Video
Pricing Power Through Strategic Brand Positioning
Strategic positioning can unify pricing, align teams and justify premiums. See how to target better, cut discounting and shorten sales cycles.
Summary
When win rates flatten and cycles stretch, the reflex is to go wider. The real problem is an unclear position. Progress starts with a clear wedge—customer, problem, outcome—that marks where you win first. That’s what brings back momentum, pricing power, and trust.
Watch The Video
In this video, Dipendra Mistry (CSO & Managing Partner) guides you on establishing clear market positioning for growth as a new entrant.Our Perspective
What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.
The Real Risk
When you keep your position broad, you make it easier for buyers to see you as a substitute rather than a choice. You become comparable on every dimension that doesn’t confer advantage—timelines, terms, and yes, price. The uphill battle starts before your sales team even engages. Google x Bain & Company note that 92% of business purchases go to suppliers already on the buyer’s initial shortlist, which makes distinct positioning less a marketing exercise and more a route to being considered early.
The practical consequence is simple: if your difference isn’t obvious, buyers assume there isn’t one. That’s how growth slows without a clear trigger to explain why.
Define The Wedge
A distinct market position is a wedge: a sharp entry into a specific situation where you can credibly win. It narrows who you pursue, but deepens why you’re chosen. The aim isn’t niche for its own sake; it’s to create decisive preference where you compete.
Build that wedge with three simple choices:
- Customer: a segment with a repeated, recognisable context.
- Problem: a costly friction you can name in plain language.
- Outcome: a measurable result you reliably deliver—and proof that you do.
When these snap together, you shift from describing features to owning a result buyers value.
Design For Advantage
Positioning only delivers once it reshapes priorities, not just messaging. That means aligning product focus, pricing logic, routes to market, and what you say no to. In our experience with mid‑market organisations, focus creates speed: plans stabilise, teams prioritise, and budgets back one clear direction.
Three leadership moves make this real:
- Draw a “no-go” list for segments and use cases that dilute focus.
- Standardise three reasons you win and build sales assets only around them.
- Set operating metrics that reflect the wedge: primary-segment win rate, average deal size, and sales cycle time.
Treat this as an operating choice, not a campaign.
Lead With Focus
There is a trade-off: fewer bets in order to create momentum where you can prove superiority. That’s healthy. Narrow fame beats broad familiarity because it earns trust faster, supports premium pricing, and concentrates referrals around one story buyers can repeat in your words.
Once you’re the obvious answer for someone, expansion gets easier and cheaper: adjacency choices are clearer, and the category helps retell your narrative. Organisations that embrace a sharp edge don’t shrink their ambition; they sequence it—become unmistakable in one arena, then carry that credibility into the next.
Sources:
- The Business Value of Investing in Positioning and Differentiation — Google x Bain & Company
Further Resources
Every organisation hits brand questions it can’t solve alone — if you’d like an outside perspective, we’re here. Let’s talk.
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Positioning