In competitive markets, where the sales cycle is longer and more complex than ever, it’s crucial to check-in on your positioning regularly to tweak, update and overhaul as required. Here are a few markers that will help you know if it’s time to reposition.

Think Different

You’re an innovator. Your message was revolutionary and you hit it out of the park when you went far afield from the nothingburger stuff your rivals were churning out. But, they’ve caught up and now you’re one of many again, fighting to grab the attention of buyers with short attention spans.

It’s not them, it’s you

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Wrong.

Did you know that the average attention span of a prospect in discovery mode is 0.00007 seconds? That is approximately the same time it takes them to click, blink and bail. Never stop optimizing, tweaking and testing. Keep getting better.

It’s them. But it’s still you

When is the last time you dove deep on win-loss, targeting and personas? It’s time to update your audience and probably your messaging. Things change. Buyers are different and so is the sales cycle. Never—ever—forget that the number one reason you do anything is for Them. Speak to them, learn from them.

The other guys

How fresh is your competitive intelligence? Your sales team needs the latest intel on the rivals they come up against and that’s just the beginning. Collect every piece of data, organize it, contextualize—offer a narrative that they can use to build more than just a pitch. To keep your message relevant, you need to know how the others guys are positioned.

Something’s not measuring up

You’ve got the reports, the market research, the town halls and the win-loss all set up to deliver the most up-to-date, full-bodied measure of just how all your efforts are supporting key goals. Monitor all of it closely to make sure you don’t miss something. Build a culture of conversation and critical thinking so that unexpected results don’t get explained away or ignored.  If you’ve got to reposition, —it’s easier to make changes early on that it is once you’ve gone all in.