♦️ 7 positioning sins that cost B2B brands millions (and how to avoid them)

I'll do something different today.

Instead of talking about how brands win, I'll talk about how brands lose.

Here are 7 positioning sins that cost B2B brands millions (and how to avoid them):

1. Playing the me-too game

This sin is the most common one.

Most executives overfocus on competitors — especially the bigger ones.

They copy them.

They try to become similar.

And they tell customers: “We have that service too. But we are better/faster/cheaper.”

The result?

Customers don’t know how your value is different than others.

They see through the cliché words.

And when in doubt, they prefer the bigger brand (=safer option) instead of the copycats.

So you become a commodity.

Always keep in mind: you can’t beat market leaders by imitating them.

How can you avoid it?

Don’t get me wrong.

You have to know every possible detail about your competitors.

But not to imitate them.

On the contrary, to find what they lack.

What are the factors that everybody competes on?

What customer needs are already served well?

And what are the unmet ones?

Once you find the answers, you’ll find your path to stand out from the competition.

​
2. Trying to serve everybody and do everything (The “who” and the “what” problem)

It’s in our nature.

We don’t like limiting our options.

That’s why some B2B executives are afraid to create services for a specific target audience, solving a specific problem.

They don’t want to “let go” of potential customers.

After all, why should they target a smaller piece of the cake?

But the result of committing this sin is severe.

You lose potential clients —ironically— as nobody understands who the brand is for.

Or what problem it solves the best.

And you can’t create an excellent service as you don’t know who you are designing for.

So a loose positioning gives you a loose brand.

And you leave growth to chance.

How can you avoid it?

Well, you have to make choices.

In other words, you have to make sacrifices.

What’s the problem you solve better than anybody?

Who gets the most value out of your services?

What customer segment has enough purchasing power to make your business profitable?

Here’s a secret for you.

If you have an extremely specific “who”, you can keep the “what” slightly loose — or vice versa.

Example?

A management consultancy firm in a small city can offer a variety of services.

Because the target “who” is already small —businesses in that small city— and competition is limited.

But if the same consultancy firm wants to stand out online, now the customer base and competition are worldwide.

So you have to limit the “who” (e.g. private equity firms that acquire SaaS startups) and the “what” (e.g. restructure companies following an acquisition) to get specific and reduce competition.
​

​
3. Being unaware of what makes their brand different

It’s surprising to see how many B2B executives don’t know what makes their brand different.

If you ask them, they usually mumble something about quality and customer focus.

But in this era, these are no longer differentiators.

They are expected.

And when they don’t know what makes them different, they are unable to set a clear direction for the business.

They can’t tell employees how they are going to win.

So everybody lacks clarity.

The business becomes a headless chicken.

Everybody tries to pull it in different directions.

Everybody comes up with a new big idea every month.

But you know what happens when there is no coherent action within an army.

A guaranteed defeat.

How can you avoid it?

Knowing your difference is about making a decision.

You have to know your company’s capabilities and weaknesses inside out.
​

​
Then you have to make a decision aligned with your strengths.

You have to say: “This is how we are going to be different.”

And that single decision should shape every other decision for your brand.

How you deliver your services.

What direction you go as a business.

What messages you convey to the market.

Only then will every action in your business become intentional.

And you don’t just claim that you are different — you become different.

4. Not understanding customers’ real needs

Some executives look, but they don’t see.

They listen, but they don’t hear.

Because they are too self-focused.

They worry too much about unimportant internal details and forget what matters — the customer.

This sin makes growth harder.

Because when you don’t understand customers’ real needs, you can’t know what value to deliver and the right way to frame it.

So potential customers don’t see how you can help them achieve their goals.

The result?

Sometimes they choose another alternative.

Sometimes they get overwhelmed with the buying decision and make no purchase.

Because contrary to popular belief, B2B buyers are even more emotional than consumers.

When you don’t understand them, you can’t serve them.

How can you avoid it?

Customers hold most of the answers you are looking for.

Pay attention to them.

Try to understand their context.

What are the problems they have and how do they become aware of them?

What’s the real progress they are trying to make beyond obvious functional outcomes?

What objections keep them from taking the action?

The better you understand their world, the easier it is to make your brand something they want.

​
5. Believing underpricing is the default way to increase sales

My favorite sin.

