Hey there. This is The Overview, a weekly roundup of noteworthy B2B SaaS stuff. You’ll find interesting thoughts, articles, and more from around the internet.
WTF is Go-To-Market? – Applications are open NOW for the fourth cohort of our top-rated product marketing course, starting March 14th.
Join me, Alicia, and eager product marketers of all levels to get the skills, confidence, and tools to build a customer-focused go-to-market strategy. Just £995 for 40+ hours of product marketing bootcamp training.
Need to request budget from your boss? Use our ‘convince your manager’ email template to get started.
In this post:
We all struggle with differentiation
I ran a LinkedIn poll to see what our collective biggest challenges are right now, and the answer was overwhelmingly struggling to differentiate in crowded marketplaces.
There are thousands of SaaS companies, all doing the same thing, all with the same features.
And although markets are growing, it’s getting harder to gain significant share of wallet… You know why?
Because marketshare correlates with ‘mindshare’.
But gaining mindshare is difficult, because everyone is out there, saying the same thing.
And the only way around this is to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. To zag, when others are zigging.
The principles are really simple:
- Go niche, instead of broad
- Promise little, instead of promising everything
- Focus on engagement, instead of reach
- Highlight what makes you different, instead of what makes you the same
Above all, it takes conviction and courage to effectively pivot. It won’t be easy. But it will be the right thing to do.
Product marketers and the ‘experts curse’
I never thought I’d be sharing a clip from the quirky deadpan Philomena Cunk series, but it really sums up one of the perspectives I have on a core part of product marketing.
Watch the clip and you’ll see the ‘experts curse’ in action. An expert is really thorough, excited to share all they know about a topic, not just on answering the problem but wanting to talk about more and more and more… and it’s all for nothing.
As product marketers – or really, anyone at a SaaS company – we often think our customers and the market are much, much more mature than they actually are. We think they care about all the bells-and-whistles that we can build – when really, they might just want the basics. We think they’re so advanced, so we go through convoluted and confusing sales experiences, when they just want something simple.
Because we’re so close to the problem and the product – and it’s all we think about! – we forget that this problem, our product, is only ever going to be one small part of our customers lives.
Don’t overestimate your customer.
Shiterate
We hosted a quick coffee catchup with past students of our WTF is Go-To-Market course and Georgie brought this brilliantly framed bit of advice.
In this economic climate – and generally in our roles – we need to move fast. We need to build, measure, and learn quickly. But… we want things to be great. We’re detail-oriented people. Perfectionists. And we often get stuck in a rut, umming and ahhing over the last 20% of something that, in reality, will never move the needle.
So, what can we do? Focus on ‘shiterating’.
EMBRACE the fact that your first version is not going to be perfect – it could all be shit. But you know what? It’s something to learn from and improve!
Maybe it’s a shit draft of your personas to get internal feedback. Or shit messaging to test on a Google ad and see how your market responds.
The first of everything can be shit. But it’s something.
Two weeks, not two months
In the same vein as above – what can do you do in two weeks, rather than two months?
Get that first scrappy version done, ship it, and see how it performs. Lower your standards right now – but have higher expectations of the project overall. Forget process to test something – perfect the process later when it’s proven.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought – find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
P.S. If you’ve found value in Building Momentum, could you buy me a coffee? Here’s my tip jar – any support is gratefully appreciated!
P.P.S: If you enjoyed this post, will you share Building Momentum with your network?