Differentiate or Die: Secrets of Silicon Valley Differentiate or Die: Secrets of Silicon Valley

What is the most effective positioning strategy for winning in a commodity market? How do you compete when pricing wars are common, the buying criteria is based on feature checklists, and every vendor sounds the same?

From our experience positioning over 300 B2B tech companies, Firebrick has unlocked the secrets to successful positioning in a commodity market. Bob Wright and Bob Macdonald share their insights and a proven strategy for separating from the pack, including how to:



* Win the hearts of executive buyers

* Shape new buying criteria in your favor

* Redefine the category to set you up for new growth







Also available in this series,The World’s Best B2B Tech Presentations, Three Keys for Successful Positioning, Not for the faint of heart, Symptoms you have a positioning problem, Positioning vs. Branding: Clearing up the confusion, B2B Positioning, CEO or CMO agenda?, Is your positioning winning or losing?, Stop the geek speak, Setting the foundation for successful positioning, B2B Positioning with and agency or in-house, When positioning expires, and The best product rarely wins.

Good positioning has deep transformative impact.

That’s what we heard from Michael Nevins, CMO of Smart Adserver, a Paris-based ad tech company.

In this Q&A, Mike shares how Smart’s recent positioning initiative delivered a compelling narrative for entering the US market. Unexpectedly, the new positioning also drove extremely valuable side effects that are changing the way the company operates – beyond marketing and sales, to operations, R&D, and every employee around the world.

How do you create B2B tech presentations that your sales team actually uses and that inspire customers to say ‘yes’?

Over the last decade, Firebrick has developed transformational Positioning stories for more than 400 B2B tech clients. Masterful storytellers, Bob Wright and Bob Macdonald share their insights, truths and experience on how to make the world’s best presentations, including:



* The 5 cardinal sins: why most tech sales decks suck

* Getting it right – the storyline arc

* The fundamentals of great positioning storylines





Also available in this series, Three Keys for Successful Positioning, Not for the faint of heart, Symptoms you have a positioning problem, Positioning vs. Branding: Clearing up the confusion, B2B Positioning, CEO or CMO agenda?, Is your positioning winning or losing?, Stop the geek speak, Setting the foundation for successful positioning, B2B Positioning with and agency or in-house, When positioning expires, and The best product rarely wins.

You made a big bet with your new positioning, how do you make sure it hits the mark when rolling it out?

Katey Mokelke knows what it takes to successfully navigate the “last mile” of a strategic positioning initiative. Based on her leadership of more than 50 engagements in the past seven years as a Firebrick positioning consultant, Katey discusses the keys to activating a new positioning for maximum impact, including:



* Getting it right – launching a new positioning strategy

* Best practices for sales enablement of a new sales pitch

* Positioning vs. Messaging – what’s the difference?







 

How does a company retake its rightful position in the market?

In this pre-COVID conversation, Laura Dunbar, SVP of Marketing at GHX – the leading digital trading network for the healthcare industry – shares her experience taking on a new SVPM post, and the strategic role Positioning played in transforming the company to retake a category leadership position while changing the perception of the marketing organization. In this Q&A Laura shares:



* When’s the right time for Positioning?

* How can Positioning be used to get a company’s “mojo” back?

* What are the advantages of hiring an outside firm to run the process?

Creating a category is not for the faint of heart.

Over the past 20 years, Firebrick has been at ground-zero of the formation of multiple B2B tech categories: CRM/MA, SaaS, Big Data, CX, DevOps, Edge and more. Positioning veterans Bob Wright and Bob Macdonald share their insights on category creation, including:



* The #1 challenge of creating a new category

* How to decide whether to create a category or extend an existing one

* The top 3 reasons we’ve seen category creators fail





Also available in this series, 3 Keys to run successful positioning, Not for the faint of heart, Symptoms you have a positioning problem, Positioning vs. Branding: Clearing up the confusion, B2B Positioning, CEO or CMO agenda?, Is your positioning winning or losing?, Stop the geek speak, Setting the foundation for successful positioning, B2B Positioning with and agency or in-house, When positioning expires, and The best product rarely wins.