B2B positioning: how to determine why customers choose you.

What is B2B positioning?

Positioning is the choice of who you are there for, which problem you solve for that customer and why you do it better than the alternative. It is the place you occupy in the customer's mind, relative to the other options they have. So a positioning is not a slogan, not a mission and not a description of the offer. It is a choice, and like every choice, it rules things out.

In this guide we use four terms in the same way throughout:

• Ideal customer profile: the type of organisation and situation you focus on.
• Positioning: for which customer and need you are a relevant choice, compared with alternatives.
• Proposition: what you concretely offer and promise that customer.
• Story: how you convey these choices in an understandable and convincing way.

Positioning and commercial strategy are connected, and each answers its own question. Commercial strategy determines where and how you want to grow: coherent choices on customers, offer, growth priorities, channels, division of roles and execution. Positioning makes clear why the customer you want chooses you over the alternative: a substantiated positioning and a customer-focused story with a relevant promise and proof. A positioning programme can help on its own when the commercial direction is clear but the differentiation and the story are not sharp enough. More on the broader question in the guide Building a commercial strategy.

In B2B, positioning weighs extra heavily, because the buyer rarely decides alone. A procurement officer, a director and a user all have to be able to explain why you are the right choice. If the story isn't sharp, each of them fills it in themselves. An unclear story can make it harder to explain value over price.

Five steps to a clear positioning

Before you start: decide why you are looking into this

Decide beforehand what you want to improve. Do customers not understand why they should choose you? Do you attract enquiries that don't fit? Or do the website and sales conversations no longer match the company? Choose a concrete reason and record what the programme should deliver. Answer three questions:

• What is the reason: unclear differentiation, price pressure, a changed target group or an outdated story?
• What do we already know from customer feedback and won or lost proposals?
• What should be clearer or more usable after this programme?

Step 1. Ask the customers you want

Choose five to ten customers who resemble the customers you want more of: good margin, smooth collaboration, a problem you solve well. Ask them three things: which situation made them start looking, with whom or what they compared you, and what tipped the balance. Write down their words verbatim.

Don't only talk to satisfied customers: that mostly confirms what you already think. Where relevant, also include lost proposals, customers who left and prospects you want, and involve the different people in the purchase if their interests differ. Distinguish between verbatim statements, recurring patterns and your own interpretations. Five to ten conversations is a practical starting point; how many you need depends on the variation you hear and the uncertainties that remain. The conversations provide material for the positioning. Combine the patterns with your own capabilities and an assessment of the alternatives.

Step 2. Name the real alternative

Positioning is always relative. The question is not just “why us”, but “why us, instead of …”. That alternative is often not the competitor from the pitch, but carrying on doing it themselves, a cheaper party, a bigger agency or leaving the problem for a while. For each important alternative, investigate four things:

• Why does a customer choose it? Understand the appeal of the alternative.
• What does it deliver and what does it cost? Make the customer's trade-off visible.
• Which relevant need is left unmet? That is where a possible difference lies.
• Can we demonstrably do that better? Test the difference against your own capabilities.

A shortcoming in an alternative is not yet an opportunity: it only becomes one when the customer finds it relevant and you can deliver on it. Also note when the alternative is in fact the better fit. That helps to set credible limits on the positioning.

Step 3. Choose who you are there for

Now the choice: for which type of customer, in which situation, are you the best option? The sharper this is, the stronger everything that follows. “Growing manufacturing companies building their first in-house sales team” is a specific customer profile: it says who you are there for, but not yet why that customer chooses you over the alternative. That comes in the next step. “B2B companies” is an address book. Dare to exclude customers here, after a deliberate weighing of opportunities, revenue and capacity. Focus may appeal to others as well, but that is not a guaranteed effect.

Step 4. Formulate the promise, and the proof

Write the positioning down as one promise to that customer, in their language: what is different about you and what does that deliver for them? That is the proposition: what you concretely offer and promise that customer. Put the proof directly underneath: which result was observed, at whom, within which period and under which circumstances? A promise without proof is a claim, and a B2B buyer no longer believes claims. If proof is missing, investigate whether the promise needs sharpening or should first be tested in practice. Don't present an unproven ambition as an achieved result.

A fully worked example, for a fictional scheduling software company for the installation sector. All data and results are made up:

• Customer you want and urgent situation: growing installation companies with 20 to 80 engineers opening their first branch outside the region, at the moment the scheduling no longer fits one way of working.
• Relevant alternative: adapting the existing scheduling themselves, or introducing a general scheduling package.
• Decisive customer need: the scheduling has to keep running during the transition, so appointments with customers don't shift.
• Distinctive approach: a fixed four-step transition method: first record the existing scheduling, then run in parallel for a short period, train the planners in their own environment and only then switch over.
• Concrete promise: the scheduling of the new branch runs on one system within three months, with limited disruption to engineers and customers: appointments stay in place.
• Proof and conditions: at the last twelve branches of customers with fewer than a hundred engineers, scheduling ran on one system within three months; at eleven of the twelve, all appointments stayed in place. Condition: one responsible planner per branch with an hour a week available. (Fictional.)
• Customer story: “For growing installation companies opening their first branch outside the region: make sure the scheduling grows with you without appointments shifting. First we record how you plan, then we run in parallel briefly and switch over within three months. At the last twelve branches, all appointments stayed in place eleven times.”

An example of a claim without support: “We are the reliable partner for all your scheduling needs.”

Step 5. Turn it into one story and use it everywhere

A positioning only exists once it is used. Use the same core everywhere: who you are there for, which problem you solve, why you are a suitable choice and which proof goes with it. Adapt the wording and examples to the audience and the medium: a website, a proposal and a conversation with a procurement officer call for a different treatment. Put the core on the website, in the sales deck, in the proposal and in the first minute of every sales conversation. Train the team on it and have team members explain the positioning in their own words: does the content match? Check after three months whether everyone still tells it from the same core; differences are normal and useful. More on that on Our story no longer fits.

Before you roll it out widely, also test whether customers recognise it. Put the new wording to a few customers and prospects, and see whether:

• the customer you want understands who the offer is for;
• that customer recognises the problem;
• the difference from the alternative is clear;
• the promise is credible;
• the team can make the promise good in practice.

Agreement within the team does not prove that customers find the positioning relevant.

Positioning and brand: which comes first?

The request for a new positioning often arrives as a request for a new visual identity or a new website. That is understandable, because that is where the problem becomes visible. But a logo can't make a choice. Start with the positioning; the brand and the website follow from it. The other way round produces a beautiful website that tells the old story.