Ideas

Guide · Who you're actually selling to

When No Vendor Stands Out, the B2B Buying Committee Falls Back on Four Things

A buying committee that can’t tell its shortlist apart goes with one person’s pick or the current vendor, then price, then the safest name, then a stall, and most of that is settled before sales gets a call.

Guide · Who you're actually selling to

Voice of Customer Research: How to Find the Words Your Competitors Don't Use

Most voice of customer research is built to fix the product. Here's how to use it to find the customer phrases your competitors' copy leaves out.

Guide · Who you're actually selling to

How to Identify Your Ideal Customer Profile From Who Actually Buys

The standard template gives you the same buyer as every competitor. Build your ideal customer profile from deals, reviews and case studies instead.

Guide · The differentiation audit

How to Run a Homepage Messaging Teardown, Line by Line

A messaging teardown is only useful if someone could argue with it. Here's the method, run on the HubSpot, Pipedrive and Attio homepages.

Guide · What ChatGPT says about your brand

Why Checking Your Brand Name in ChatGPT Is a Vanity Metric

Why querying your company name in AI platforms hides the real risk. Learn how unbranded category queries expose messaging convergence and how to track true visibility across generative systems like ChatGPT.

Guide · The differentiation audit

How to Read a Competitive Messaging Audit When Every Competitor Sounds the Same

When every competitor makes the same claims, the audit is telling you what's table stakes. Here's how to code, count and read it.

Guide · The differentiation audit

How to Run a B2B Positioning Audit That Survives the Buying Committee

Most marketing audits grade public website pages. To accelerate your pipeline, you must analyze the unpolished sales slides that actually face your buyers' closed-door committees.

Guide · Higher education brand differentiation

The Cost of Convergence in Higher Education Branding

When universities rely on standard surveys and focus groups, their brands inevitably converge on the same safe middle. Here is how to find and defend your institution's real, uncopyable brand positioning.

Guide · The differentiation audit

The Copy Test: Finding Messaging White Space Competitors Can't Copy

Most competitive audits end in a better adjective. The real opening is what your competitors' business models stop them from saying. Here's how to test for it.