How do you fight a price war with positioning/messaging? Can you even?

I love this question! I always find it best to avoid the price war if you can. And YES positioning/message can be invaluable here 🙏🏾 My general guidance to you is this. As yourself these questions: “Can I change the problem set to align closer to my core competency?” - if you’re trying to win a deal where the competitor has defined the problem set, you’ve already lost. Take back control! Define the problem set the customer SHOULD be thinking about, and win the deal that way. “Can I shift the con ...Read More

You can. But if you're consistently getting out priced - I would really ask the question, 'are you priced and packaged well for your ICP?' A willingness to buy study, Wyntr survey, or analyst inquiry might help answer that. But if you are, then focus the message on risk rather than cost. If you've landed the positioning, highlighted your differentiated value, demo'ed the goods, made them feel like they'd be well taken care of (NEVER underestimate the value of a good, trusty sales process), then ...Read More

The short answer is "Yes." You can fight a price war with positioning. That said, it's really hard. And, if you're already in a price war you've lost the high ground your messaging was meant to protect. First, you need to diagnose why you're losing. "We're losing on price" is arguably the most dangerous win/loss analysis datapoint to take at face value. While it very well could be the case, you should also look at whether it's a different problem: ICP Problem?: Are you in deals you were never go ...Read More

There are many reasons why a price war could happen, and without more context into the market/players, it would be hard for me to say. It’s true that for nearly all transactions in the B2B world, budget is a top priority for buyers. That doesn’t mean it should come down to price. At various organizations I’ve been at (Cisco, Twilio, and a few start-ups), we have won multiple competitive deals while having a premium-priced product. When we won despite being the more expensive product, it’s becaus ...Read More