Heard of pop-a-pill positioning? Like --> Positioning for home page. Positioning for event booth. Positioning for company video. These are quick fixes in the guise of positioning!
You may call them positioning injections! ‘Coz here, positioning is treated like a localized injection, without caring about larger implications.
Let me share six ways such positioning injections hurt your business:
1. USP mismatch
Example: Positioning promises speed. But product unique selling point (USP) is accuracy.
Happens when: The person doing positioning has done superficial USP discovery.
How this hurts: Customers come with wrong expectations. And judge you on the wrong criteria! And ditch you soon, when expectations are not met.
2. Pricing mismatch
Example: Value lies in number of guests. But you charge by number of rooms.
Happens when: The person doing positioning has not connected the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) dots.
How this hurts: Customers don’t trust the value your promise. Because you don’t seem to be walking the talk in your pricing structure.
3. Sales incentive mismatch
Example: ICP is healthcare. But deal incentive for healthcare is same as retail.
Happens when: The person doing positioning has overindexed on firmographics.
How this hurts: Home page is vertical-specific but sales is vertical-agnostic. Sales doesn’t adopt the positioning story.
4. Marketing blur
Example: Positioning anchor is generic, e.g. growth. But marketing talks about everything.
Happens when: The person doing positioning has not carved out your unique POV.
How this hurts: Marketing dollars go down the drain. Your posts, blogs, and emails blur in the noise, and don’t stand out. And don’t catch attention. Your content says the obvious.
5. Misaligned onboarding
Example: Positioning promises savings. Your customers are still waiting for it after a year.
Happens when: The person doing positioning has not understood value delivery.
How this hurts: Positioning overpromises. And customers lose trust because they find the claims exaggerated. You lose hardearned customers to churn.
6. Unconvinced team
Example: Your new positioning is ready. But your team is not bought into it.
Happens when: The person doing positioning has used templates instead of insights.
How this hurts: Positioning doesn’t get championed across channels, touchpoints and stakeholders. You fail to enjoy its compounding effect.
Takeaway
Pop-a-pill positioning increases your positioning debt.
Silky Agarwal
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