When it comes to SaaS positioning, there’s no shortage of opinions. Many people seem to have their own ideas of what it involves, but often these ideas miss the mark. Before diving into what SaaS positioning really is, it’s essential to clear up some common misconceptions about what it isn’t.
What SaaS Positioning Is Not
- It’s not a sales deck. Your positioning is not just about the slides you present to potential clients. It’s much deeper than that.
- It’s not endless brainstorming. Positioning isn’t a never-ending discussion among your team. While brainstorming helps, you need concrete results.
- It’s not a list of 100 personas. A huge list of target personas won’t give you clarity. More personas lead to diluted messaging.
- It’s not “competitor research.” While understanding your competition matters, positioning is about defining your own space, not just reacting to others.
- It’s not about creating a vague category. Don’t invent a category no one understands or cares about. Being too abstract won’t resonate.
- It’s not about made-up USPs. If you’re listing unique selling points you don’t actually have, your positioning will fall apart quickly.
What SaaS Positioning Really Is
SaaS positioning is about clarity and focus—both for your internal team and your audience. If your message is lost in vague claims or an overcomplicated buyer persona list, you’ll miss opportunities to resonate with your ideal customers.
1. Focus on 1–3 Buyer Personas
Positioning isn’t about covering every possible type of customer; it’s about honing in on the key personas that matter most to your business. Limiting it to 1–3 personas allows you to focus your efforts on crafting messaging and strategies that truly resonate. Laser-focus on your core buyers is vital to ensuring you aren’t trying to be everything to everyone.
2. Understand What Makes You Different
SaaS positioning is about identifying what makes your product or service stand out from the competition. This doesn’t just mean claiming you’re “better” but also addressing how you’re better. Whether it’s on price, convenience, speed, or performance, your unique value should be clear. If you can’t articulate how you’re different—and have your customers agree—you’re not positioning effectively.
3. Actively Shape Perception
Positioning isn’t just about being different; it’s about what you actively do to ensure you’re perceived as different. If you’re the only one who understands your positioning, you’ve missed the mark. Successful positioning means your ideal customers immediately recognise that your product is tailored for them. When they visit your website or interact with your brand, they should think, “This is exactly for me.”
The 70/20/10 Rule: Balancing Personas and Strategy
To effectively implement positioning, you need to experiment, validate, and adjust. The 70/20/10 rule offers a helpful framework for how to allocate resources to your personas:
- 70% of your resources should be focused on your best-fit buyer persona. This is your bread and butter, the core group you aim to convert.
- 20% of your resources should go to adjacent personas—those who are slightly outside your main target but still valuable.
- 10% can be spent on a transformational longshot, a persona that may seem like a stretch now but could prove to be game-changing in the future.
At Series A fintech Penfold, this approach was used to great effect. Initially, the business was 90% B2C, but after experimenting with the 70/20/10 rule, the focus shifted to 60% B2B, 30% Channel, and 10% B2C over the course of 12 weeks. This flexible framework allowed for rapid adjustments and re-prioritisation based on real sales growth.
Positioning Isn’t About Addressing the Entire Market
Many companies fall into the trap of thinking their product could be useful to almost everyone. The reality? Your total addressable market is not 6 billion people. Trying to be relevant to everyone will dilute your positioning. Instead, you need to claim a specific space in the market. The narrower and more defined your positioning, the more effectively you can compete and grow within that space.
How to Get SaaS Positioning Right
Getting SaaS positioning right is challenging because often the key detail that differentiates your ideal customer profile (ICP) from the rest can be difficult to identify. It may be hiding in plain sight, which makes it even harder to get right. That’s why experimentation, validation, and constant refinement are critical to successful positioning. Your job is to locate that grain of difference, build your positioning around it, and ensure it resonates clearly with your target audience.
Conclusion
SaaS positioning is not just another task on your to-do list—it’s a strategic process that defines your place in the market. The simpler and more targeted your approach, the more powerful your positioning becomes. Remember, it’s about focus, clarity, and precision, both in how you position yourself internally and how your audience perceives you. Avoid the common pitfalls of overcomplication and keep your eye on what truly makes you stand out. When done correctly, SaaS positioning will ensure your ICP recognises your product or service as exactly what they need.
