Here’s the hard truth: most SaaS products don’t fail because they’re missing features—they fail because nobody understands what the hell they are.
Ask ten SaaS startups what they do and you’ll get ten different answers. Half are buried in jargon, the rest are so vague they could be anything. That’s not a messaging problem. That’s a positioning problem.
In B2B SaaS, if your target customer doesn’t immediately get what you are, who you’re for, and why you’re better than their current workaround—you’ve already lost. Buyers don’t have time to figure it out for you.
That’s why positioning matters. It’s the context that makes your product make sense. It tells your team what story to tell. It makes your marketing tighter, your sales pitch clearer, and your growth faster.
In this post, we’re breaking down what strong B2B SaaS positioning actually looks like. No fluff. Just the stuff you need to know to stop sounding like everyone else.
1. What Positioning Actually Is (and What It’s Not)
Let’s kill the confusion upfront: positioning isn’t your slogan. It’s not your feature list. It’s not some one-liner buried in your pitch deck.
Positioning is the foundation that makes your product make sense. It’s the context that tells people what you are, who you’re for, why you exist, and why they should care.
It’s how you answer:
- Who’s this built for?
- What problem does it solve?
- What kind of product is it?
- What makes it better than what they’re doing now?
Without clear positioning, your messaging will be messy, your sales team will wing it, and your product will feel generic—even if it isn’t.
Here’s the difference it makes in action:
Weak: “A flexible collaboration tool for modern teams.”
Strong: “For product teams who move fast, [Tool] is a lightweight project management app that keeps priorities clear without process overload.”
One is vague and forgettable. The other is specific, sharp, and instantly tells me if it’s for me.
Especially in B2B SaaS—where every market is crowded and every buyer is busy—if you don’t control the narrative, someone else will. And they’ll probably do it worse.
2. The Core Elements of Strong Positioning (aka, Stop Making It Up as You Go)
Good positioning isn’t magic. It’s not vibes. It’s a set of decisions—and if you skip them or half-ass them, your product ends up sounding like every other “intuitive, scalable, AI-powered platform” out there. Yawn.
Here’s what strong positioning actually needs:
🎯 1. Target Customer
Who the hell is this for?
Not “everyone.” Not “startups.” Not “businesses of all sizes.” Be specific. Who actually gets value from this thing? Who’s pulling their hair out over the problem you solve?
If you can’t picture a real person using your product, your positioning’s already in trouble.
😬 2. Problem or Pain Point
What are they dealing with that sucks?
This isn’t about what your product does. It’s about what it fixes. What’s the broken thing in their day that your product makes better?
Bonus points if they’ve been duct-taping a workaround with Excel or Notion—that’s a signal they’re desperate for a better way.
📦 3. Product Category
What kind of product is this (in plain English)?
Your customer needs a mental “folder” to stick you in. Are you a CRM? A data tool? A workflow automation thingy? Help them understand what box you belong in—or they’ll make one up (badly).
Don’t be cute here. Clarity beats clever every time.
💡 4. Core Benefit
What’s the actual outcome they get?
Not features. Not adjectives. What’s the thing they can finally do once they use your product?
“Save 5 hours a week” lands better than “streamline your operations.”
🔥 5. Differentiators
Why should they pick you over the next tab they’ve got open?
What do you have that no one else does—or what do you do way better than anyone else?
Saying you’re “easy to use” isn’t a differentiator. Everyone says that. Show me the thing your competitors can’t say.
📊 6. Proof
Can you back it up, or are you just talking shit?
Show me numbers, logos, testimonials, or at the very least, a damn good demo. Buyers are skeptical. Earn their trust.
You get these six things nailed, and your positioning stops being a guessing game. It becomes a foundation you can build everything else on—website copy, sales decks, campaigns, investor pitches, the lot.
Screw this up, and you’ll be stuck trying to “clarify” what your product does in every call, pitch, and email until you burn out or give up.
3. Frameworks That Stop You From Winging It
Positioning isn’t a vibe. It’s a decision. And if you’re staring at a blank doc hoping the right words will magically show up—you’re already in trouble.
Here are two frameworks that actually help you structure your thinking without turning your brain to soup.
🧩 Geoffrey Moore’s Classic Template
From Crossing the Chasm. Simple, tidy, and perfect when you need to wrangle your thoughts into something coherent.
For [target customer] who [has this problem], [product name] is a [category] that [delivers this benefit]. Unlike [competitor or alternative], it [offers this differentiator].
Example:
For growth-stage SaaS teams who are sick of juggling tools, FlowUp is a project management platform that replaces docs, tasks, and spreadsheets with one connected workspace. Unlike Asana or Trello, FlowUp is built for speed and zero overhead.
Why it works:
You can’t fill this out without being specific. And that’s the point. You’re forced to make choices—and that’s what good positioning is.
