Competitive Positioning

I have worked at two different companies and we approached it entirely differently.  At the first company, we were far and away the market leader and defined the space. Here, we almost entirely focus

The competitive set is defined by your audience, not you. And it changes all the time. At Square, we compete against anything that enables anyone to participate in our economy, not just other POS comp

Here is the competitive intelligence mission statement I've used for several years (repeat from previous post but will add more detail).  “Define ourselves based on problems we solve and value we pro

Thanks for asking this question. The exercise of defining your competitive set is a critical, but at times under-emphasized aspect of conducting research. There are three primary modes for competitive

Interesting question about how I define "compeititor" in and of itself. I tend to look at competitors as barriers that keep people from buying the product I'm selling. Sometimes its a comparable produ

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 hel

I think competitors are important, but developing your own unique perspective of who you are, what makes you different, and who you serve is 10-100x more important. A short-ish anecdote: I used to wo

"Competitor aware, customer obsessed" is something that I've internalized when thinking about competitors. Competitors are a good thing - it validates your space, your product-market fit and the marke

Depends on how competitive your market is. You can create a list of competitors and create segments based on different variables that are important for your product or business. For instance direct co

For smaller teams that may not have a built out CI team or CI PMM it can get tough to manage competitive research, positioning, creation enablement and dissemination of assets on top of everything el

My primary philosophy around competitors is a little different than most: focus 80% of your energy on what makes you great as a product or service, and the rest on what anyone else is doing.  I've wo

There are a few types of competitors to think about: Tier 1: Prime Competition - Those who compete for the same dollars for a very similar product. You often end up in feature battles with them and e

The goal of our work is to help our company build and express our competitive differentiation. A competitor is anyone who has a similar value prop for the same audience. Not necessarily the same solut

In the most simpliest terms, a direct competitor is solving a simliar or same pain point as you are. One goal in conducting a competitive analysis as part of your market research is to identify points

1. Revenue impact 2. Product innovation I used to only focus on the first point. That's an important one—and if you have limited bandwidth, I'd recommend you start there first. These are the vendors

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

A competitor is anything that can be substituted for the value that your product offers. Sometimes, that's a product with a very similar feature set. Sometimes, it's a product that is designed for a d

'I think a competitor is anyone who is in or adjacent to your space. Said another way, a competitor is a vendor that can cause confusion or slow down your sales cycle for some reason. There are a few

I like the positioning doc to address your audience need, how do you stand out / differentiated, what do you provide and white space. For example, if you have customer need, you can easily come up wit

Posted this on another similar question, but on the competitive positioning point specifically, I think there's a 'turn' in the narrative toward the end of the story where existing solutions can't sol

My views on competitive positioning are largely stolen from Andy Raskin. Rather than repeat that which I've "adopted" from his writing, I'd suggest looking them up (LinkedIn great place to find a lot

At its most basic, messaging is about answering 3 key prompts: What is the problem facing the market today? What solution (generally) will help solve this problem? What does your product do to help

Once you are clear on the value proposition of a product/feature and/or a positioning statement for the company or product, you are ready to pull together a messaging framework that your cross-functio

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 usua

I use a pretty simple framework for messaging - namely, the messaging house. I typically focus on the following sections of the house (top to bottom): Brand prop, product description, customer context

I honestly customize the framework for each company I work for, but over the year’s I've built my own since I never found anything existing that I really loved. If you want an example, message me and

I borrow from the typical ones mentioned on Sharebird (the box one? mind's failing me here) and modify them based on what I'm messaging.  Re: competitive positioning, I break it down by 3 segments at

There are a few different messaging and persona frameworks I have used for different purposes. Here are a few of my favorites.  Positioning Statement - this is typically the foundation of any product/

There are a lot of great frameworks out there and they all have common elements. I recommend reviewing a few and customizing to what’s relevant and actionable for your company. I like to include: our

I dont think we should ever mention competitors directly in our messaging. Sure, you can address it directly in response if a prospect brings them up. But proactively naming competitors puts you in a

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

My team and I use a Message House framework that covers the following elements: Solution/Product Naming Tagline Positioning Statement Short and Long Descriptions For the Positioning Strategy, we use

Competitive positioning and messaging have to be one and the same. When you look at your decks and positioning, you need to do the gut check of "can my competitors say this" and if yes, change your me

An example that stands out to me was Steve Jobs’ manifesto on Flash and its security problems. What was fascinating about it was actually Adobe’s response to it. They bought full-page ads in newspaper

Unsurprisingly, we have some great content on this on our blog. My favorite example (shared here) is Adidas video which shoes that yes, a runner can sprint through the desert in Nike shoes -- but a ca

The market is littered with really bad examples of competitive messaging, unfortunately. They usually make their case on technical details that are irrelevant to the prospective customer.  The best c

I will answer this question the total opposite way that you asked it based on something I saw this morning. I was making my son a bagel with cream cheese. The cream cheese had a logo saying "Our cows

