Most B2B companies think they have a marketing problem.

Not enough traffic. Not enough leads. Ads that don't convert.

More often, they have a positioning problem. The market doesn't understand what they do, who it's for, or why it's better than the alternative.

No amount of ad spend fixes that. It just helps more people misunderstand you, faster.

Brand isn't your logo

When I say brand, I don't mean colors and fonts.

I mean positioning: the clear answer to "why should this customer choose you, for this problem, over every other option they have?"

My thinking here borrows heavily from April Dunford and her book Obviously Awesome. Her core idea: you don't invent positioning in a brainstorm. You uncover it by looking honestly at what you do better than anyone else, and for whom.

Start with the problem

Buyers don't wake up wanting your product.

They wake up with a problem. A report that takes three days. A pipeline that dried up. A process that breaks every time someone leaves.

Your job is to be the obvious answer to that problem.

Five questions that define your position

  1. What would customers do if you didn't exist? Your real competition is often a spreadsheet, an intern, or doing nothing. Name it.
  2. What can you do that those alternatives can't? Real differences only. Not the table stakes everyone claims.
  3. So what? Turn each difference into an outcome: time saved, risk removed, revenue gained.
  4. Who cares most? Find the customers who feel that outcome the most. That's your focus.
  5. What frame makes it obvious? Pick the category that makes your strengths easy to get at a glance.

Answer those well and most of your marketing writes itself.

Signs your positioning is off

  • Prospects read your homepage and still ask, "So what exactly do you do?"
  • Every sales call starts with a long explanation.
  • Your wins are all over the map: different industries, sizes, use cases.
  • You compete on price because buyers can't see a difference.
  • Swap your logo onto a competitor's website and nobody would notice.

Keep it simple

Positioning only works if people understand it.

Here's the test. Fill in this sentence without jargon:

"We help [who] solve [problem] so they can [outcome]."

If you can't, that's the work to do first.

Positioning comes before promotion

Every other path in the Marketing Lab works better when your positioning is clear.

SEO content ranks better when it's built around a specific problem. Ads convert better when the landing page names it. AI tools recommend companies they can describe easily.

Channels are tools, not strategies. Positioning is the strategy.

Not sure where yours stands? Book a strategy call and we'll work through it together.