by Robert M. Wright, Partner, Firebrick
Growth efficiency is back. Just cutting costs won’t be enough. A strategic retreat of marketing and sales will improve burn rate, but mortgages your future to your competitors.
We find ourselves competing in crowded markets, too many desparate vendors chasing fewer sales cycles. At the same time, a new generation of AI-native solutions will soon disrupt every category.
“Nice-to-have” products will be road kill. Exec buyers don’t want more technology. CAC will continue to go up.
In the face of the market dynamics, Positioning moves to the forefront as a CMO and CEO’s growth efficiency lever. In a tight, uncertain buying climate, with little room for mistakes, Positioning is often overlooked as a pathway for success. Every category leader has one thing in common- strong positioning. Why? Strong positioning breaks through the market noise, drives urgency with executive buyers, helps win more sales cycles and multiplies the impact of GTM investments.
This year, B2B tech companies will no longer be able to get away with lame feature-function positioning. This won’t tolerated and companies with feature-filled narratives will find themselves at a disadvantage in a tight buying climate. And why throttle your GTM investments with lame messaging?
This inflection moment is the perfect moment wake up the market with an aggressive positioning strategy and compelling narrative that takes market share and builds category leadership while the competition is busy feeding the “AI washing” or distracted by the latest shiny GTM tool.
Why play at the level of your competition?
A strong positioning narrative:
✔ Builds an argument that turns your “nice-to-have” product into a “must have”
✔ Creates “hair on fire” urgency with incremental, medium intent buyers
✔ Justifies a premium average selling price over your competition
✔ Sets up the expand motion to drive CLV
✔ Moves you higher in sales cycles - engages executive-level buyers with real $mm budgets
✔ Shapes the buying criteria in your favor – to avoid feature/function wars
However, good breakaway Positioning is hard to do.
The 7 keys principles of Breakaway Positioning:
1. Shift to a buyer-centric narrative
Stop explaining. It’s not about you and your features. Category leaders are exquisitely clear about explaining “why they matter” versus “how it works.” Buyer-centric positioning answers three key buyer questions: “why your product, now” “how are you different” “how will you make me a hero” Answering these questions requires a fundamental shift from product-centric positioning to positioning that puts buyers in the center.
2. “Name” the $MM problem
“Sell” the problem, not the product features. What big $MM executive buyer problem does your product solve? The answer to this question is everything. Place your product in the context of the problem it solves. Every category leader “owns” an executive buyer problem. This is the heart of buyer-centric positioning.
3. “Own” a distinct corner of the category
Carve out a unique position in the minds of your buyer. Stand for something different. Incremental doesn’t sell. What is the value delivered by your unique IP? Name it. Draw a distinction between you and the competition. Business-Ready Data, Boundless Cybersecurity, Autonomous Integration, New-Scale SIEM, etc.
4. Wake up the market with a viewpoint
Take a stand that redefines the game. Introduce a provocative new lens on a business challenge your buyers are hungry to solve. Don’t just offer a product—offer a new way to think, a new strategic model, a new category that frames what winning looks like. Arm your champions with a narrative they can carry to the boardroom—one that reshapes priorities, unlocks investment, and positions them as visionary leaders. Give them a bold new future—and a clear path to own it.
5. Answer “why your product matters” NOT “how your product works
Tech companies are enamored by our technology. Buyers don’t care. Your feature/function narratives no longer move the revenue needle. Outperforming in a tight buying climate requires a positioning narrative that answers three key questions for your buyers:
Why your product, NOW?
How are you different?
How will your product make my life better?
6. Take your buyers on a Journey
Strong positioning unlocks expansion from the start by framing the narrative as a journey—a 5 to 7 step roadmap that shows buyers how to invest incrementally and realize increasing value at each stage. It also is a good framework to introduce upcoming features and vision, while properly managing expecations
7. Don’t confuse Positioning with Branding and Messaging
Branding is visual identity and tone. Messaging is incremental. Positioning is about shaping a category - and “owning” a unique place in the mind of your buyers. If you want to truly differentiate and stand out from the crowd, you could hire branding agencies to make you look good, PR companies to spread the word and product marketing to communicate your features and functions. But that’s all a waste of time and money if you haven’t first identified your own unique genius and crafted a compelling strategic narrative that conveys your core essence and shows how you will change your buyer’s world. This is the heart of Breakthrough Positioning.
Positioning is a powerful means of bringing strategy and your products to life. Positioning is the bridge between strategy and execution—it brings your products and vision to life. Done right, it’s a company-wide growth lever that drives efficiency, builds category leadership, and sharpens your competitive edge in today’s disruptive, tight buying environment.
About the Author: Bob is the founder and managing director of Firebrick. Bob has over 25 years of experience in the B2B tech industry and specializes in the creation of break-away positioning strategies and unblocking critical problems to build substantial market value. He has been at the vanguard of innovative positioning strategies for the industry and is a frequent speaker on this topic. Bob brings a unique combination of operational experience and a strategic viewpoint, which allow him to help both emerging growth companies and global category leaders on accelerating substantial revenue growth and unfair market advantage. Bob and his team at Firebrick have developed category leadership and differentiation strategies for over 300 B2B tech companies.