I would say it's time to get scrappy! Calling them (or even having a consultant do so) can be tricky because most companies that are secretive or demo-shy screen for this. But it's amazing what you ca

Capterra is another good review site.   Along with YouTube, check out SlideShare for the same reason, often times there are presentations from conferences etc. that have been posted.  And speakingof

Although @Mary (Shirley) Sheehan and @Mark Officer already posted great answers, I would like to add two other great sources. 1 ) A source of data is reading what their employeers are posting on Lin

Two questions about the lack of public-facing marketing that I think can help guide the search: 1. Is the lack of public-facing marketing in fact part of their narrative (secrecy) or marketing inepti

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 c

I'll start with the assumption that this isn't a product you can personally go out and procure on your own. Hands-on is always great.  Review sites are good, and can often generate a list of targets

I had one gut reaction when I read this question. "Why isn't there much public-facing marketing around it?" A few thoughts come to mind: 1. They discontinued the product (try checking publicly-facin

We typically begin by looking at their financial information, social media channels, and forums like Reddit to get a sense of what their customers are saying. We sometimes call competitors directly, a

Be resourceful! Even when there's little public-facing marketing, there's always a ton of other public resources that you can look to. Here are a few: 1 - Audit their social media, press coverage, and

That's definitely a challenge! There are a few things you could try to gain more insights: Utilize your sales team to ask about a competitor in discussions with prospects and customers.  Hire a third

OOOOhhhh I love that question.  There are always tracks you just need to start looking for them. I call this operation Ghost Recon.   Play a Secret Shopper - all of us have some sort of email accou

Call them! It is all fair game. Going deep on youtube and searching their exec team is also a great resource. Odds are even if they don't have public content, the CEO has spoken at a conference at som

This is a great question. Overall, product differentiation is key and one of the roles I really enjoy within PMM is having such a pulse and influence on what differentiates your product in the market

The narrative is a huge part of positioning. That's what frame your product's actual capabilities and determines which criteria are relevant or irrelevant. That said, I don't quite accept the view tha

Don't use corporate jargon and you're already 90% ahead of everyone else (if I had a nickel every time I read a company referring to their product as "industry-leading" or "robust"...). How do your h

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 e

If you are relying on narrative differentiation alone, then the problem to solve is creating differentiated solutions rather than finding different stories to tell. Use competitive intel as a lever to

Ideally, your narrative should actually be doing the heavy lifting when it comes to differentiation. Features can easily be copied. As this question states, it often leads to products being essentiall

You have to pick something to focus on. Find whatever edge you can and make it seem like the biggest deal in the world.  You can also talk about the sum of the parts as the narrative.  Another appro

A few key documents that you should have: Research Document - For me, this has always been internal and been a way for me to store insights, data, or any resources on a competitor -- or aggregate set

Some key documents that my teams have implemented for competitive positioning are starting with data gathering on points such as: key value props, feature set, target customers, pricing, strengths, cu

- Market Map: Overall visual landscape of our competition. Where does everyone play, where are they moving? - Battlecards: Tells Sales/CS what to say when delivering competitive positioning to custome

There are a few documents that I maintain over time: Competitor product releases for the Product team (updated monthly) Competitive battlecards for the Sales team (updated as needed) Win/Loss reporti

When we do competitive positioning, we try to take a holistic approach, examining companies across numerous areas. We put together a general overview focused on their overall positioning and messagin

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 in

The most important resource for competitive positioning is battle cards. It's the best summary and most actionable document (or group of documents) that can drive impact quickly. Some important compon

I think there are a couple of different docs that I would use, depending on the audience (internal, external) and the competitor (are you ahead, behind) INTERNAL resources Feature comparisons "Kille

I’ve had the best success with easy to digest “competitive battlecards” for sales. The simpler, the better. They should give basic company info, pricing, and how to handle objections. For larger sales

This is a little meta, but the best advice I have is to treat your sellers as your customers.  What would you do to try to understand how to get a customer to use your product?  Do some research - via

Timeliness and accessiblity are also key to providing value to your team.  Providing a list of month-end/ quarter-end killshots speaking to the most up-to-date intel and positioning you have on focu

Getting sales buy in on what type of information they want early on can be really helpful (it can also be useful if they change their mind later on). Starting with a proof of concept then circulating

Real time competitive insight direct from buyers. Easy way to collect this information is via a win/loss interviews. Simply ask questions regarding who else they considered and why. Dig into areas suc

Agree w/ comments above. Easily digestible chunks of data presented in a battle card format (2 pages) is very effective. Remember to keep it brief and concise (e.g. 3 bullet points per topic). Ther

Great question and one that really hits home for me since I used to do competitive intel while sitting in the sales organization at Medallia. The best approach I've seen is first identifying the top c

As with any other sales content, find out how your specific sales team likes to consume content. This will give you an idea of the format, as well as the channels in which to share this information. T

