Kimble’s B2B Marketing Fix | Issue 04
“We want to become the category leader.”
We throw the phrase around a lot in SaaS and B2B. But what does that actually mean?
Because I’ll tell you what it’s not:
- It’s not being first.
- It’s not shouting loudest.
- It’s not a magic quadrant.
Becoming a category leader is about owning the conversation. It means when your buyer names the problem, they think of you. When they ask for a solution, your narrative shapes how they evaluate options.
That’s what powerful positioning does.
Category Leadership Is a Signal Game
At Kimble, we treat content like infrastructure.
Every blog, deck, email, and call script is part of how you build perceived leadership in your space.
The difference between:
“They’re one of a few options.”
vs.
“They’re the company I keep hearing about.”
…comes down to signal density and consistency.
It doesn’t require 100 content assets. It requires the right 10 — aligned, repeated, and reinforced across channels.
A Category Leader Looks Like This:
- They frame the problem in a way that makes them hard to ignore.
- They give language to the buyer that competitors start copying.
- They create clarity in a space that feels cluttered.
- They move the conversation from “what is this?” to “why aren’t we using this yet?”
And more than anything:
- They have a seat at the table with the main players.
When I was at cube19, our commercial team didn’t just partner with Bullhorn — the world’s biggest recruitment CRM with our biggest shared addressable client base — they co-sold deals, worked from their offices, holidayed together, even attended each other’s weddings.
We became the embedded intelligence in their story.
That didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of:
- Building key relationships across the ecosystem
- Aligning commercial teams
- Showing up as indispensable in the conversations that mattered
And when we turned up at conferences?
We didn’t just attend. We owned them.
Not by outspending. By out-positioning.
We booked meetings before we arrived. Bullhorn booked meetings for us before we arrived. We brought insight. We had the best conversations at the event — and people remembered them.
People talked about us because we gave them something worth talking about.
We weren’t making noise.
We were shaping the narrative.
The Role of Strategic Partnerships
Category leaders don’t just shout the loudest — they align with the right people, in the right places.
Whether it’s:
- Industry giants who shape the market
- Strategic customers who serve as public advocates
- Media brands who carry credibility
- Event organisers and niche meetups that draw the right room
It’s about being visible and influential.
Run your own dinners. Get in rooms where your buyers already are. Talk face-to-face. Not everything needs to scale. Some of it just needs to land.
At Ebsta, we became the highest-rated app on Salesforce AppExchange. That mattered — until Salesforce launched a free version of what we offered.
The trick? We navigated that moment with positioning. We educated our customers and prospects that Salesforce’s free tools weren’t supported, weren’t customisable, and weren’t suitable for growth-focused teams.
You win by influencing the conversation before the objections come up.
The Work That Goes Unseen
Most of the positioning work that leads to category leadership happens underneath the headline content:
- Researching how your ICP really talks about the problem
- Testing phrases and framings in outbound and on calls
- Listening to where your message lands (and where it doesn’t)
- Doubling down on the story that moves people
- Delivering the promise
From ‘Nice to Have’ to ‘Essential’
When we repositioned cube19 as a Growth Analytics Platform, we didn’t change the product.
We changed how we talked about it.
That shift changed who we attracted.
And who we attracted shaped how we scaled.
Final Thought
You don’t become a category leader by claiming it. You become one by showing up like it.
That means:
- Tight positioning
- Clear messaging
- Strategic repetition
- Industry alignment
- Media relevance
- Conference presence
- Real influence in places that matter
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Up Next: The 6 Signals of Category Leadership
What investors, partners, and senior buyers are really looking for.
