Is your leaky funnel a positioning problem?

I was talking with a founder today about leaky funnels. They are getting a bunch of leads, but those leads don’t seem to convert to PoCs.

Pop quiz: Is this a positioning problem?

It might be. It also might not be. The founder in question didn’t think it was. His interpretation seemed to be more along the lines of ‘our product needs to be better.’ A leaky funnel, in general, is definitely one of the signs of poor positioning. Here’s how poor positioning can cause a leaky funnel:

• Leads reach out to you with a certain expectation about your product and realize halfway through the sales call that their expectation was inaccurate. This is the core way positioning poor positioning causes a leaky funnel.

• The leads you are attracting are not in the right job title purchase your product — you might be reaching a lot of potential users but no economic buyers

• Relatedly, the leads you attract do have purchasing power, but they are not the right job title because they are not responsible for the value you provide, or at least they don’t perceive themselves as responsible (for example, selling a security tool that’s focused on security metrics/outcomes to directors of development who care mostly about cycle time and development velocity)

A leaky funnel very often is a positioning problem. I don’t think it’s usually a product problem, because at this point the prospect hasn’t had an opportunity to discover if your product sucks or not — they’ve already decided they don’t need it. Nobody — or at least few people — would initiate a sales conversation, ie enter your funnel, if they’ve already decided this isn’t the product for them. At some point, something about your website, your content or your initial outreach is making them think one thing and the actual sales call is making them think another. That is either a positioning problem or a problem implementing / communicating positioning.

Want help with positioning? Here’s more info about my workshops.