This is a great question and one that generally takes refinement over time based on feedback from sales.  Here's what you can do to make sure your competitive intel is beneficial and leveraged by your

Competitive Battlecards are the best asset for sales but remember to KISS (keep it stupid simple). Sales are often pressed for time so how can you clearly pick apart your differentiators (vs the compe

Love this question, because if sales doesn’t use your competitive intel then what’s the point of investing time at the expense of your other competing priorities. A few things I recommend: Work with

When gathering competitive intel, I find the most important thing is to have the goal for it clearly mapped out. Why does Sales (or product) want the competitive intel? What will they use it for? If y

Hah! You kinda answered your own question here. Create competitive intel that is easy to read and applicable to how Sales will use it! Sales doesn't want a novel about each competitor. They want high

This is a fun one. An aphorism we could coin here is that "Competitive battlecards are just like datasheets. Every salesperson desperately wants a new one, but nobody ever uses them."  The challenge

I first start with really solid positioning, which should clearly identify how your offering is differentiated from other competitors in the market and lean into that. Second, I listen and shadow sale

First of all, it needs to be rooted in the day-to-day realities of sales and the conversations their having. If Product Marketing is coming up with competitive intel in a vacuum without input from Sal

Like any good marketer, it's about knowing your end customer and how they would like to consume information. All sales teams are different and finding the right communication methods (format, frequenc

Get them involved. Interview them to learn about their encounters with competitors. Here are things that I regularly ask my sellers. Which competitors are coming up most in conversations with buyers

In my experience, the best way to communicate with sales people is to speak with them. They are so busy, and I find they don't read emails from PMMs, especially emails not directed to them personally.

One practice we had to inform competitive positioning strategy and enablement was analysing Closed Lost reasons in deals where we lost to a competitor. Here's an example (sorry some details need to r

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 busines

3 words - length, ROI, searchability.  Length: Sales reps and customers alike want things to be short and to the point. I like to keep it to a punchy header with 2-3 supporting bullet points if possi

I think of competitive intel like product managers think about their product.  The first step is to listen to your stakeholders (or internal customers) from sales, product, customer success and marke

Battlecards, training documentation, or whatever medium you choose to deliver this information should be built specifically for sales as the audience in mind. A couple quick tips: 1. Keep information

One of the key things to consider with any information provided to a sales team is making sure you answer two questions: Why does it matter? What should they do with it? When it comes to competitive

If you're banking that your sales teams will use your materials then you ask them first! Start with the top 2-3 sales reps or a sales manager who has a low-down on the biggest objections and reasons

I try to use the Pyramid approach to all content. Start with just absolute essential information, then expand. This way sales reps are able to capture the exact right amount of information in the most

There's nothing that says gathering intel in standard ways isn't ethical or fair. There are definitely some tactics that might straddle the line and a few that go way over the line that should obvious

I never thought of checking competitions as immoral or "scammy". I would go and say that I do like to play detective and spy on the best competitors but that's simply called gathering intel.  If I'm

I've gathered competitive intelligence in a few ways: 1) Voice of Customer interviews (either conducted by myself or a 3rd party) 2) Market analyst reports 3) 3rd party-conducted interviews of ex-empl

It depends on the competitive dynamics in your market. Are you the market leader or a new emerging alternative? What are the important buying factors in your market and with your buyers? Is price a

A truly successful pricing and packaging exercise can't be completed in a vacuum which means competitive positioning must be included in the discussion. The main reason is that you don't want to creat

Your pricing inherently reflects the value of your products, and since competitive comparisons will inevitably come up in deals, you have to translate all your competitive research and market understa

Positioning (which by definition is competitive positioning since it carves out a place in the market where you are the clear winner) is your strategy. It defines who you're for and how you'll win.  A

The truth is most pricing problems aren't pricing problems. In fact, they are rarely pricing problems. They are just the causal impact of poorly understood and/or communicated positioning of a product

Pricing and packaging are positioning. They're the most concrete way you are defining the value and TCO of your solution relative to the pain a customer is feeling. But it's important to remember that

They go hand in hand. You need to keep a pulse on your competitors pricing & packaging so that you can adjust or create promos/spiffs to support your sales team when needed. That said, you don't b

I think competitive is one aspect of overall pricing and packaging, but it shouldn't solely dictate how you price or package your product. There are exceptions of course, and if your competitor is the

Your pricing and packaging are components of your competitive positioning - the way you group features or the value metric you use to charge a SaaS fee helps frame your offering to your target audienc

Really depends where you stack up in the competitive ranking.  Let's say there are three products: Mercedes, Toyota, Pontiac. The price reflects the package. That's why Mercedes are $50k and Toyotas

Pricing will be one of the elements of how your brand is perceived.  Priced low - you might be thought of as an early-stage startup who doesn't have product/market fit yet or isn't confident in their