A SaaS founder reached out last month.

They had just finished a rebrand. 

New website. New messaging. Clean design.

"We aere still losing deals to the same competitors," he said. "And the objections haven't changed."

The problem wasn't the rebrand. 

It was the positioning.

They had repositioned around features, faster workflows, better integrations, cleaner UI. 

But they had not repositioned around the four forces that actually drive B2B buying decisions.

Customer. 
Company. 
Competitors.
Context.

The 4 C's of Branding.

Most people know the framework.

Few apply it correctly in B2B. 

Because in B2B, these forces don't just apply differently, they behave differently.

Let me show you what I mean.

1. Customer (In B2B ≠ One Person)

In B2C, you are positioning for a person. 

One buyer. One decision.

But in B2B, you are positioning for a committee.

And that committee has conflicting priorities.

Take a Series B SaaS company evaluating a new RevOps platform. 

The buying group looks like this:

- CEO — cares about growth, competitive positioning, reputation risk.
- CFO — cares about cost, ROI timeline, budget predictability.
- RevOps leader — cares about solving the actual problem without burning out the team.
- IT/Security — cares about integration complexity, data security, compliance

Each has veto power. 

Each evaluates you through a different lens.

Here is what happens when positioning ignores this reality:

You build messaging that says, "We help teams work better together."

The RevOps leader likes it. Sounds good.

But the CFO asks, "What's the ROI?"

IT asks, "Does this integrate with Salesforce and our billing system?"

The CEO asks, "Why can't we just optimize what we already have?"

The deal stalls. 

Not because the product is wrong. 

Because the positioning didn't account for the committee.

What Strong B2B Positioning Does

It anchors on one primary buyer, the person with the pain and the budget and reassures the others (the secondary buyers)

Example:

"We help RevOps leaders reduce revenue leakage without adding headcount."

- Primary buyer: RevOps leader (you're solving their problem).
- CFO reassurance: "without adding headcount" signals cost control.
- CEO reassurance: "revenue leakage" ties to growth, not just operations.
- IT reassurance: The specificity implies you understand their systems

One message. 

Multiple reassurances. 

No dilution.

That's the difference between positioning for a person and positioning for a buying committee.

2. Company (Credibility Beats Creativity)

Let me tell you about two companies I saw pitch the same buyer last year.

Company A: "We're revolutionizing how enterprises manage vendor risk."
Company B: "We've helped 47 finance teams at Series B companies reduce vendor onboarding time by 60%."

Guess which one advanced to the next round?

Company B for sure.

In B2B, nobody buys bold claims. 

They buy proof.

Your "Company" C isn't your vision or your origin story. 

It's your operational credibility. 

It's the answer to: "Can I trust you to actually deliver this?"

That means:

- Domain expertise (do you understand my world?)

- Track record (have you done this before?)

- Process maturity (is this repeatable, or was it luck?)

- Operational proof (integrations, certifications, compliance)

Here's a real example.

A cybersecurity startup positioned themselves as "the future of enterprise security." Sounds impressive.

But when enterprise buyers asked for SOC 2 compliance, reference customers in their vertical, and proof of GDPR readiness, the company had nothing.

They were too early. 

Their positioning wrote checks their operations couldn't cash.

Compare that to a competitor who said: 

"We secure SaaS companies managing customer PII in healthcare and fintech. SOC 2 Type II certified. 12-week average implementation."

Boring? 

Maybe. But it closed deals.

Because in B2B, credibility is positioning.

The Mistake Most B2B founders Make

They Position around aspiration instead of proof.

"We are transforming X" — based on what?

"The next generation of Y" — says who?

Enterprise buyers don't care about your vision. 

They care about whether you can reduce their risk.

Strong B2B positioning is defensible, repeatable, and operationally true.

3. Competitors (You are Compared to Alternatives, Not Just Brands)

Here's what most founders get wrong about competition in B2B.

They think the battle is: Us vs. Competitor X.

It's not.

The real battle is: Change vs. Status Quo.

Let me give you an example.

A marketing automation company spent two years positioning against HubSpot. Better features. Lower price. Faster setup.

They still lost deals.

