It goes without saying that if you are launching a startup in the current business environment then you need to nail your niche. By this point, you know what your target customer looks like, you know what your company stands for, and you know where you want to go - but, you need to consider how your company or product stacks up against existing products in the market
ACCESS THE B2B STARTUP MARKETING PLAYBOOK HERE →
Such is the pace of change in business today, that you must also try and incorporate an element of clairvoyance into your market analysis and plot potential future developments within your space and how it might impact your company. The key questions to consider around competitive positioning are:
- What existing market does your company or product lie in?
- If there is not an existing market - do you want to try and create your own market in the way that HubSpot so successfully did with “inbound marketing” and marketing automation software?
- Who are the main competitors in this market?
- What differentiates your company or product from your competitors?
- Does your solution or product have the established set of core capabilities that customers would expect from companies in your target space?
B2B Competitive Positioning Considerations
Once you are clear on the above questions, you can begin plotting your go to market approach. How you position yourself within a particular software ecosystem or industry will inform much of your marketing content. For instance, are you running a bootstrapped upstart of a software solution looking to come in and take risks to get some eyes on your product? Or, are you an established player in your space looking to build on an established reputation for excellence? These 2 positions can result in wildly different marketing approaches.
For now, the key for you is to understand exactly where you lie within the market. A secondary concern is the future of the market itself and it is worth weighing up what threats lay down the line or if traditionally separate markets will converge as we so often see in SaaS.
Finally, it is worth remembering that competitive analysis is not a one-off task. The pace of change in business today means that competition will evolve and you must too.
Competitive Positioning Exercise
“All work is easy work” or so goes the mantra of former world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather.
These exercises are not themselves meant to be a time investment, instead they are to be used as a 5 minute check-in with yourself that help you identify areas where you might need to focus in order to hone your competitive positioning.
This exercise takes 5 minutes total. Work through the 5 questions below taking 30 seconds to answer each and a 30 second break in between. If you can answer satisfactorily within the allotted time, then you are where you need to be. If the answers aren’t at the front of your mind, then you might need to take a deeper look into this area. For this exercise, you can use a pen and paper, a computer, or record yourself speaking. Once the 5 minutes is up review what you have done and assess where you are at. Is what you have answered realistic? Do you believe in what you are saying? And, if so, what are the next steps to topple these competitors?
The questions:
- What existing market (software or otherwise) is your company or product situated in?
- If there is not an existing market - do you want to try and create your own market and undertake the enormity of effort that is required to do so?
- Who are the main competitors in this market?
- What differentiates your company or product from your competitors?
- Does your solution have the established set of core capabilities that customers would expect from companies in your target space?
This post is an excerpt from our recently released B2B Startup Marketing Playbook. If you would like to read more you can access the Playbook in full here. If you have a marketing challenge you are looking for support with, you are welcome to set up a no obligation initial strategy consultation with our team.