You might think I’m going to say the most common mistake among B2B businesses, when it comes to their marketing, would be things like lack of digital marketing (SEO, Website improvements, Digital Advertising, poor social media management) and those things are definitely common.
However, the most common mistake I see right now starts way before the marketing tactics are implemented (or not implemented). Businesses, especially those with B2B sales cycles, often begin and initially grow, organically. The business owner leverages his or her connections to gain those first clients and customers, referrals start to come in, and in a few years you have a solid book of business and are profitable (hopefully).
If you’ve started and grown a business, you know that the means by which you grew to say, 5 mil in annual revenue, is not the means that will be required to grow to 10, 15 or 20 mil. Those who do succeed in scaling know the importance of Brand Positioning.
What is Brand Positioning (and why does it matter)?
Your brand’s position in the market is your differentiator. Typically, a brand’s position is the expression of ‘what you do, and who you do it for’.
It’s quite literally the opposite of “All Things To All People”
Why do so few B2B business owners want to claim their brand position? One word, Fear.
When we claim our Brand Position, we’re not only shouting to the market who we are, who we work for and what we do. We’re also clearly communicating who we are NOT, who we do NOT work for and what we do NOT do.
For instance, I recently spoke with a business owner who mentioned they “sometimes do government work, but we don’t like it and it’s not very profitable”. My question to them, “so, why are we marketing to a vertical you don’t want to win?” Another common conversation is with the business owner who says “90% of our work is B2B, but we do a little B2C here and there”. Why? Are you “winning” those B2C jobs because your market is confused about who you work with? And are you losing potentially far more revenue than the 10% represents in your preferred B2B market because of that confusion?
The fear of doubling, or tripling down on our niche and possibly alienating people outside of our Ideal Client Profile keeps companies ‘stuck’ doing work they don’t want to do and sometimes aren’t even equipped to fulfill. This can lead to dissatisfied customers and bad reviews.
I get it, sometimes we have to take on work that is not “ideal” to keep the lights on, especially in economic upheaval. But positioning your brand and your marketing to only attract the clients you want to work with, based on your organization’s “superpowers” will be the answer to making every customer a happy one, every job a success, winning jobs you’re best equipped to deliver, and – scaling.
So, unless your company is aiming to be the next Yamaha (The world’s best piano / motorcycle company), a brand positioning exercise may be in order!