Standing out gets challenging when multiple players offer similar products amid slowing growth. Sales teams often find themselves lost amid the noise, struggling to create differentiation. However breaking through requires moving from reactive discounts to reinventing value based on emerging needs.
Mature categories signify both opportunities and obstacles. Opportunities to consolidate market share through expansions. Obstacles in near identical solutions vying for customer mindshare.
In saturated markets, traditional sales tactics like transactional discounts rarely work. 63% of B2B buyers perceive such negotiation tactics as annoying rather than persuasive. What then drives growth?
The answer lies in analyzing whitespace opportunities and crafting unique value propositions aligned to unmet yet important needs. Essentially, a transition from mimicking competition to redefining benchmarks customers care about. Easier said than done but highly rewarding when done right.
Let's examine how to break away from the herd of rivals through metrics-driven insights, purpose-led positioning and sustained invention.
Understanding Market Saturation
Single digit growth unable to sustain historical rates;
Shrinking profit margins due to heightened competition;
Fragmented customer segments as a majority already use solutions;
Pressure to lower subscription costs through discounts;
Trying to attract competitors' customers rather than new segments.
Market maturity demands sales teams move the needle through value-added services versus similar products. For example, automation tools provider Zapier offered slack integration, task analytics and priority sequencing to stand apart rather than purely process workflow creation like competitors.
Let's see how to unearth pockets of differentiation.
Analyzing the Competition
How satisfied are customers, really? The number detractor score indicates.
How comprehensive is feature coverage across user needs? Gap analysis tells.
How compelling is their messaging? Brand studies quantify.
How smooth are onboarding and support? User reviews spotlight pain points.
How diverse are delivery models? Channels and packages illustrate flexibility.
This creates an empirical foundation for zeroing in on weaknesses often hidden beneath glossy brochures and high decibel marketing. The right questions uncover gaps between perception and reality.
For example, a CRM provider realized mid-market offerings often lacked requisite customization during a detailed competitor audit. They tailored lightweight configuration options at an affordable price for this underserved segment. Win rates shot up by 31% subsequently.
Insights manifest when the lens shifts from self to customers. Let's see how to methodically decipher needs and map value.
Building a Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
Important unmet, underserved or emerging customer needs identified through research. Not just conventional demands, but evolving expectations.
Capabilities that convincingly address these needs better than alternatives. Quantify superiority using benchmarks like uptime, query resolution SLAs etc.
Messaging that resonates with motivations through positioning aligned to values like flexibility, ease-of-use etc. rather than mere product attributes or features.
Essentially, UVP = Relevance + Differentiation + Resonance.
For example, cybersecurity major TrendMicro rebuilt their enterprise offering from the lens of empowered security teams rather than technology checkboxes alone. This led positioning as enablers instead of controllers. Deals shaped on this user-centric vision expanded at 39% greater average contract value.
Such outcomes emerge from the interplay between customer truths and own strengths.
Harnessing Customer Wisdom
Institutional wisdom within the company from customer research, support tickets and CRM documenting needs and desired outcomes.
Experiential wisdom from frontline teams like sales, service and success managers about ground realities.
Instead of top-down assumptions, insight bottoms-up through:
Voice of Customer analysis revealing stated and unstated needs.
Service feedback, NPS and reviews highlighting real-world experiences.
Sales deal reviews for requirements shaping purchasing criteria.
Secondary market research into buying committee expectations using search data.
This leads to a sound comprehension of customer priorities beyond conventional demands. The quest should be to uncover “latent needs” - those that are crucial but often unarticulated during transactions.
Addressing these through better alignment or innovation provides strategic growth platforms while raising barriers to entry.
For example, Apple tapped into people's emotional need for human connections and aesthetic expressions while building products functionally focused engineering teams projected would suffice. That purposeful deviation birthed iconic innovations. Such is the power of internalizing the customer.
Innovative Sales Strategies
Business models and enabling tools also require periodic reinvention for ensuring teams don't outgrow capabilities.
Sales enablement platforms facilitating remote selling, gig workforces and platform business models using extended teams and flexible partnerships.
Direct-to-consumer models providing higher customer intimacy through vertical integration rather than multi-layered channels alone.
Transformation-as-a-Service guiding enterprise digital modernization needs through ongoing services vs legacy big-bang efforts.
Platform strategies unlocking partner and dev ecosystems for enhancing reach across segments.
Subscriptions and exposure-based models aligning to usage needs rather than lumpsum Capex.
For example, Adobe’s transition from packaged software to cloud subscriptions increased customer lifetime value by 2X. Rethinking commercial levers thus holds potential.
The Primacy of Customer Success
Engineering experiences balancing both functional excellence and emotional resonance through design thinking - solving unmet needs better.
Enabling people across marketing, sales and support through capability building and automated workflows to drive peak productivity.
Monitoring metrics like NPS, product score, TTV and engagement rates that determine renewal and expansion. Proactively address anomalies.
Essentially the litmus test remains if differentiation claims manifest in reality during on-boarding and usage. Aligning KPIs across the commercial engine - product, marketing, sales - focused on renewals streamlines success.
The best jujitsu uses competitors' inertia for momentum.
Pricing Strategies to Boost Value Perception
Good-better-best tiering that appeals to premium seekers wanting exclusive treatment.
Cost-per-desired outcome models charging basis measurable impact rather than users alone. Scales value.
Bundle packaging of proprietary apps unavailable elsewhere driving up realization from the core product.
In bootstrapped environments, analytics help determine micro-segment willingness to pay more using conjoint analysis - deliberately leaving some features for upsell.
Thus pricing also plays a key role in boosting value perception during evaluation. Making the numbers work allows reinvestment into positive cycles of innovation as covered next.
Building The Brand Story
An emotive brand purpose tangibly helps drive preference beyond functional attributes alone. For example, Dove evolved beauty perceptions from narrow stereotypes towards holistic self care advocacy - captured in its iconic Campaign for Real Beauty.
Visual Identity: Consistent logos, imagery and packaging signal continuity amidst progress, smoothing adoption fears.
Messaging: Taglines capture ethos durably even if offerings evolve. Eg: Intel’s shift from chips to experiences retained “Sponsors of Tomorrow”.
Storytelling: Campaigns, ads and internal comms that inspire belief in the brand mission beyond temporary features.
Masterful brands perpetually rewire relevance without losing sight of their raison d'etre even while rallying ecosystems around bold visions as markets morph. Setting the pace for competition to catch up keeps the edge.
Continuous Learning and Agility
Decision frameworks weighing addressable demand, right to win and options for differentiation guide opportunity analysis.
Early warning systems monitor macro undercurrents, customer chatter and miners competitive activity for clues on paradigm shifts.
Innovation management life cycles proactively carve out budgets to test new ideas instead of limiting R&D to billable projects alone.
A learning orientation thus future proofs sales with internal idea flows and market sensing supplementing external data. Sustaining thinking momentum matters most.
The quest for competitive advantage is a continuous journey of self-discovery rather than a milestone. Mature markets warrant recalibrating for the next growth wave early. Mastering the interplay between customer needs, organizational strengths and market insights unlocks new value frontiers keeping teams ahead while raising the innovation bar.
Hey👋 , thank you for reading! Feel free to check more LabiOffice Blog Team articles on business automation, like: The Science of Sales Forecasting: Predicting Revenue Growth!
