A familiar category helps buyers understand what you do. It can also limit what they believe you can deliver. When your product evolves but your story stays fixed, prospects may keep comparing you with the wrong competitors or overlook capabilities that address their bigger business challenges.
Research shows how new categories can unsettle established markets. A 2021 study in Strategy Science examined financial services from 2010 to 2017. Researchers found that funding announcements from startups combining unusual business categories were associated with lower stock returns for established firms. The implication? Competitors can change expectations about your future without changing anything inside your business.
Salesforce offers a memorable example of challenging those expectations. In 2000, it staged a mock protest outside a Siebel Systems conference, using actors with anti-software signs to promote “The End of Software.” According to Salesforce’s history, the event generated coverage in The Wall Street Journal. Its cloud-based CRM gave that provocative message a concrete foundation: a different way to deliver software.
The communications lesson is to connect a different story to a meaningful difference in the product.
Your category should help buyers understand your value—not set the limits of what they believe you can deliver.
Recognize when the conversation needs to change
AFor B2B technology companies, three questions can reveal whether the conversation needs to change:
- What does your category leave out? Identify the customer problem you solve that your current label fails to explain.
- What can you prove? Ground a broader story in customer results, demonstrated capabilities and specific examples.
- Do buyers understand the shift? Test the language in customer conversations before carrying it into your website, executive content and media outreach.
For example, a company known for reporting software might help customers make staffing decisions. A stronger story would explain which decisions it improves and show the results customers achieve.
What comes next
Start by reviewing recent sales conversations with your team. Where did prospects misunderstand your offering, make an unhelpful comparison or express surprise about a capability? Look for a recurring gap between what you deliver and what buyers expect.
Use that insight to draft a positioning statement that names the customer, the problem and the outcome you can substantiate. Test it with a few customers and prospects. Ask what they think you do, when they would consider you and what evidence they would need.
Once the message is clear, carry it consistently into your website, sales materials, executive content and media outreach. Watch for signs that it is working, such as more relevant inquiries, fewer repeated explanations and conversations about the business problems you solve.
You don’t have to invent a category to expand the conversation. Make sure your story reflects the value you deliver today and gives buyers a credible reason to see you differently.
Back to Blog