No differentiation

From Reads to Leads is a newsletter for writers who want more. It's about marketing. Strategy. Positioning. Operations. Results. And yes, it talks about writing too. But through a marketing lens. If this was sent to you, subscribe here so you don't miss the next email.

In today's newsletter:

• Your product is undifferentiated
• You might be wrong
• 2 reasons why you are blind

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How are you different? 

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When we consult companies on positioning, the hardest question to answer is: “What makes you different?”

Very often I hear: 

“Honestly, we’re not that different from everyone else.”

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So here is the thing:

Either you're right.

Or you're wrong.

Usually, it’s the latter.

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If you're right

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If your product truly isn’t differentiated, customers have no reason to choose you.

When you’re compared, you’ll lose. Revenue won't grow. Growth will never happen.

No amount of positioning can fix it. Copy won't either.

What you need is a fundamental shift:

• Build new things into your product or service
• Come up with a new pricing strategy (Subscription? Fixed pricing tiers?)
• New strategy around partnerships (ServiceNow if you're a software development company?)
• New strategy around distribution (founder-led LinkedIn?)

But maybe… you’re not right.

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Maybe your product is different

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You just don't understand how.

If your product is different, why can’t you see it?

2 reasons:

• Your product is in fact, differentiated. But your team doesn't understand it.
• The ICP is too broad, making it difficult to nail down the differentiated value.

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Your team doesn't understand it

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This is surprisingly common. 

Sales and marketing often don’t understand the value of the product they’re selling.

Some real situations I’ve seen:

1. A game development company hires a marketing exec who doesn’t play games, doesn’t follow industry news, and doesn’t care about technical stuff. If she understood the tech, she’d instantly see what makes the product valuable.
2. A marketing lead with experience in a similar space joins a new company and assumes this market behaves like the last one. 

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The fix?

More exposure to sales. Especially first sales calls. That’s where raw customer insight lives: how they think, what they compare you to, what matters to them.

And if you're lucky, build a small personal roster of customers you can call to sanity-check how you're thinking about value.

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Your ICP is too broad

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You can’t sell to everyone. 

Differentiation isn’t universal. It only matters to the people who need what you offer.

So if your team is targeting “everyone in the market,” your unique value is invisible.

Here’s what I often see:

Teams spend more time imagining the dream customer they hope to land than studying the real ones they’ve already won.  

The answer to how you differ is always in your actual customers.

Study them. Look for patterns. What makes them a good fit? (I've got a template to help you define an ideal segment)

Often, the root cause of weak positioning is this:

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Customer and product knowledge are unevenly distributed across the team

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Marketing folks say:

“We’re not that special.”

But the founder is convinced:

“We absolutely are.”

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See you next week

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I’m speaking at a webinar next week on positioning software development companies in the age of AI.

You’re all invited. One caveat: It’s in Ukrainian.

Would love to have you there.

Register here 

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Kate

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P.S. If we aren't connected already, follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram. If you like this newsletter, please refer your friends.

P.P.S. Need a hand with content? Fix your mediocrity problem with Zmist & Copy

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