When even your CEO says you're selling a commodity, how do you think about messaging something different from your competitors to your clients?

Even if you’re selling a commodity—stop selling it like a commodity!

This means that the most important part of knowing how to sell commodity products is to stop focusing on price as the primary determinant for why a prospect should buy from you.

Reflect on the value that you create in the lives of your prospects or in
your existing customers—ask them if you have to. Understand the value your customers are gaining from your product, the unique use cases your product offers them, quanitfy the value for yuor customer and bring those out in your messaging and materials. Identify key differentiators and unique value propositions that competitors lack and bring those out in your customer stories and product narrative.

Obviously you want to lean into your leading value props and what makes your product uniquely not a commodity, but I understand that could be difficult depending on the situation! In this case, you can lean into proof points to really underline the key value points. Those proof points can be both qualitative and quantitative. Customer case studies and testimonials from highly influential/well-known customers can really strengthen your messaging, especially if you're in an industry where social clout is critical. E.g., "The top X companies use our product to grow their business." Creating "FOMO" becomes a really powerful tool if your product is in a leadership position to do so. Or data-driven proof points can be powerful depending on the industry. E.g, "X people are doing Y thing on our product every minute." While I typically don't like to sell on price (as I don't think it's durable, and it undercuts the product value), if really becomes increasingly important when your product is truly commoditized, particularly if you're selling to SMB customers. This doesn't necessarily just need to be focused the actual price though, as you can lean on special promos, free trials, waived fees, or included add-ons to stand out.

When positioning your product against competitors, messaging should really focus on the key differentiators (i.e., what do you do better than competitor X?). To accomplish this, I start with the core use cases that our product supports and then map our features accordingly. From there, you can do a compare and contrast with your competitor's capabilities, and find that white space you can turn into compelling messaging. And don't forget to connect those differences back to your core value props to help make your story more consistent and powerful.

And remember, it doesn't always have to be product features! Don't underestimate the value of easy onboarding, faster time to value, great customer support, etc. While these aren't as obvious as the knobs and dials in your product, they go a long way in telling a story that gets people excited. Lean into all of the things about your product and company that makes you different from the rest of the market, and let those guide your messaging.