Wanna increase sales?

Cut the price.

Always go below the competition.

Make a discount. Bundle something in.

Lower price = More sales.

This is it.

The result of this sin?

Customers associate your brand with low prices.

They think your service has lower quality than it actually has.

And you try to survive with lower margins.

Your competitors cut prices.

You have to cut it further.

But you can only go as low as 0.

Is this really why you are in business?

Unless you are trying to be the Walmart of your industry, no.

So the trick is not to increase sales by cutting prices.

It cannot be.

The real trick is having the power to increase sales while increasing prices.

The real trick is building a well-positioned brand.

How can you avoid it?

You avoid this sin by avoiding all the other sins.

When you get specific with your positioning, you deliver drastically more value to your customers than others.

So you gain the confidence to charge more.

When you hear your competitors are charging less, you smile and ignore them.

Customers associate your higher prices with high quality.

So ironically, they want to work with you even more.

It creates a virtuous cycle.

And you never compete on price again.

6. Having weak messaging

Have you ever felt silly going through a brand’s website trying to figure out what they do?

Full of vague words.

A vision statement nobody cares about.

And a lot of talk about themselves, instead of how they can help you.

We didn’t even talk about other touchpoints yet…

Like content that doesn’t deliver any value.

Or ads that everybody scrolls through.

Well, weak messaging is a sin customers don’t forgive.

Not in today’s world.

Customers don’t have the time to decipher generic phrases to understand your brand.

You know this — because you feel the same when you are the buyer.

Several reasons cause the sin of weak messaging.

First, many businesses lack clarity around their value proposition.

So they try to hide that lack of clarity behind generic phrases — streamline this, transform that.

Second, they think their messaging is about them, while it’s for their customers.

Customers don’t care about your mission, where your team went to high school, or your team building activities.

They have a problem to solve and they want to figure out if you can fix it.

The third reason behind this sin?

Many executives want to talk about everything they can do.

All their capabilities, all the outcomes they can help customers get, all the different contexts their solutions can fit into…

But it dilutes their message.

So nobody gets what the brand stands for.

How can you avoid it?

In today’s noisy world, only sharp messages get into people’s minds.

So get clear on your core messages.

How are you going to communicate your value?

What’s the main problem you solve?

What are the points that you’ll prioritize about your capabilities and customer outcomes?

Once you get clear on your messages, repeat them in different ways, across all customer touchpoints.

Customers are smart.

They catch inconsistencies easily.

So every piece of copy should stem from your core messages, reinforcing the same ideas.

That’s how you can occupy a space in their busy minds.

7. Lacking a point of view and a narrative

The previous sin was about clarity.

This one is about persuasion.

Making your positioning clear is a must — but it’s not enough.

You also have to make it compelling.

Most B2B brands are vanilla.

They say similar things, in similar ways.

Go to 10 random B2B brand websites.

They all sound like they were written by the same person in 2003.

So even when they have a good positioning idea, they fail to persuade prospects.

Because they don’t tell a story.

They are not opinionated.

And this sin reduces the perceived value of their brands.

How can you avoid it?

Every service is getting commoditized in today’s world.

There are hundreds of alternatives for everything.

That makes your narrative and point of view the only remaining weapons to show your difference.

You have to create an ideology.

And you have to convey it with a narrative.

What’s the villain you help customers beat?

What’s at stake in their lives?

What are your contrarian beliefs about your industry?

Answer these questions.

When others are fighting over the same capabilities, stand out with your ideology.

-

Have you committed any of these positioning sins?

Maybe.

But don’t worry.

Everybody commits them at one point.

The real problem is not committing them.

The real problem is becoming aware of committing them, and not changing anything.

​

​
“We’re in a competitive industry, and it’s hard to stand out from the noise.”

Started noticing weak messaging is already costing you sales?

We help B2B businesses find what makes them different and convey their value with a brand message that attracts clients.

So your website, ads, and content don’t just perform better—they sell.

Want to stop losing sales to weak messaging?

​Fill out this form, let’s chat.
​

​
Thank you for reading this edition of How Brands Win.

You can reply to this email with your thoughts and feedback. I'd be happy to hear from you — I read and reply to all messages.

And you can connect with me here on LinkedIn.
​
Have a great day.

Ozan
Founder - Frontera​