4 Signs You Have a Product Positioning Problem
Positioning isn’t just “marketing fluff”. It’s the backbone of your GTM — website, product roadmap, content, campaigns, and sales strategy.
Get it right and it feels like you have the wind at your back. Get it wrong, and your GTM is 100 times harder.
Here are four clear signs that your positioning is off, along with quick tests to pinpoint the problem.
1. You’re Targeting Everyone and Anyone
Broad targeting feels safe, but it weakens your positioning. Nearly every founder I’ve worked with hesitates to narrow their focus, afraid that a smaller TAM will scare off VCs. But, when you try to serve everyone, you serve no one well.
Impact:
Sales and marketing can’t agree on which customers to prioritise.
The cost to serve each customer is high because their needs are different.
Quick Test: Group your current customers by use case or industry. If you have more than three distinct segments with different needs, you’re spreading yourself too thin (applicable to Seed, Series A & B B2B SaaS companies).
How Positioning Helps: Focuses your efforts around a clearly defined, best-fit customer. By truly understanding their unique needs, you can avoid product bloat and align your product roadmap to serve them in a way that makes your product irreplaceable.
2. GTM Teams All Explain Your Product Differently
To the customer, every interaction—whether browsing the website, watching a webinar, speaking to sales, or using the product—should all feel like one continuous conversation. When GTM teams aren’t aligned internally, this misalignment is amplified externally.
Impact:
Inconsistent messaging leaves prospects confused
High customer churn as customers sold something different to what they need
Quick Test: Ask one person each from sales, marketing, and product to describe what your product is, who it’s for, what it replaces, and why it’s better. If the answers don’t match, your positioning isn’t working.
How Positioning Helps: GTM teams are aligned and all pulling in the same direction when it comes to communicating what your product is and its value it delivers.
3. Prospects Read Your Website and Are Confused
Your homepage isn’t a place for your vision statement or clever copy—it’s there to clearly state what your product does, who it is for, how it fits into your best-fit customer’s existing workflow, and it’s differentiated value. If prospects are unsure about what you do, they won’t dig deeper.
Impact: High website bounce rates and low engagement
Quick Test: Review your homepage—if it mentions generic outcomes like "increase revenue" or "reduce costs," or uses vague words like "accelerate", “empower” or "seamless," you have a positioning problem.
How Positioning Helps: A homepage which converts your best-fit customers by clearly explaining what your product is, who it’s for, and it’s differentiated value.
4. It’s Not Clear Why You’re Better Than the Competition
There are two types of competitors
Status quo – The outdated but familiar way of doing things, which includes doing nothing at all. If customers don’t see enough pain in their current process, they won’t feel compelled to change.
Direct competitor – The customer already recognizes the problem and is actively seeking a fix. Without a strong differentiator, customers will go with a competitor.
Impact: High closed/lost rates—either to competitors or to inaction.
Quick Test: Can you answer these questions with hard numbers?
Status-quo - What are the tangible costs of inaction for your best-fit customer?
Competitive Alternative - How is your solution undeniably better?
How Positioning Helps: Against the status quo, it makes the pain of doing nothing undeniable and your product the obvious upgrade. Against direct competitors, it makes clear why your product is the superior choice.
