marketing • June 22
This is a really great question. For stealth products that are competitive in your sales cycle, it's worth asking your sales team to try to gather information from prospects that are evaluating your competitors. Alternatively, you can dig around the internet - suprisingly, Twitter threads and......Read More
871 Views
3 requests
Joe Abbott
Brex VP of Product Marketing • June 22
Competitive research is a critical step before you even start your messaging and positioning exercise — I see it as an input rather than an output. I have a few favorite messaging frameworks and usually combine my favorite elements into one. Geoffrey Moore's classic FOR...WHO...PROVIDES...UNLI......Read More
2486 Views
5 requests
What constitutes a competitor, and what is the goal you have in mind when you conduct competitor analysis?
What is your philosophy when it comes to competitors?
Joe Abbott
Brex VP of Product Marketing • June 22
This one is tricky because I think there's a tendency to want to boil the ocean and do everything for every competitor. Some combination of market research and competitive win/loss analysis should help you create a few different tiers of competitors. My rule of thumb is no more than 3 competitors......Read More
449 Views
3 requests
What's your approach to competitive differentiation?
How does this inform your core messaging, how do you enable sales to understand what makes you different/better, how do you know if it's working with your target buyers?
Joe Abbott
Brex VP of Product Marketing • June 22
Ideally, your brand positioning pillars are unique enough individually or in combination with each other that competitive positioning is baked in. Effectively enabling sales is about educating them on the landscape and competitive buckets (read answer above re: putting all your competitors int......Read More
827 Views
3 requests
Joe Abbott
Brex VP of Product Marketing • June 22
Positioning is the DNA of your differentiation and messaging is how you bring that to life with your brand's unique personality. Positioning establishes context (for who? what benefit or outcome?) and messaging is the way you communicate or express this unique position to your target audience......Read More
650 Views
2 requests
How often do you talk to customers, or do qualitative + VOC research?
Is it continuous or at specific campaigns?
Joe Abbott
Brex VP of Product Marketing • June 22
I think the only correct answer here is not as often as we'd like :) We typically rely on good old fashioned interviews and questions can vary depending on whether it's for customer references, beta product feedback, or buyer research. So, generally point in time. Customer inputs are critic......Read More
522 Views
4 requests
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