How to position your B2B SaaS when your market category is still emerging

When your category already exists, positioning is fairly simple. If you sell CRM software, buyers know what CRM does. They know why they’d need it and what the alternatives are, and they often already have a budget. Your job is to show why yours is the better choice.

It gets harder when your product doesn’t fit an existing category. Maybe you’ve found a new way to solve an old problem. Or you’re solving a problem that existing software was never built for.

Then the question changes. How do you get buyers to see the value of something they don’t have a name for yet?

The answer usually isn’t to create a new category. For most early-stage B2B SaaS companies, it works better to start from something buyers already understand, show where the existing alternatives fall short, and introduce your approach from there.

1. Is the category new, or is the demand new?

Before you make any positioning decision, find out which of the two you’re dealing with. A new software category doesn’t have to mean a new customer problem.

• A new category, but the demand exists
  Say you’ve built software that automates a manual process companies have struggled with for years. There’s no category for what you’ve made. But companies know the problem, they’re already spending money or hours on it, and some are looking for something better. That’s a good place to start.
• A new category, and no demand yet
  Now say you’ve built an impressive new capability for a problem most companies don’t see as important. Buyers find it interesting. They agree the technology is clever. But they’re not looking for a solution, there’s no budget and there’s no reason to act. That’s not just a new category. It’s an unproven market.

No amount of clever positioning makes up for missing demand. Positioning changes how buyers see you, but it can’t give them a reason to buy. So first find out: do buyers recognize the problem, how do they solve it today, and what would make them invest in something better?

2. Start with the alternatives, not the category name

One of the most common mistakes in an emerging category is starting with the question: what should we call this?

A more useful question, and the one April Dunford starts her positioning method with, is: what would buyers do if your product didn’t exist?

Your competitive alternatives are often not companies building similar technology. They’re spreadsheets, consultants, manual work, a platform the buyer already has, or doing nothing at all.

Take software that predicts which shifts will go uncovered because of last-minute absences. You could call it a new category: Shift Reliability Intelligence. But no buyer is looking for that.

What they do recognize is the scramble to fill shifts when people call in sick. Or the cost of agency staff booked at the last minute, and the risk of being understaffed in peak season. Those are much stronger ways in than a category name nobody knows.

Your product can be new without your positioning being unfamiliar.

3. Choose the frame that helps buyers understand you

When your category is still emerging, you roughly have three options.

• Position inside an existing category
  You use a category buyers already know, like workforce management or shift scheduling. The upside: buyers immediately understand what you do, and there may already be budget for it. The downside: every category comes with expectations. Call yourself a workforce management platform and buyers expect scheduling, time tracking, leave management and payroll. If you only predict uncovered shifts, you attract buyers you can’t serve. An existing category only helps when it sets the right expectations.
• Use an existing category as a reference point
  You don’t claim to be a complete solution in the category. You place your product next to a workflow or market buyers already know. For example: “See which shifts will go uncovered before they do, in the scheduling tool you already use.” You’re not replacing their scheduling tool. You’re solving one specific problem inside a process buyers recognize. For most early-stage companies, this is the most practical option.
• Create a new category
  Sometimes existing categories really don’t fit. Your product works in a fundamentally different way, solves a distinct problem and creates value no existing category can explain. Then a new category can make sense. But know what you’re signing up for. You’re no longer only explaining why your product is better. You’re also explaining why this type of product should exist at all. That takes a lot more market education.

4. Lead with one urgent use case, not your whole vision

This is where Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm comes in. Early adopters may buy into your vision. Mainstream buyers want a complete solution to a specific problem, with proof that it works. That’s why Moore argues for winning one focused market first, instead of trying to win everyone at once.

For an emerging category, that means finding your beachhead: a specific group of buyers with an urgent problem your product is especially good at solving.

That group doesn’t have to be an industry or a company size. Often, it’s a buying situation. Companies that are:

• Moving from one platform to another
• Responding to new regulation or compliance requirements
• Stuck with an expensive, repetitive manual process
• Recovering from an incident
• Facing a deadline that makes the current way of working impossible

Situations like these create a reason to act. Instead of positioning your product as a broad answer to a new problem, you connect it to something buyers already have to get done. Your value becomes concrete, and your market entry gets focused.

One check: choose a use case with enough demand to build a business on, not just one that makes a good demo.

5. Build your message around four questions

Once you know your alternatives, your frame of reference and your first target market, your message has to answer four questions.

1. Why does this problem matter?
   Describe a problem buyers recognize, and what it costs them. Don’t open with your technology or a category name.
2. Why act now?
   Connect the problem to real urgency: financial exposure, wasted time, a deadline or a growing risk.
3. Why aren’t the alternatives good enough?
   Show where manual work, existing platforms or current tools fall short.
4. Why is your approach better?
   Show how your product solves the problem, with specific proof instead of broad claims about innovation.

None of these questions asks buyers to understand a new category first. That’s on purpose. Your category should help explain your value, not become one more thing buyers have to figure out.

6. An emerging category asks more of your marketing

There’s another consequence founders often underestimate. In an established category, buyers already recognize the problem, understand the solution and compare vendors. Marketing can focus on differentiation and on capturing demand that’s already there.

In an emerging category, marketing has to do much more. It has to make buyers aware of the problem, show what doing nothing costs, introduce a new approach and build trust in a type of product they’ve never bought before.

That changes the mix. Educational content, a clear point of view, customer research, use-case demos and proof all matter more. Sales changes too. Before “why choose us?”, your sales team first has to answer “why solve this at all?” and “why now?”

For an early-stage company with a small marketing budget, that’s a big commitment. And it comes with two risks:

• The problem isn’t important enough
  You spend time and money educating a whole market, and buyers still don’t see the problem as worth paying for dedicated software.
• Someone else captures the category
  You build awareness for a new category, and a bigger vendor adds your functionality to their platform.

Creating demand for a category doesn’t mean you’ll be the one who captures it. So focus your marketing on the segments where the problem and the urgency are already clear, and build awareness for the wider category step by step.

7. Let the market tell you when to broaden

Your first positioning doesn’t have to cover everything your product could become. Telling your whole vision too early usually makes your positioning weaker, not stronger.

Start with one problem, one audience and one buying situation. Collect customer proof. Learn which use cases lead to a purchase again and again, and why customers choose you over the alternatives.

As you grow, you’ll see patterns in neighboring segments. That’s when a broader category story starts to make sense. You’re no longer selling a vision of what the market could become. You’re building on proof of what customers already value.

Find the market before you name the category

When your product belongs to an emerging category, it’s tempting to go looking for the perfect category name. The questions that matter more: do buyers recognize the problem, what do they do about it today, and do they have a reason to change?

Existing categories have an advantage: buyers already understand them, and demand may already be there. A new category gives you more room to stand out, but asks for more marketing, more education and more patience.

So start with something familiar. Find the problem buyers already recognize. Find the situation that makes solving it urgent. Show why the alternatives fall short. And position your product as the better way forward.

The bigger category story can come later. Your product doesn’t need an established category to succeed. It does need buyers who are willing to pay for what it does.

Where I can helpPositioning & Differentiation