Not to HubSpot. To inertia.

Because the real competitor wasn't another platform. 

It was the buyer's internal belief that switching vendors would be more disruptive than staying put.

In B2B, you are not just competing with other tools. 

You are competing with:

- The existing vendor (incumbent advantage is real).
- Internal teams (we can build this ourselves").
- Manual processes ("Excel works fine for now")
- Doing nothing (the strongest competitor of all)

What This Means for Positioning

You must position against inertia first.

Brand inertia is when customers keep choosing a familiar brand out of habit, trust, or fear of switching, not because they have actively re-evaluated alternatives.

You have to position against it (inertia)

Then you position against alternatives.

Strong B2B positioning answers three questions:

1. Why is the current solution insufficient?
2. What does staying the same cost them?
3. Why is switching less risky than staying?

Example:

A sales enablement platform could say: "Better than Gong."

Or they could say: "When reps are missing quota and leadership can't see why, we surface the coaching gaps Gong doesn't catch."

The second version positions against both the competitor and the status quo. 

It frames the cost of inertia (missing quota, blind spots) and the cost of staying with an insufficient tool.

4. Context (B2B Buys Are Timing-Sensitive)

B2B buying doesn't happen because someone likes your product.

It happens because something breaks, shifts, or becomes urgent.

I worked with a company selling financial planning software. Great product. Clear positioning. But deals kept stalling in the pipeline.

The issue wasn't the product. It was context.

Their messaging was evergreen: "Plan smarter. Grow faster."

There was no urgency. No forcing function.

 No reason to buy now instead of next quarter.

Then they repositioned around a specific context: budget season.

"When CFOs have 6 weeks to finalize next year's budget and the old model doesn't account for ARR changes, we make sure the numbers are defensible."

Deal velocity doubled.

Because context creates urgency. And urgency moves B2B deals forward.

What Strong Positioning Does

It answers: "Why now?"

Not "why ever." Why now?

Examples of context-driven positioning:

-  Cost pressure environment → "Reduce SaaS spend by 30% without cutting tools"
- Growth phase → "Scale your CS team without scaling headcount"
- Regulatory change → "Stay compliant with new data privacy rules before Q2 audits"
- Market uncertainty → "Lock in predictable revenue when churn is rising"

Each ties to a moment in time. 

A business condition. 

A forcing function.

Timeless messaging has no urgency.

And without urgency, deals don't happen.

The B2B Positioning Sweet Spot

When I audit B2B positioning, I look for four things:

- A painful business problem (Customer)

- A credible solution (Company)

- A clear reason to switch (Competitors)

- A compelling reason to act now (Context)

When all four align, deals move faster. 

Pricing holds. Win rates improve.

When even one is weak, the sale stalls.

Let me show you a real example.

**Before repositioning:**

"We help sales teams close more deals with better data."

Generic. No urgency. No proof. No reason to switch.

After applying the 4 C's:

Customer: VP of Sales at a B2B SaaS company (Series A–B)
Company: 3-week implementation, integrated with Salesforce and HubSpot, used by 80+ sales teams
Competitors: Better than CRM reports (which miss pipeline gaps) and better than doing nothing (which costs deals).
Context: When quota attainment drops below 60% and leadership demands visibility

New positioning:

"We help VPs of Sales fix pipeline gaps before they kill the quarter—without waiting on data teams."

One sentence. Four C's. Clear buyer. Clear outcome. Clear urgency.

That's how the framework works in practice.

My Final Thought

The 4 C's aren't a checklist. 

They are a lens for seeing whether your positioning actually matches how B2B buyers make decisions.

Most B2B companies optimize one C and ignore the others.

They target the right customer but can't prove credibility.

They differentiate against competitors but ignore the context that creates urgency.

They nail the timing but their customer definition is too broad.

The companies that close premium B2B deals don't just apply the 4 C's.

They align them.

If your positioning answers "who, why, why us, why now" in one sentence, you have done the work.

If it doesn't, you are still guessing.

Does your positioning answer all four C's?

We work with B2B companies to align customer focus, credibility, competitive framing, and market timing into positioning that moves deals forward.