Symptom of poor positioning: Long sales cycle

Does it feel like your prospects are ‘stuck’ in your funnel and you’d just like them to either sort themselves out so you can get them out of any sales projections or finally make the purchase?

If your sales cycle is really long, it’s a sign that one (or all) of the following positioning-related problems are happening:

  • Prospects don’t immediately understand your product’s value

  • Prospects can’t make a decision because they’re confused about how exactly they should use your product

  • Prospects aren’t sure your product is right for their particular use case

Ironically, this problem can be especially acute if you have some traction and people have heard of you. They want to see the value in your product because they’ve heard good things about it, but they’re confused. They don’t want to drop out of your funnel altogether — but can’t actually make the purchase decision because the value isn’t clear. They might eventually purchase, but wouldn’t you rather they did so after 2 months instead of 10?

When your positioning isn’t right, your product’s value can be hard for prospects to understand. The time they spend trying to understand it and to make the leap from your product features to the value they get is all time that they could have been happy paying customers if your positioning had been clearer.

Good positioning makes it obvious to the right people that your product is essential, a purchase they should make immediately, not in 10 months.

Emily Omier