How to position a startup against incumbents
Position a startup against an incumbent by refusing the comparison they are built to win. Name the segment and the job where their product is not the whole solution. Geoffrey Moore calls that a beachhead: a segment-specific problem incumbents do not serve. April Dunford’s category choice is the frame that makes your value obvious to buyers in that segment.
On this page
Do not volunteer for their checklist
Head to head, buyers score you on criteria the leader already owns. Dunford’s quickstart describes a company she marketed that was positioned as enterprise CRM. The question in meetings was how they were better than Siebel, the leader, and on that comparison they were not. Investment banks cared about one difference: the product could model relationships in a way that showed who might influence a deal. They positioned as CRM for investment banks, the buyers who cared, instead of trying to win all of enterprise CRM. She writes that they planned to widen the category later, and did not get to test that step.
Win a segment they have not finished
Moore’s way across the chasm is to target buyers who have an urgent problem conventional vendors have not finished, often because the problem is too specific to be their priority. Then deliver the whole product for that segment: the complete set of product and services that gives them a reason to buy. A partial product aimed at the incumbent’s entire market is the comparison you lose.
Narrow a known category before you invent one
Dunford’s quickstart puts the category choice in two moves. You can take a category buyers already know and narrow it with a qualifier until your value is the obvious one. Or you can invent a frame, and then spend the sale teaching that frame before the value lands. She treats the invented frame as the expensive path.
Three frames
| Frame | When it fits | What you accept |
|---|---|---|
| Win the category as it is | You are the better choice on criteria buyers already use | A long comparison with the leader |
| Narrow it with a qualifier | A group has a job the leader treats as an edge | You are not for the whole category yet |
| Invent a new frame | No known category makes the value obvious | You teach the frame before anyone can buy |
FAQs
Should we name the incumbent?
In the positioning document, yes. On the homepage, name them when buyers already make that comparison. Otherwise name the job they do not finish.
Is a lower price a position against an incumbent?
Only when the model is something they cannot copy without hurting their own business. A discount is easy to match.
When do we widen the segment?
After you are the obvious choice for the beachhead, and the next group hires you for a job you can prove. In Dunford’s account, the wider category was a later test, not the opening move.