To scale a SaaS product, you need a clear positioning strategy and a messaging that speaks to the right audience.
A solid SaaS positioning strategy is essential for any company looking to scale, especially when targeting enterprise clients. Unlike smaller businesses, enterprises have more complex needs and longer decision-making processes. Clear SaaS positioning helps to articulate how your product solves specific challenges and stands out from competitors. This process requires a focused narrative that guides everything from marketing to sales conversations.
Making the transition from selling your SaaS product to SMBs to selling it to enterprises.
“We sell to enterprises. Our product is complex, and we serve clients in multiple industries. We’ve grown through our network and word of mouth, but to scale, we need clear messaging that speaks to a cold market.”
This is the conversation I had with a client.
They sell a complex tech product to a non-technical audience, and the wonderful thing is that:
✅ They have product market fit.
✅ They have global clients.
✅ Clients love their solution.
But at this point, their messaging is vague and causes the following problems:
❌ The executive team can’t explain the product in simple terms.
❌ Prospects don’t understand the product when they read the website.
❌ Sales reps spend hours explaining the product to the prospects.
So far, they have had product-led growth. This helped because they gained traction in the beginning with SMEs (small and medium enterprises). Even though vague, the current messaging targeted this type of company, where the decision-making process is much faster than in enterprises.
But they started selling to enterprise clients with a much slower decision-making process and many shareholders involved.
Therefore, they need to adapt their messaging and positioning.
Working with a specialized SaaS positioning consultant can make a big difference.
An experienced SaaS positioning consultant can help refine your positioning and messaging, ensuring it aligns perfectly with your target audience’s needs. By understanding your market and competition, these consultants can help you build a strategy that resonates with prospects, shortens the sales cycle, and ultimately drives growth. For companies that have relied on word-of-mouth or network-based growth, transitioning to a clear, scalable positioning can be a game-changer.
Selling to enterprises is a complex process, and there are two ways to define product positioning:
1. Workflow-based positioning
Build the value proposition around the specific workflow (process) the product optimizes in each industry. Include a “Whom we serve by industry” section on the website that clearly explains the particular use cases for each industry.
2. Role-based positioning
Build the value proposition around the specific roles (personas) involved in that particular workflow, and include the “Whom we serve by role” section in the website that clearly explains the benefits for all the personas involved in the decision-making process and the relation with all the correspondent departments.
In this particular case, we decided to use Workflow-based positioning because the optimized workflow was crystal clear, while multiple personas were involved in the decision-making process.
Effective B2B SaaS positioning requires a deep understanding of your target industries and the specific workflows your product optimizes.
Whether you’re catering to manufacturing, healthcare, or tech, your positioning should clearly outline how your software addresses industry-specific challenges. This B2B SaaS positioning helps differentiate your product in a crowded market, making it easier for decision-makers to see the value and benefits at a glance.
Defining the positioning and messaging for a complex software product is an iterative process.
To define the right positioning and messaging for a B2B SaaS product, you need to take the time to analyze your clients, their needs, and your capabilities before getting it right.
Explaining a complex product is not easy. Below are some of the challenges I hear from my clients often:
“I ran my SaaS for 8 years and still can’t explain my product in one sentence.”
“We have a great product, but we just don’t know how to explain it.”
“Our sales team spends hours explaining our product to our prospects.”
“Our prospects don’t fully understand the value of our product.”
“Our clients would like to recommend us to others, but they just don’t know how.”
“Our messaging is confusing the audience about the benefits and value of the product.”
These are some of the challenges my clients usually bring to the table when they come to me to refine their messaging and define their positioning.
It’s painful to know you’re offering something valuable, but growing your business is hard because people don’t understand that value due to unclear messaging.
Your positioning is temporary, especially when you’re in the early stages.
When your in the early starge, is likely that your positioning will change after 6 – 12 – 18 months, based on the feedback you get from your clients, based on pivoting or not. But this is the first step to clarity and will give you a more precise direction on building your messaging and value proposition.
One of the first steps to define your positioning is to think about two different
The first step when defining the messaging is establishing whether your positioning is competitive or complementary.
To emphasize this, I will use the Loom vs. Calendly example, where each company has a unique approach to a specific workflow – having/not having meetings.
Competitive Positioning (opposed to the conventional way)
Loom approach: “You don’t need to waste hours weekly with useless meetings. We give you a tool to record short videos, send them to your team instead, and get the job done.”
Complementary Positioning (complementing the conventional way)
Calendly approach: “You need to schedule meetings with your team. We give you a tool to schedule them faster, without the back-and-forth emails to find the perfect time.”
To map out this approach effectively, using a SaaS positioning canvas can be incredibly useful.
A canvas helps you visualize and organize your product’s value proposition, target audience, key messages, and differentiators in one place. This tool ensures that all aspects of your SaaS positioning strategy are aligned, making it easier to create consistent messaging across all channels. For complex SaaS products, especially those targeting enterprises, a clear and structured canvas can simplify the process of refining and communicating your product’s positioning.