🧠 April Dunford’s “Obviously Awesome” Framework
This one’s more strategic. Dunford flips the usual script and says: start with what makes you different, then work backwards to find your positioning.
Here’s her approach:
- Competitive alternatives – What would your customers use if you didn’t exist? (Yes, spreadsheets count.)
- Unique attributes – What do you offer that those options don’t?
- Value – What do those unique things actually do for the customer?
- Who cares most – Which type of customer loses sleep over this value?
- Market category – What kind of product are you (in their words)?
- (Bonus) Trends – Is there a shift happening that makes you more relevant now?
Why it works:
It forces you to stop talking to yourself and start thinking like your customer. It’s less about “what do we want to say?” and more about “what will actually land?”
So which one should you use?
| Use This If You Need… | Moore | Dunford |
|---|---|---|
| A quick, structured template | ✅ | |
| Deep strategic positioning work | ✅ | |
| Something to align your team fast | ✅ | ✅ (after more thinking) |
| An excuse to avoid hard decisions | ❌ | ❌ |
Real talk? Use both. Start with Dunford to get your thinking straight. Use Moore to pressure-test it and make it concrete.e Dunford’s approach to figure out what makes you different, then plug it into Moore’s format to pressure-test the story.
You don’t learn positioning by reading theory. You learn by looking at companies that actually got it right—especially in B2B SaaS, where the temptation to sound like everyone else is strong and deadly.
4. Real B2B SaaS Positioning That Actually Slaps
Let’s break down a few standout examples and unpack why their positioning worked—and what you can steal.
🟣 Slack – “Where Work Happens”
The move: Slack didn’t market themselves as a “chat tool.” They declared war on internal email—and won.
- Target user: Fast-moving teams stuck in email chains and endless meetings
- Pain: Email was slow, messy, and not built for real-time collaboration
- Category: Team communication platform
- Benefit: Stay aligned, move faster, work transparently—all in one place
- Differentiator: Real-time chat, organized channels, and integrations with everything
- Proof: The fact you now say “Slack me” instead of “email me” says it all
They didn’t try to explain every feature. They painted a picture: Slack is the modern way to work. The old way (email) was broken, and they positioned themselves as the fix. Clean. Bold. Crystal clear.
Steal this: If the thing you’re replacing is universally hated, lean in. Don’t explain your tool—sell the escape hatch from the pain.
🟠 HubSpot – Built a Whole Damn Category
The move: They didn’t try to beat the old-school marketing tools. They called them outdated and introduced a better way: inbound.
- Target user: SMB marketers tired of shouting into the void with outbound
- Pain: Expensive ads, cold emails, zero engagement
- Category: Inbound marketing platform (they literally coined the term)
- Benefit: Attract, convert, and nurture leads by being genuinely helpful
- Differentiator: All-in-one tool for content, SEO, CRM, automation—designed for smaller teams
- Proof: They created a movement. And a playbook. And a billion-dollar business.
HubSpot’s genius wasn’t just in the product—it was in the story. They gave marketers new language, rallied people around a smarter strategy, and positioned themselves as the software to make it happen.
Steal this: If you’ve got a fundamentally different POV, use it. Challenge the old way, name the new way, and show how your product is the tool to get there.
⚫️ Notion – “One Workspace. Every Team.”
The move: Most tools go narrow. Notion went wide—and made it work by focusing on flexibility, not just functionality.
- Target user: Product teams, startups, creatives who are sick of juggling 5+ tools
- Pain: Notes in Google Docs, tasks in Trello, wikis in Confluence, ideas in people’s heads
- Category: All-in-one workspace
- Benefit: Replace all your scattered tools with one flexible, customizable space
- Differentiator: Building blocks model—create docs, wikis, task boards, and databases, your way
- Proof: Massive organic growth, viral templates, and a community that does the marketing for them
Notion didn’t try to win by being the best note-taking app or the best project management tool. They won by offering a blank canvas that became what the user needed—something competitors weren’t even trying to do.
Steal this: If your product is flexible, don’t just say it—show how users win with that flexibility. Make the freedom the value.
🔵 Snowflake – “The Data Cloud”
The move: Snowflake could’ve positioned themselves as just another “cloud data warehouse.” Instead, they reframed the entire category.
- Target user: Enterprises stuck with expensive, hard-to-scale legacy data stacks
- Pain: Data locked in silos, poor performance, hard to collaborate or scale
- Category: The Data Cloud (a term they created to differentiate from warehouses/lakes)
- Benefit: Seamlessly store, access, and share data across teams and clouds
- Differentiator: Decoupled storage & compute, cross-cloud support, and secure data sharing
- Proof: $3.4B IPO and a reputation as the modern standard for data infra
Snowflake didn’t lead with features. They led with a new way of thinking: that data should be frictionless, connected, and available at scale. “Data Cloud” wasn’t just a label—it was a vision.
Steal this: If your tech genuinely changes the game, give it a new frame. Rename the problem. Redefine the category. Make your product the obvious choice for what’s next, not what’s now.
