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

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 because we hit home on our differentiators, which we knew were meaningful to the customer. Here are some reasons why salespeople end up in price war with competitors: 

1. Differentiation is not apparent or meaningful enough to the customer. What to do? Do some customer interviews to find out what would move the needle for customers to change the conversation away from price and more to value. Reshape your competitive positioning with a customer-first approach. 

2. Sales people are not trained on existing messaging/competitive positioning. What to do? Conduct a messaging/training day with sales people. Consider “certifying” salespeople with a pitch program (work with sales leaders for this one). 

3. It’s not easy for customers to say "yes" to your product. What to do? Work with your sales team to develop or enhance your Proof of Concept (POC) or demo. Make sure your customer sees the demo when you articulate your differentiator. The demo/POC should be extremely obvious in how it illustrates your differentiator. Give them reports to share with the buy-team that prove your differentiators in the form of KPIs. Does your product save resources? Prove it in the POC. These KPIs will be useful in justifying your price.

From my experience, if the value is proven (and customers have existing budget to afford your product), then you can't lose.