Defining the positioning and messaging for a SaaS product is an iterative process and takes time.
Defining positioning and messaging requires listening, testing, and sometimes failing before getting it right.
“Solid product. Thousands of users. Years of hard work. And…I still don’t know how to describe what we do in one sentence.”
That’s how my conversation with this SaaS founder started.
Their software solves real problems across three industries: Energy, Automotive, and Manufacturing. But after 6 years on the market, they still struggle to explain the product, and people don’t understand why their solution is unique.
If messaging is too ambigous, prospects won’t understand your product.
To emphasize this, I’ll share another real world example. I worked with founder who already had multiple iterations trying to clarify the messaging:
❌ They had an “all-in-one” approach, trying to explain how their solution covers “all” and serves various industries.
❌ They focused the messaging on the decision-makers, assuming they would accelerate the deals once they understood the value the product could bring.
❌ They focused the messaging to address multiple personas involved in the decision-making process, assuming everyone needs to be aligned to reach the final decision faster.
None of these worked. The messaging was too ambiguous, and people didn’t quite understand the product.
Therefore, we had this discussion trying to define a clear messaging and product positioning.
From the conversation with the founder, I understood that they solve a specific problem for each industry – the need to simulate and improve real-world scenarios in a safe, virtual environment.
This makes a lot of sense because if you run a real-world simulation and things go bad, your operations and clients may be affected, and you will lose a lot of money and resources.
I also understood that a particular persona uses the software in each industry – the software engineers from the R&D department. Even if they are not decision-makers, these people have much power to influence the decisions.
Simply put, if they use a tool that helps them in the process and ask their bosses to buy it, the company usually does.
So, one way to build the positioning and the new messaging is to integrate the 2 elements that haven’t been tested yet:
✅ Explain how the simulation software improves a specific process in each industry – simulate and improve real-world scenarios.
✅ Talk directly with the people using the tool in each sector – the R&D Engineers.
Here’s the first iteration of the new value proposition:
1. Product Positioning – Simulation Software
2. Headline – Evaluate real-life scenarios in a safe, virtual environment, reducing the need for physical testing and shortening the time to market.
3. Social proof – Trusted by R&D Engineers in Energy, Automotive, Manufacturing
It’s important to understand that defining the messaging and positioning for a software product is an iterative process and takes time. It requires listening, testing, and sometimes failing before getting it right.
Clear positioning will help you build compelling messaging that increases conversion rates on your website.
“We’ve grown so fast and have so much work, and no one has time to take care of the website messaging. We get more and more visibility, more clients come to us through recommendations or from conferences we attend, and we have an increasing number of visitors to the website. However, the website conversion rate is still very low because our messaging is unclear, and people don’t understand what we do.
It’s time to clearly define our messaging and positioning so that when people visit our site, they immediately understand what we do. We want the website to be an asset transforming visitors into clients.”
This is what a founder told me recently. He runs a very successful software development agency that serves global clients.
When your company grows very fast, messaging is less critical. What’s more important is serving the clients who need your product or service and continuing the company’s accelerated growth.
You reached a point when your company became very visible, and this is a great place to be.
Now, imagine the following scenarios:
1. A referral lands on your website.
Your existing clients recommend your services to their peers, and these people visit your website, searching for additional information or specific case studies, before requesting a meeting. T
2. A potential client (or a warm lead) lands on your website.
Some people hear about your company and need more information about your offerings (warm contacts). Before requesting a meeting, they need to learn about the specific functionalities of your technology and understand the benefits of working with you.
3. A problem aware-lead (or a solution-seeker) lands on your website.
Other people just land on your website searching for a solution to their specific problem. They need clear information about what you do and how you do it, and your website must answer their questions quickly.
If your website messaging is confusing or incomplete, and your positioning is unclear, this might lead to:
1. The referrals won’t be entirely convinced you are the best option for them, and you will need additional meetings and more time to earn their trust, explain your process, and the sales cycle will be longer
2. The warm leads might not be convinced to request a meeting, and some will likely lose interest after visiting your website.
3. Solution seekers will not find answers to their questions, will not understand your value, and will likely search for answers on your competitors’ websites.
These things happen because people don’t understand what you do when they visit your website.
When your messaging is unclear, you’re essentially asking your prospects to do extra work just to figure out what you do.
Today, when attention spans are so short, that’s a risk you can’t afford. The longer they search for answers, the more likely they are to leave.
If your messaging and positioning are clear, chances are you’ll spend less time convincing and more time closing.
—
If you run a B2B software company and need help refining your positioning, messaging, and copywriting, let’s talk. Send me an email outlining your current challenges, and I’ll help make your product instantly clear to the right audience.
Curious about how I’ve helped others? Take a look at a few reviews from my previous clients on my LinkedIn profile Check Reviews or visit the Portfolio page.
If you think I can add value to your company, let’s schedule an intro call to see if we’re a good fit, and if we are, we can discuss a potential collaboration.