What Do These All Have in Common?
They didn’t just describe their product. They positioned it:
- Against a real, painful status quo
- For a specific user with a clear need
- In a way that felt fresh, ownable, and dead simple to understand
- With a benefit that punched above the feature set
- And proof that backed up the story
And none of them said “scalable, AI-powered platform” anywhere near the top of their homepage.
5. Common Positioning F*ckups (That Are Killing Your Growth)
Let’s be blunt—most positioning sucks. Not because people are lazy, but because they try to do too much, say too little, or copy what’s already out there.
Here are the biggest mistakes I see again and again. If you want your product to stand out, stop doing this sh*t.
❌ Trying to Be Everything to Everyone
You are not “for all industries and team sizes.” No one believes that—and if they do, they won’t remember you tomorrow.
Why it’s a problem: Vague positioning makes you invisible. Specific positioning makes you memorable.
Fix it: Pick your best-fit customer and speak directly to them. Ignore the rest (for now). You can always expand later—after you’ve won somewhere.
❌ Talking About Features, Not Outcomes
Nobody cares that you “have dashboards,” “use AI,” or “support integrations.” They care about what they get.
“Customizable reporting module” = snooze.
“Cut reporting time by 80%” = tell me more.
Fix it: Translate every feature into a benefit. Ask: Why does this exist? What does it help the user do better, faster, or with less pain?
❌ Positioning Without a Villain
If you’re not positioning against something—an old tool, a crappy process, a broken system—you’re not really positioning. You’re just describing.
“We’re a scalable platform that empowers teams…” Cool. So is literally every other SaaS product.
Fix it: Name the enemy. Email, spreadsheets, legacy tools, bloated platforms—whatever it is. Show customers what you’re saving them from.
❌ Copying What Everyone Else Says
Go read five B2B SaaS websites. Bet you’ll see “all-in-one,” “seamless,” “intuitive,” “transform,” and “powerful” on every single one.
If your positioning sounds like it was written by ChatGPT on autopilot, it’s not going to land.
Fix it: Use plain, specific language. Pull phrases from customer interviews. If a competitor could say the same thing, dig deeper.
❌ Creating a New Category Without a Clear Story
Rebranding your tool as “The [Insert Buzzword] Cloud” or “a revolutionary new platform for synergistic revenue orchestration” doesn’t make you original—it makes you confusing.
“New category” doesn’t mean “make up a bunch of words.”
Fix it: If you’re carving out a new category, tell a simple, clear story:
- What’s broken with the old way?
- Why is the current category not working?
- What’s changed in the market that makes this new approach make sense now?
❌ Making Claims You Can’t Back Up
Saying you “10x productivity” or are “trusted by the world’s best teams” means jack if you can’t show receipts.
Buyers are skeptical. If you’re full of it, they’ll sniff it out immediately.
Fix it: Drop some proof. Logos, numbers, quotes, real outcomes. If you can’t prove it, tone it down until you can.
❌ Being Inconsistent Across Teams
If sales is saying one thing, marketing is saying another, and the product experience doesn’t match either—good luck closing deals.
Mixed messages confuse buyers and kill trust. Fast.
Fix it: Once you lock in your positioning, make sure it’s shared, documented, and reinforced across every team. Your whole org should be singing from the same damn sheet.
Bottom line?
Weak positioning is a growth tax. It slows everything down—marketing, sales, product adoption. Strong positioning speeds everything up because everyone (including your customers) knows what you do and why it matters.
Pro tip: Great positioning feels obvious in hindsight. If yours feels overly complicated, you’re probably trying too hard. The best positioning is simple, sharp, and customer-first.
6. Wrapping Up
If you’ve made it this far—congrats. You already care more about positioning than half the SaaS world.
Here’s the TL;DR:
If your audience doesn’t get what you do, who it’s for, and why it’s better than whatever they’re already doing, you don’t have a messaging problem. You have a positioning problem.
Fixing that doesn’t mean writing better copy. It means making real decisions:
- Who are we for?
- What pain are we solving?
- What category do we actually belong in?
- Why the hell are we different—and why should anyone care?
Get that right, and everything else gets easier. GTM alignment. Sales decks. Campaigns. Even fundraising. Because now, people get it.
And if you’re a junior PMM or marketer trying to learn this stuff—don’t wait for someone else to own it. Start writing draft positioning statements. Pressure-test them. Talk to customers. You’ll get sharper every time you do it.
Up Next
In the next post, I’m diving into how to define sharp differentiators that actually set you apart (spoiler: “easy to use” doesn’t count).
If you’re working on positioning right now—or just stuck explaining what your product does in a way that doesn’t suck—drop me a message or a comment. Happy to throw you a few ideas, or tell you straight up where it’s falling flat.drop your questions in the comments or shoot me a message. Always happy to bounce ideas.
